If you're a leader, what's big for you can be HUGE for someone else. Over the years, you've likely developed specialized knowledge and expertise in your field. Many of the skills you now take for granted have probably been honed by doing high level work again and again.
That means that if you want to be an effective leader, you have to recognize that your subordinates will usually take longer and have more problems with tasks that you consider big. In some cases a task may be so far beyond a persons current capacity that it's liable to crush them.
Luckily there are some things you can do to change this.
Avoid thinking like an ineffective leader
Ineffective managers think in terms of themselves. They estimate time and personnel requirements based on their own abilities.
An Ineffective manager might think (or say) something like , “I'll just do it myself,” or “They don't know how to do anything.”
If you're like me, you've probably experienced these thoughts at least once in your life, and if we're being honest, it's probably happened more than that.
When you step into the role of a leader, your job transforms from an “all about me” approach to a “How can I move these people forward” approach.
Expertise and Experience come from taking action
I think you'll agree that the best way to learn how to do anything is to actually do it.
When you guide and facilitate the learning of your subordinates it moves everyone forward. Training well clearly takes time, but the upfront investment almost always pays huge dividends.
I did a whole series on delegation. You can check out the series here:
How to Delegate – Part 1: It's a Process
How to Delegate – Part 2: What to Delegate
How to Delegate – Part 3: 7 Steps of Effective Delegators
Next Steps
Leave a comment and share a story of frustration as a leader and how it was (or wasn't) solved.
I know I can do it myself 
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