The Art of Delegating

The work around us tends to multiply. Even and especially at peak performance in our work, we need to think timely of new employees and potential successors. If we don't train them in time we may get lost on our lonely island of work and be forgotten by mankind after our death. Workplaces don’t carve the names of the deceased in stone, not even in sand. Without successors it is not only us who will be forgotten but even the fruit of our work will disappear for good.

Breeding new successors requires trust. A successor can only continue your work if you took the time to make him/her familiar with your work. You also need to allow him/her to make a contribution to your work so that your work also becomes his/her work. Your successor also needs to trust you otherwise he/she will not take care of the continuity of your work. A successor doesn’t only need your knowledge, your skill or your craftsmanship. He/she also needs your motivation and your fire.

Therefore, let us slow down our current work a little and talk to potential successors. In the long run our work will not have slowed down and it will be our successors who will bring our work to completion and fulfilment.

Picture: Thorbeke Monument in the Hague via Pixabay.