Today, I want to talk to you about relinquishing responsibility as a leader. Now, if you watch 90SL often, you know that I promote four steps to equip and develop a new leader, but what happens when it’s difficult to let go of the reins to fully deploy a new leader? The problem is, often with ourselves, but sometimes it’s not. Let’s take a look at the three primary struggles that we have now.
First, is this a training issue? Did we adequately train this person? Do they have clarity on what their responsibilities are and know what they are supposed to do?
Or is it a trust issue? Is it just that I don’t trust that person at the end of they day? If not, why not? And what’s that underlying reason for that mistrust?
Finally, is it a capacity issue? Is this person already above their capacity in their current role? Should this be an extra burden I am adding to them? How can I train them better or how can I help equip others to alleviate some of that burden so that they can handle that responsibility that I’ve trained them to do?
Now in an ideal situation, you’ve trained this person well, you trust them, you know their capacity and they have the capacity to handle what you are handing off. This is that sweet spot that we are looking for where we can see development flourish in our organization.
Now that you understand the three struggles for relinquishing responsibility as a leader, what are you going to do about it?