As we move upwards in an organization, our perspective begins to change, sometimes in ways that can feel uncomfortable. Most people begin working in some technical skill area where they can reliably produce desired outcomes based largely on their own performance.
随着我们在一个组织内部获得提拔，我们看待事物的视角也开始发生变化，有时甚至会让你自己觉得不自在。大多数人进入一个组织之后首先承担的是某个技术领域的角色，而且他们基本上确实能够根据自己的能力贡献出组织所需要的成果。
In my career, I was a public relations practitioner, skilled at media relations, drafting news releases, organizing events and news conferences, etc. Of course that also required the skill of collaborating with others, but I wasn’t responsible for their performance. However, as my mastery of public relations increased into the areas of consulting and selling, I started moving up the ladder until eventually I was the general manager of the organization.
在我的职业生涯早年，我曾经是一名公关专员，擅长拓展媒体关系、撰写新闻通稿、组织活动和新闻发布会等工作。当然，这些工作也需要你具备与别人合作的技能，但当时我并用不为别人的表现负责。不过，随着我的技能扩展到咨询和销售等领域，我开始在公司里获得提拔，最终当上了公司的总经理。

That’s when I hit the wall! Suddenly, I realized I had been catapulted beyond my area of competence. I really had no idea how to “manage” others and how to “delegate” responsibility effectively to other players. So what did I do? I sucked most of the responsibility up to myself, continuing to work on things that demanded my technical expertise, while occasionally handing out a few “tasks” to others. Needless to say I suffered hugely as a manager until I learned the difficult lesson that (as my coach at the time said to me) “You need to find new ways of being important.”
这时候，我遭遇了职业的“撞墙期”。突然间，我发现我遇到了似乎力所不逮的问题。当时我真的不知道如何“管理”别人，如何把职责有效地“委派”给其他人。那么，我是怎样做的？我把大多数职责包揽在自己身上，继续亲历亲为，从事需要我的专业技能的工作，只是偶尔把一些“任务”委派给别人。不用说，当时我作为一位经理吃了不少苦头，后来才在这些苦头中领悟到（就像当时我的导师对我说的那样）：“你得找到新的方法来体现自己的重要性。”
The new role, the “new way of being important” that I learned was the role of leader, orchestrator, delegator. The new role of developing others instead of simply being a technical expert.The new role of working through others, not doing all the work myself. Imagine a symphony orchestra conductor trying to play all the instruments. That is what many new managers find themselves trying to do and its not a highly effective approach, to say the least!
所谓“体现自身重要性的新方法”就是当好领导、当好指挥者、当好委派者的艺术。也就是说，你要开发别人的潜能，而不是自己去充当一名技术专家；通过其他人开展工作，而不是把所有工作都包揽在自己身上。一名交响乐指挥家不可能一个人演奏所有乐器，但是很多新走马上任的经理人都在犯这个错误，而这并不是一个非常有效的方式。
Many new managers fail to achieve their potential because they don’t delegate effectively and they don’t really understand what delegation is all about. Delegating is so critically important that for many aspiring managers it literally becomes their “Achilles Heel”—their fatal weak spot that can make or break their careers. So let’s examine six major reasons that managers fail to delegate effectively.
许多新任的经理人没有充分发挥出他们自己的潜能，因为他们不能有效地给下属委派工作，而且他们也不明白委派工作的意义。委派工作对于领导者来说极为重要，它甚至成了很多有理想、有抱负的经理人的“阿喀琉斯之踵”，可能成就、也可能毁掉一个经理人的事业。下面让我们看看很多经理人没能有效委派工作的五大主要原因。
1. Bad News First: The Primary Role of a Delegator is to DEVELOP Others. This is a fundamental reality that the majority of managers don’t understand…or perhaps don’t want to understand. Because “developing others” is not one of the technical skills that got them promoted to a manager in the first place.
