Delegate the Tactical
September 28th, 2007 | Michael Q. Pink
We have been talking about how the rainforest is so incredibly productive. How does it stay so focused on the most important tasks it has like breathing in CO2 and exhaling fresh Oxygen for us to breathe? For the last two weeks we talked about the first two laws… Eliminate the Unnecessary and Automate the Mundane. These two laws, when properly applied, will create a vacation for you in every working day! But there’s more…
Once you eliminate the unnecessary and automate the mundane, it’s time to Delegate the Tactical. Don’t make the mistake of delegating to others the things you should have eliminated or automated. If you do, you’re just wasting their time and indirectly, yours. In the rainforest, there are many pests that consume the productivity of plants. While many plants have devised their own way of dealing with those pests, on some occasions, plants actually delegate the defense of their leaves to others. They hire ants by paying them with nectar. The ants get hooked on the income (the nectar) and ward off all potential intruders like caterpillars, grasshoppers, grubs, etc.
If you are going to delegate, you must also empower them to make decisions. Otherwise, you will find your time once again wasted by having to solve their problems. Look at the remaining routine activities you practice and see who you can delegate those responsibilities to. These will be tactical by nature. Train them to handle the problems that come with the job and empower them to solve them. If you’re self-employed, but overwhelmed, consider hiring a virtual assistant. They can do anything that doesn’t require their physical presence and will work for a few hours per week up to full time.
If you think you can’t afford to hire a virtual assistant, you either don’t understand the value of your own time or you have no value to offer. Which is it? If you can’t produce more value doing what you do best than you would otherwise produce doing the tasks an assistant would do, then perhaps you’ve reached your peak. If you’re reading this today, then I doubt you think you’ve peaked and you want to keep climbing towards the goal of your highest calling. Keep climbing.
Until next time, be fruitful, then multiply.
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