If everything on your team still has to run through you, you are not building a team. You are building
dependency.

Many leaders convince themselves they are protecting quality when in reality they are preventing growth.

The more a team depends entirely upon the leader, the weaker the organization becomes.

The great majority of people who are elevated into positions of authority receive that opportunity because
of the work they previously performed. They were excellent in their role, so the logical next step became
leadership.

When I worked for the telephone company, that was the common approach. We would take our best
technicians and promote them into supervisor roles.

It created a myriad of problems.

First, we removed many of our best technicians from the field.

Second, we never truly considered whether they possessed leadership skills.

Third, we often reduced their overall compensation because they moved from overtime pay into salaried
positions.

And finally, we provided little leadership training to help them acclimate to their new responsibilities.

What we ultimately created was a situation where technical competence declined while ineffective
leadership increased.

The new supervisors naturally gravitated toward solving problems themselves. After all, problem solving
was what had made them successful in the first place. It was what got them promoted.

Instead of developing their team members, they solved the problems for them.

In other words, they created dependents rather than developing great employees.

And this does not just happen in the telephone business. It happens everywhere.

Years ago someone told me: “Every time you fail to delegate, you deny someone else the opportunity to
learn and grow.”

That statement stuck with me.

Sure, it may feel easier to solve the problem yourself. You know how to do it. You can control the outcome.

You can ensure it gets done correctly.

But what happens the next time the problem occurs?

What happens when you are on vacation? In a meeting? Handling something more important?

If you have not developed the people around you, the problem simply waits for your return — often
becoming more critical in the process.

Delegation is a word leaders use routinely but rarely perform correctly.

This week we are going to address why.

For today, simply identify the tasks you are currently performing that are below your pay grade.

We all have them.

Tomorrow we will begin discussing what to do with them.

What responsibilities are you still holding onto that someone on your team needs to learn how to own?

If you want to continue growing as a leader, begin by growing the people around you.