Picture this: Your department has a deadline to get something done. You know you can do it faster than any one on your team. You can even do it better than any of them. What do you do - do you do it yourself or do you delegate?

As a manager, you face this dilemma daily - do you choose short-term efficiency or longer term effectiveness?

Don't make the mistake of thinking that it is more efficient to take on employees' problems, just because you can do it faster and better. If you do, then you are not teaching them how to solve problems and manage on their own. Instead, you are teaching them two bad habits:

(1) they will learn that they don't have to deliver excellent work, because you will always improve on it; and

(2) they will learn to delegate their work upwards - to you.

The outcome? You'll be the stressed-out busy one at work, not them.

About the Author

James Henry McIntosh is a Chief Nonsense Officer. He advises executives on dealing with nonsense at work in the hope that this will make them, their teams and their organizations more effective. When this gets the better of him, he retreats to writing and public speaking until his confidence returns. He has been repeating this cycle for more than 20 years without seriously hurting anyone. Sign up for free newsletter on http://www.nonsenseatwork.com