1.第一个坏消息：委派者的主要角色是“开发”别人。这是一个大多数经理人并不了解的基本事实……或者他们根本也不想了解。因为“开发”别人并不属于让这些经理人获得提拔的技能之一。
Developing others, helping them grow and achieve puts them outside their Comfort Zone and so this role is often actively resisted. Delegation, plus ongoing coaching is the way to develop others to become as strong as, or even stronger than oneself. And the benefit of developing others is that it assures they can take over your job so you can be promoted to an even more senior role. Thus, the skill of developing others, and the skill of delegating responsibility to others provides the pathway to ongoing advancement. And, you are not bringing others a ‘burden’---you are in fact bringing them a growth opportunity.
许多经理人觉得开发别人、帮助别人成长并且取得成绩并不在自身能力的“安全地带”里，因此，他们常常会抵触这个角色。但事实上，向下属委派工作，给予经常性的指导，目的是为了把下属培养成像自己一样强、甚至超过自己的人。而开发别人的好处则是，你开发出来的人才可以取代你的职位，这样你自己才能被提拔到更高的职位上。因此，开发别人的技能以及委派职责的能力为我们提供了一个不断上升的渠道。另外，你给别人委派职责，并不是给别人带去了“负担”，而是在给他们一个成长的机会。
2. Instead of Delegating they “Dump-legate.” The word delegate in English comes from the Latin verb delegare, which means to “un-tie.” So literally, to delegate is to “un-tie” yourself from a chunk of responsibility, entrusting it to another instead. But many managers seem to believe that the way to delegate is to simply “dump” the responsibility on another person, wash their hands and walk away. That is the most unskillful thing any manager could do and, like a time bomb, sooner or later it is guaranteed to blow up in their face.
2.不是“委派”而是“甩派”。英语的“委派”一词来自拉丁文单词“delegare”，原意是“松绑”。所以从字面上看，“委派”就是要让你从大量职责中“松绑”，把它们派给别人。但是许多经理人似乎认为，委派就是简单地把责任“甩”给另一个人，自己当甩手掌柜。这对于一个经理人来说是最没有技术含量的事，这样做就像留下了一个定时炸弹，迟早肯定会在自己面前爆炸。
Skillful delegation does involve entrusting a task to another, and, it also implies that the delegator stays connected to the other person throughout the process, being available for feedback, advice, coaching and whatever assistance is required. It means maintaining an active interest in the person with the goal of ensuring their success. It means that both parties are “tied” to the success of the project, in a committed spirit of partnership. Have you been “dumped” on in the past? Or have you dumped something on others? If so, I bet it didn’t feel like you were in a partnership.
高明的委派也包含把某项任务交付给其他人完成，但它也意味着委派者本人在任务的整个过程中都与被委派者保持沟通，而且还要提供反馈、建议、辅导或者任何其他接受委派的人所需要的东西。同时，你还要着眼于确保成功的目的，对被委派人保持主动的关注。它也意味着委派人和被委派人双方都被“绑”在了一个项目的成败上，必须以合作精神来共同努力。你过去是否有“甩派”责任的经历？或者你是否曾经把某件事“甩”给其他人？如果是这样的话，那么你留给其他人的肯定不是一种通力合作的印象。
3. Failing to Explain the Big Picture. If you have been to business school you have probably studied “Situational Leadership.” This means that one learns to entrust responsibility to others based on their degree of expertise, staying more closely connected to those with little experience, and learning to be more relaxed around those with proven expertise.
3.没有从全局角度进行阐释。如果你上过商学院的话，你可能学过“情境领导理论”。它意味着一个领导要根据下属的专业技能程度把责任委派给他们，然后对于那些经验较欠缺的下属，要更加密切地与他们沟通；对于那些事实证明技能比较纯熟的下属，对他们的督促可以相应放松一些。
It’s always nice to delegate to those with deep experience, even though these people aren’t going to learn much from the task. More challenging is the ability to delegate to people who have never done this type of work before. That is the real nature of developing people. They are well educated, talented, intelligent and willing…they simply lack experience.
