It is the ability to delegate which, more than anything else, separates the good managers from the bad ones.
Delegation is the process of building up people, then letting go of a responsibility. It sounds easy, but it almost never is. Egos get in the way. People would rather be perceived as the authority than support the authority or expertise of the people who work for them.
It takes a very confident person to be a good manager, confidence in the people who work for you and enough confidence in yourself to overcome these ego problems.
It is human nature to want to see the fruits of your labor, to feel the dirt between your fingers, to perform tasks which not only produce tangible results but which are themselves tangible. Managers must seek a different kind of satisfaction. They have got to be able to build up people and give them responsibilities, to find ego gratification in training, directing, and overseeing others.
People will often delegate—or fail to delegate—for all the wrong reasons. They hold on to a task because they like doing it, or want to do it, or are afraid not to do it, and they will pass down some other task because they find it distasteful or “beneath them” or have rationalized that it is not the best use of their time.
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