My kids are learning to share and to play together.  The other day, Big (5) wandered over to Little (3) and asked if she could also play with their magnet toys that he was actively using. They were spread out on the ground and he was trying to build something. The conversation went like this:

Big: Can I play too?

Little: Sure!

Big: What can I do?

Little: 

Little had no idea how to answer that question.  And it wasn’t because he didn’t want to share. It was because he didn’t know what he was doing yet – he didn’t know how to delegate because he didn’t know what he was building yet.  He wanted to give Big a job, but he didn’t want to give her the honor/responsibility of figuring out what they would build together.

I think it’s really important as a leader to understand what I’m doing before I delegate. This is relating to the rock fetch post I wrote a while ago – how sometimes you don’t know what you’re asking someone to bring back until you see what their first specimen looks like.

Delegation is related, but different. If you’re going to trust someone to do part of a task for you, I think you do need to know what you’re goal is before you can delegate.