Leadership Principle - Delegate

 

Leadership is challenging for most of us and we often wish we can have guidance on leadership principles, practical advice, mentor-ship, or tit-bits to help us gain experience in leadership.

The greatest management principles are often got from the Bible (the grand old book). Biblical leadership is a fail proof way for a blessed and successful career.

Let us see one instance of such a principle "Delegate".

Every good leader becomes one when they polish their ability to "Delegate" and "Empower" others and not amass power for themselves.

Lets learn a little about this principle of "Delegation" from the Bible.

Most of you will be aware of Moses, one of the great leaders in Biblical times. He was chosen by God to lead the people of Israel out their captivity in Egypt into the promised land.

He successfully did that and led the people out of Egypt. But being a sought after leader marching forward with a multitude following him and expecting him to sort out all their problems is not an easy task.

The text below is from Exodus 18: 

¹³ The next day Moses took his seat to serve as judge for the people, and they stood around him from morning till evening. ¹⁴ When his father-in-law saw all that Moses was doing for the people, he said, “What is this you are doing for the people? Why do you alone sit as judge, while all these people stand around you from morning till evening?”

¹⁵ Moses answered him, “Because the people come to me to seek God’s will. ¹⁶ Whenever they have a dispute, it is brought to me, and I decide between the parties and inform them of God’s decrees and instructions.”

¹⁷ Moses’ father-in-law replied, “What you are doing is not good. ¹⁸ You and these people who come to you will only wear yourselves out. The work is too heavy for you; you cannot handle it alone. ¹⁹ Listen now to me and I will give you some advice, and may God be with you. You must be the people’s representative before God and bring their disputes to him. ²⁰ Teach them his decrees and instructions, and show them the way they are to live and how they are to behave. ²¹ But select capable men from all the people—men who fear God, trustworthy men who hate dishonest gain—and appoint them as officials over thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens. ²² Have them serve as judges for the people at all times, but have them bring every difficult case to you; the simple cases they can decide themselves. That will make your load lighter, because they will share it with you. ²³ If you do this and God so commands, you will be able to stand the strain, and all these people will go home satisfied.”

²⁴ Moses listened to his father-in-law and did everything he said. ²⁵ He chose capable men from all Israel and made them leaders of the people, officials over thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens. ²⁶ They served as judges for the people at all times. The difficult cases they brought to Moses, but the simple ones they decided themselves.

 

Here are a few principles we all can learn on delegation from the Bible. 

1. Don't try to do everything by yourself (Exodus 18:17):

    Moses had led the people out of Egypt and proved himself a great leader. But now he is faced with a greater problem of solving their problems on a daily basis. Doing this all by himself was making it tiresome for him and it was not easy on the people who sought his counsel either. 

    Here we see that he took the advice to "Delegate" and that worked well for both the people and for him, making him even better. So "Delegate" to become a great leader.

2. Take advice from mentors (Exodus 18:19,24):

    Jethro, Moses' father-in-law was a wise man with experience leading his tribe. He proved to be a great mentor for Moses here. He saw the chaos and advised Moses to "Delegate". 

    Though Moses was a great leader himself and had earned the trust of his people and even proved his worth in leading them out of Egypt successfully, he still lent a hearing ear to the advice from Jethro and found the value in this recommendation and implemented it immediately. 

    So being open to hear advice from others and implement them when required is an important trait of the leader as well. 

3. Delegate to capable and trustworthy people (Exodus 18:17):

    While it is pretty clear we need to delegate, it is also important the biblical advice on whom to delegate to. I was awed to see the qualification list given in verse 17: 

    (a) Capable people

    (b) God fearing people

    (c) Trustworthy people

    (d) Honest people - People who hate dishonest gains

    If we follow these principles in our choice of second line leadership, I am sure we will be setting up a well oiled machinery for long-term success.

4. Give autonomy where needed and exercise control when needed (Exodus 18:26)

    The key to successful delegation lies empowering those chosen for second line leadership. Autonomy in localized decisions for matters within their purview would help them earn the trust and respect of the people under their care.  

    Defining the boundaries of the various levels of authority is also important so such leaders also know when to escalate to the next level and when to exercise their autonomy.  

5. Get the Job done! (Exodus 18:23):

    End of the day the goal of all this is "Satisfying your customers". So delegate, empower, define limits and paths of escalation all to ensure the Job gets done. Keeping this goal in mind as you set the structure and communicating that to each person in the chain is also key to getting their buy-in on the mission.

    Leaders are also people who can inspire with a vision, so set the vision on the eventual goal as Jethro demonstrated as he advised Moses and Moses did as he appointed other leaders. 

 It would be interesting to note that our modern Justice systems and governments are also aligned to this structure and rely heavily on Delegation. Hope you enjoyed this insights from the Word of God and are ready to put them in practice in your work or ministry as well.