Written by Uyoyou Christiana Charles-Iyoha
Delegation, the task of assigning tasks and responsibilities
to other people is major task that everyone in leadership should master and do
at all times. Jesus Christ is the perfect example of someone always delegated
tasks to his disciples. They went to buy food while He spent quality time with
the woman at the well. That time spent with the woman at the well resulted in
the great revival in the city of Samaria that saw their people surrendering to
Christ. The Apostle Paul, Moses and Joshua also delegated.
Moses learnt about the principles of delegation in
leadership from his father in-law, Jethro, who taught him the principles of
delegation. Prior to learning from Jethro, Moses spent hours on end judging the
people of Israel in the wilderness. It was a time consuming process which
drained both Moses and the people physically, spiritually, emotionally and who
knows, maybe spiritually. It also took time away from other profitable
activities that could have been carried out within that time frame as both
Moses and the people had to spend several hours; perhaps on a daily, weekly,
biweekly or monthly basis. Jethro observed this cumbersome and tiresome process
and counseled Moses aright on the principle of delegation he had learnt and
applied successfully as the Priest of Midian. Jethro served as priest and so
communed with the deity served by the people of Midian before interacting with
the people of Midian. From his counsel to Moses, it is apparent that Jethro had
intermediaries he delegated to who interacted with the people directly.
Fortunately for Moses, he listened, learnt and internalized as well as
implemented the principles. That singular action freed Moses and gave him ample
time to invest in quality fellowship with God. He spent forty days alone with
God, and repeated another forty. This is aside of other times he spent alone
with God. These sessions with God gave him the success blueprints he used in
leading the children of Israel out of Egypt and the wilderness.
When you delegate, you free up quality time to invest in
high value tasks. This is not to say that the tasks you delegate are low value
tasks. Rather, you are assigning tasks to competent people who are likely to
spend less time in implementing and completing the tasks as well as raising
leaders. This also explains why you as a leader are saddled with the responsibility
of giving direction and letting your people do the rest. If you immerse yourself
in the work, you will not be able to give direction and if you do not give
direction, you will not be able to raise leaders who will assist you in the
work. Can you imagine what would have happened if Moses alone built tabernacle;
or Bezalel and Oholiab alone worked on the tabernacle! It would have taken
forever to accomplish the task. That explains why God empowered Bezalel and
Oholiab to also teach other artisans what to do. That way, they would both
raise more artisans not only to speed up the work but to also lighten the
workload for all concerned. That was exactly what Jethro was saying to Moses in
Exodus Chapter 18.
As a leader, you should pray, prophesy, teach and God will
raise the resources for the work. Do not wear yourself out by direct
involvement in the work that other people can do exceptionally well without
your direct input; except God says so. That way, you will also be raising
leaders who will in turn raise other leaders as they also learn to delegate.
Additionally, and this is quite significant. Delegation
affords leaders and organizations to train and raise leaders. Delegation is
therefore a way of multiplying leaders in an organization, community and nation.
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