Short Term Pain for Long Term Gain

How many times have you heard your boss or peer discuss how busy they are?  They come into the office early, stay late and respond to emails at 10pm at night.  Is it frequently hard to reach them?  Have you ever actually felt sorry for them because they just seem so busy? 

Having spent the better part of 20 years in the Financial Services Industry, I have seen a variety of leadership and management (yes, they are different) styles over the years.  Too many times, managers and leaders are so focused on getting “the job” done, completing the task at hand, that they loose focus on the fact that many of those non-confidential tasks can be delegated.  Delegation does not mean handing off tasks that you just do not feel like doing.  Effective delegation combines the need to help get things done with the continual development of skill inside of the team.  I often hear managers’ talk about how it is just easier to do the job themselves, that way they know it is done right.  Short term, they could have a point.  Long term, nobody gains anything from that.  As I learned from my mentor, managers allocate resources.  They ensure that work is completed, spread out evenly and completed on time.  Leaders get results through people.  Proper delegation of the right tasks to the right people will allow growth and skill building within your team. It may be bumpy at first, but the short term pain will deliver you a long term gain. The gain is time to focus on other “bigger picture and visionary work” that leaders need to be paying attention to.  The best leaders are the ones who “lead” themselves out of a job. Ponder this final thought.  Managers can be leaders, but leaders do not have to be managers.

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About the Author:

Michael Stern is a Vice President in Retail Banking at a local Lancaster County Bank. Putting leadership and mentoring at the center of his day, Michael helps his peers, clients and team achieve better results.

To Learn more about Michael, find him on LinkedIN

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