Delegation is about much more than handing over decision making powers.
It’s about being able to trust that those powers will be applied in line with a shared vision of what your business is here to do for the people it serves.
This means:
First, you have to articulate that shared vision, in a way that ensures it is truly shared.
In practice, that means eliciting the vision from everyone currently involved, and writing it up into something more like a manifesto than a mission statement. A manifesto everyone can live with, even if they’re not enthusiastic about it. Don’t worry about those that can’t. They’ll leave.
Next, you have to protect that vision from forces that will undermine it.
That means being really picky about what you’re prepared to do. So that nothing pulls you in the wrong direction.
It means being really picky about how you’re prepared to go about it. So you reinforce the vision by living it.
It means being really picky about who gets to do that alongside you. So everyone supports and reinforces each other to live that vision.
And it means being really, really picky about who you do it for. So that the work and the money clients bring enable you to deepen and expand the application of that vision.
All of these protections are easier to keep in place if you make them part of the process rather than simply hoping for the best.
Processes are far easier to delegate than hopes.
Discipline makes Daring possible.