Everyone knows that one of the keys to being a good manager is the ability to delegate.

Everyone knows that they can’t do everything. They must be able to hand off some of their duties—along with the authority that goes with it.

So, why is it so difficult to delegate?

Here are the typical reasons:
–I can do it better and quicker
–I don’t have the time to train them to do it the way I do it
–I don’t have the right person for the job

But here is the main reason mangers don’t delegate:

The lack of trust

It seems that the ability to trust someone else with areas of our responsibility are eminently difficult.

It’s somewhat understandable. So many of has have been burned before by people (employees) we’ve trusted. They’ve failed us, they fell short, they didn’t complete the job, it wasn’t excellent, and in some cases, they undermined our authority.

And so, we’ve put up walls and barriers to trust.

But trust is the key ingredient to delegation. It is impossible to delegate to someone you don’t trust.

To truly delegate, we must trust.

How do we trust when we don’t trust?
1. Commit to trusting. They say trust is earned. But it is also a matter of commitment. You will trust because whey you delegated you committed to that.
2. Abandon your way. You have to give the other person the ability to do something they way they would do it, not necessarily the way you do it.
3. Don’t project past disappointments of others onto your management team—those whom you are presently delegating to.

These three elements are the work of delegation. And when you delegate you will find the work gets done.