
The three magic words of delegation
Delegation is where the payback for being a good leader happens.
When we have:
- the right person in the right place
- a person who understands what is expected
- a person whose judgement we trust
- and a situation where we are willing to live with the consequences of that person’s decisions
Then we can utter the three magic words:
“It’s your call.”
The key is really meaning it. That means no second guessing the person, or overriding their decision after the fact (unless it is completely crazy, in which case we need to take the blame for uttering the magic words to someone we should not have or for an issue we should not have). If we can develop a reputation as a leader that really means it when they say “It’s your call”, then we are crossing a barrier that many leaders never do.
The goal is to substitute our team’s judgement for our own. This is how we create some freedom for ourselves, and it’s how we create the next generation of leaders.
This post was inspired in part by the work of Linton Sellen.

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