Is your leadership stuck on cruise control?

My wife and I recently bought a new car. The most technically advanced car we had owned up until this point had Apple CarPlay. We were also really impressed that if it was raining and we put the car in reverse, the back wipers automatically turned on. Genius! But I had no idea how far tech has come in the car industry. 

With the new car, the first week we were constantly discovering new technologies, like headlights that tracked with every turn. One day I decided to try out the cruise control. In amazement and wonder, I exclaimed to my wife, "Check this out! When I have the cruise control on and I approach cars in front of me, it automatically slows down and keeps a certain distance!" [🙄 Insert eye rolls from Tesla owners here.]

Now, for many of you this may be old tech. But for me, it was an 'aha' moment. Cruise control had always been this feature that was nice to have, especially for long highway trips. But there was always the piece I had to manage. It wasn't a set-it-and-forget-it feature. I had to navigate all of these speed changes manually. 

Why others should actually do 'only the things you can do'

Building teams can be a lot like this. There are moments we find ourselves delegating to the Swiss Army knife team members, and still picking up the rest of the need ourselves. 

The real challenge here is that you actually have yourself on the old cruise control, doing the things that 'only you can do'. Only I can control speeding up and slowing down the car, right? This is such an easy trap to fall into. As I was building the team at YouVersion, I would think to myself, "I have a person that writes the copy, and a person that leads design, and I have a person that... But someone has to plan and strategize the MarCom campaigns and run those meetings. Surely that's what I'm suppose to do. After all, they hired me because I know how to do all of those things."

Get off the fence. 

But as the team grew I was frustrated that I didn't have the time to do the leadership things that truly only I could do. I had a mental picture of a fence. On one side of the fence are all the things that I had done and built. On the other side were all the things I desired in the future. I was sitting in the middle in this awkward season. I had to find a way to jump to the other side. 

"Surely that's what I'm suppose to do. After all, they hired me because I know how to do all of those things."

I friend gave me some wise advice. He asked me to evaluate everything I do, and truly ask if they were things that only I could do. I had to be honest with myself. Could someone else on the team do some of these things, or at least be trained to do them? Yes. I learned that by releasing many things across the team, not only was I freeing up my time in the weeds, but I was releasing others to learn and grow. Guess what? Turns out a copywriter is really good at running a campaign planning meeting. 

Building teams is hard but rewarding work. And part of that work is seeing others grow. That can only happen when you discover that others have so much in them. Don't ever hold any task or responsibility tightly. Be ready to release and see the team thrive in ways that weren't possible with control. Get off the fence, and release others to thrive.