In a world where nothing gets done anymore, really, unless we act as a team or at least in collaboration with others.
How much do you trust?
How much do you let other people go to do the thing without having to come back every 4 or 5 seconds to check that it's right?
How much do you micromanage and oversee?
There comes a point in almost every working situation where doing it yourself runs out of space. One of the hardest things that people find is the ability to give away, to delegate, to uplift, to empower someone else to do part of the role that you're doing.
I was taught a long time ago that there is a fundamental difference between delegation and abdication.
Delegation is the ability to give someone a task on your behalf, but to take responsibility for it 100% yourself, asking them to come back if they have any problems and allowing them a fearless environment to make a mistake.
Abdication is the opposite of that. It is telling someone to do something, not showing them how to do it, not giving them any sort of reference point and then shouting at them when they get it wrong.
The amount of rope you're prepared to give (successfully) entirely depends upon the amount of responsibility you're prepared to take for giving the rope in the first place.
Blog Post Number - 4407
Colin Campbell, Chris Barrow, and an intrepid group of dentists will be cycling across the plains of Tanzania from Kilimanjaro in early February 2026. If you would like to support the charity, Bridge to Aid, and this extraordinary challenge, please click here.
Thank you for your generosity.
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