Saturday, February 15, 2014

Eric Geiger: Delegating or Dumping?


A wise leader delegates both responsibility and authority to others. Doing so broadens the reach of the organization or ministry and helps develop the people within it.

In Exodus 18, Moses was confronted by his father-in-law (seldom an enjoyable experience) because of his unhealthy approach to leadership. Moses was feeling the burden and the weight of growing responsibilities. Not only was Moses overwhelmed, but the people he served were going home unsatisfied. Jethro told Moses to build a system with godly leaders to distribute the care for all the people through other leaders. He asked Moses to stop doing all the work—all of the ministry—and to prepare others.

Jethro invited Moses to delegate responsibility and authority to others who had proven themselves trustworthy. He didn’t encourage Moses to haphazardly dump all his responsibilities on anyone he could find, to remove his heart from the people, or to wash his hands of the burden. Delegating is much more strategic, much more careful, and much more loving than that.

There is a big difference between delegating and dumping. Sadly, what some leaders call delegating is really dumping—doing whatever it takes, as quickly as it takes, to get responsibilities off their plate and onto the plates of others. Here are three differences between delegating and dumping.... Keep reading

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