You Don't Have to Do Everything Yourself | Coached by Truth

In this episode of Coached by Truth, Jim Kirkland explores an important leadership lesson: you do not have to do everything yourself.

Effective leaders do more than complete tasks. They develop people. That means learning when to delegate, how to coach others through the learning process, and how to resist taking responsibilities back simply because you could do them faster yourself.

Through practical Christian coaching and biblical principles, this episode will help you think about where you may be carrying responsibilities that someone else could learn to handle, and how developing others can strengthen your ministry, team, and leadership.

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Practical Christian Coaching for Life & Leadership

Coached by Truth is produced by Christian Chaplains & Coaching. Practical Christian Coaching for Life & Leadership. 

Transcript

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Hello, and welcome to Coached by Truth, practical Christian coaching for life and leadership. I'm Jim Kirkland, Executive Director of Christian Chaplains and Coaching. We like to say that coaching is in our DNA, which is why it's in our name. Each week we take a few minutes to consider biblical truth and practical coaching that can help us grow and lead and serve others more effectively. And I thought we would begin with a leadership lesson that I have had to learn and I'm continuing to learn in leading more than 500 chaplains and staff and volunteers. And it is this you don't have to do everything yourself. In fact, if you're leading other people, you probably shouldn't. Let me explain what I mean from a life coaching perspective. As leaders, it's very easy for us to become the person that everybody else depends on. Someone has a question, so they come to us. There's a problem, so we solve it. A decision needs to be made, so we make it. A project is falling behind, so we do it ourselves. Something isn't being done quite the way we would do it, so we step in and take care of it. And before long we become very busy. We may even become very productive, but there's the leadership question in this that I want us to consider. Are the people around us learning how to achieve results and growing in their ability to perform well as a team, self-directed, fully empowered, able to perform and get things done and achieve results? That's important. It's important because good leadership isn't just about getting things done. It's about developing people into something more and increasingly better than they are, which might take more time than you would like. I've certainly had to learn this in leading Christian chaplains and coaching. As our organization has grown, it became obvious that I simply cannot continue doing everything like I once did. The ministry's grown far beyond my ability. What worked when the ministry was smaller, when I was doing everything, won't work as we continue to grow. So we need a team, which stands for Together Everyone Achieves More. And there comes a point when a leader has to make an important transition. Instead of asking, how can I get all of this done? We must be asking, who can I train and equip and encourage to do this well? Those are two very different leadership questions. And there's a biblical principle behind this. Listen to what the Apostle Paul writes in Ephesians chapter 4, verses 11 and 12. He said, as he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ. Now notice that word, equip. God gives leaders to his church not simply to do all the ministry themselves while everyone else watches them burn out. God provides leaders to equip God's people for the work of ministry, and that is leadership development. We need to create leaders who make leaders that produce leaders. And that takes time and patience. I believe this principle applies far beyond the local church. It applies to chaplaincy, Christian organizations, businesses, teams, volunteers, and staff. Our job isn't simply to accomplish the mission. Part of our job is to develop other people who can accomplish the mission with us. And trust me, that's the hard part. Because, well, people. And sometimes it really would be faster to just do it ourselves, wouldn't it? We think I don't have time to train someone. I can do it faster myself. Have you ever thought that? And sometimes doing it yourself really is faster today. But what about tomorrow and next month and next year? If I keep doing something because I'm the person who can do it the fastest and the best, then I've solved today's problem only. But I may have created an even bigger problem for tomorrow because nobody else has learned how to do it. And that's where delegation becomes much bigger than simply handing somebody a task. When motivated people learn to work well together, sharing common values and a commitment to excellence, and they grow in knowledge and ability so they can be empowered to perform well on their own and with others, something remarkable happens. There's a book I read a long time ago that describes this transition. It's called Zap, The Lightning of Empowerment. Good training and delegation that builds up others is leadership development, according to that little book. When I give someone meaningful responsibility and teach them how to handle it, provide the resources they need, allow them to make decisions and coach them along the way, I'm doing a lot more than getting something off my desk. I'm developing another person. And there's another side to this as well. When we refuse to let go of responsibilities that other people could learn to handle, we may unintentionally be limiting their ability to grow themselves. I was once told that some people are workhorses and others are race horses. Well, I'm a race horse, and it's difficult for me to wait for a result when I know it would have been done already if I had just done it myself. Maybe you understand what that feels like. Sometimes we tell ourselves they're not ready, and perhaps they're not. But how are they going to become ready if we don't let them try? And even allow them to make some mistakes along the way. At some point, somebody has to teach them what and tell them why, but it can't stop there. We also have to show them how, while doing it with them, so that eventually they can be deployed to do that same thing for others. Somebody has to trust them, and somebody has to let them try. And sometimes somebody has to let them fail and then help them learn from it. That is coaching, that's mentoring, and that's leadership. So let me give you a simple leadership process you can begin using this week. Look at something you're currently doing and ask yourself three questions. First, does this actually require me? There are responsibilities that belong to the leader and should remain with the leader, but there are many others we've simply become accustomed to doing. The second question, what could or who could learn to do this? Don't just ask who can do it, ask, who could I develop to do it? That's a very different question. And then third, what would they need from me to succeed? Maybe they need training, maybe they need resources, maybe they need written instructions, maybe they need the authority and empowerment to make certain decisions, or maybe they simply need the confidence of hearing you say, I trust you. Go ahead, you've got this. And if you run into trouble, I'm here to help. That's how people grow. So here's your coached by truth challenge for this week. Identify one thing that you are currently doing that someone else could learn to do. Just one thing. Now do me a favor and don't dump 10 responsibilities on somebody tomorrow morning and then tell them, coached by truth told you to do it. Start with just one. Choose the person thoughtfully, explain the responsibility clearly, give them what they need to succeed, and then, and this is important, let them do it. Don't delegate it and then keep taking it back. Coach them, encourage them, correct them when necessary, but give them the room and the time and the space to grow. And because one of the greatest accomplishments of leadership isn't simply what gets done while we're leading, it's also who becomes capable because we have led them. Jesus developed people, and Paul developed people, Barnabas developed people throughout Scripture. We see one generation preparing another generation to carry the work forward. So perhaps the leadership question for us this week is not how much can I accomplish? Maybe it's who am I developing? You don't have to do everything yourself. You don't. And you were never meant to. Biblical discipleship is heavily dependent on community. So spend time developing people, equipping them, encouraging them, give them opportunities to grow, and experience the joy of watching them become capable of doing things they once needed you to do for them. We teach our members there is no such thing as a Lone Ranger chaplain. God intended us to serve together in community, like the family of God on mission together with Jesus. Thanks for spending these few minutes with me on Coached by Truth. I hope something we've talked about today encourages you and helps you become a better leader, a better coach, chaplain, pastor, and servant of Christ. Until next time, keep growing, keep developing other people, and keep serving faithfully wherever God has placed you. And remember, when life and leadership get complicated, come back to what is true. God loves you, and so do I.