Some of the Best Advice I was Ever Given

An outstanding Chair of the Board (Jeff Anderson) gave me some advice back in 2007, and it is something I have never forgotten. It speaks to the importance of delegation.

It went something like this:

If you, as the CEO, have 20 things to do and struggle with thinking that no one can do those 20 things as well as you, assign 17 of them to different people whom you trust. Keep the three that truly require the CEO's “high-touch” for yourself. Chances are, 14 of the 17 tasks you delegated will be done well and require no more from you; you will need to spend time redoing or correcting only three of them.

This means that, of the 20 things that you "needed" to do, you really only had to do six of them--the three you kept for yourself and the three you needed to address that weren’t done well. 𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐬𝐮𝐜𝐜𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐟𝐮𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐚𝐝𝐝𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝟕𝟎% 𝐨𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐭𝐚𝐬𝐤 𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭 𝐛𝐲 𝐝𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐠𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐬--𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐝𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐦 𝐚𝐬 𝐰𝐞𝐥𝐥 𝐚𝐬 𝐲𝐨𝐮!

Try this! It helps you to learn that, as CEO, you truly do not need to do it all. Delegation takes discipline, but it pays off.  𝐈𝐭 𝐟𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐬 𝐮𝐩 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐟𝐨𝐜𝐮𝐬 𝐨𝐧 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐠𝐢𝐜 𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬, 𝐝𝐞𝐦𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐟𝐟, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐝𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐨𝐩𝐬 𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐚𝐬 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬.

What is some of the best advice you were ever given? I would love to hear from you.