把任务委派给那些经验较丰富的下属的确比较容易，即便这些人可能从任务中学习不到太多东西。更具有挑战性的则是把任务分配给那些从来没有从事过这类任务的人。这就是“开发他人”的核心所在。他们都是有优秀教育背景、有天赋、有才华、有进取心的人，只是缺乏经验而已。
Therefore it is best to assume that they don’t really understand the relevance of the task at hand and how it connects to the Big Picture of the business. The wise manager always takes the time to explain the “why” of a task as the first step of delegating:
因此，在委派一项任务的时候，最好假设他们并没有真正理解这项任务的重要性，也不明白它对业务的全局有什么意义。高明的经理人经常在委派任务时首先会向下属解释为什么要完成这项任务，把它当作委派工作的第一步。
• Why we need this done
• 为什么要完成这项任务
• Why it is important to our business
• 为什么说它对我们的业务很重要
• Why it matters to their career
• 为什么说它对你们的职业很重要
• Who will benefit
• 谁能从这项任务中获益
• Etc
• 其他事项
Failing to clarify the Big Picture, to “connect the dots” for a beginner is not only demotivating, it makes it very hard for them to feel that what they are doing is significant and meaningful. If you want a motivated learner, make sure they understand “why” the task is important. That way they will be able to sense their own importance in the larger scheme of things: they will feel actively engaged in the business instead of feeling like a robot.
如果在委派任务之前没有向下属解释全局，没有把“所有的点都联系起来”，如果是一位新人，他可能会理解不了他所做的事有什么重要意义。因此如果你想要的是一个有积极性的学习者，就要确保他们理解为什么说这项工作具有重要性。这样他们才会感觉到自己在全局工作中的重要性，从而主动开展工作，而不是被动地像一架机器一样按部就班地干活。
4. Delegating Only Small, Trivial Tasks. Again, the principle of “situational leadership” applies: it is easier to delegate large projects to people who have already proven themselves competent. But…were they always so competent? At some point, their superiors took a risk on them and trusted them to take on a large chunk or responsibility…and they succeeded. Most likely, their supervisor was closely involved, checking-in regularly for trouble-shooting, counseling, encouraging, etc.
4.只委派无足轻重的任务。“情境领导理论”认为，把较大的项目委派给那些已经在工作中证明了自身能力的下属相对而言比较容易。但是，他们是不是能一直这样胜任？有些时候，上级领导选择在这些人身上冒冒险，把一个大项目或重大责任委托给他们，而且他们也的确取得了成功。可能他们的上级也密切参与了这项任务，并且积极主动地参与了解决问题的过程，给予了咨询和指导。
Or perhaps not. Perhaps they had to rely only on their own wits and figure it all out by themselves. That is known in the West as “the deep end of the pool.” I spent a lot of time at the deep end in my early days and I assure you it is a very painful place to swim! My managers were simply incompetent to provide the kind of support and coaching I desperately needed and wanted. Of course, they didn’t think their job was to develop people either.
可有的时候也并非如此。有时，这些下属可能只能依赖自己的智慧，独力搞定一项任务。这种情况在西方叫做“泳池的深水区”。早年间我曾在“深水区”里待过很长时间，我向你保证，在这个地方游泳非常痛苦。当时在我急需要支持和指导的时候，我的那些经理们在这方面却做得十分不到位。当然，他们也不认为开发别人是他们的职责。
My advice to aspiring managers: develop close relationships with your people, delegate BIG chunks of responsibility and stay closely connected with them along the way. Your career path is assured, together with the person you developed. If you only ask people to do the small stuff, they aren’t going to grow and neither is the business. Worst of all, the talented people you hired are going to vote with their feet and take their talents elsewhere. And that is going to be noticed.
我对那些有进取心的经理人的建议是：与下属建立紧密的关系，把多数重大职责分配给他们，然后在执行任务的过程中与他们保持紧密的沟通。那么你的职业之路即可确保无虞，同时你开发的下属也会与你一起上升。如果你只让下属做些小事，他们就不会成长，你的业务也不会有大的起色。最糟糕的是，你雇佣的人才会用脚投票，带着自己的才华另谋高就，而这是一个需要注意的迹象。
5. Thinking “Only I Can Do This.” So there you are, facing a big complex project or initiative and saying to yourself “If I delegate this, they will screw it up. No way I’m going to let that happen. I’ll just have to do it myself.” If this is familiar to you, you are not alone. This mindset is the reason that a large percentage of managers are stressed out, over worked and under-performing in their careers. The truth is, you are NOT the only one who can do this and the sooner you accept that the sooner you can start doing your real job: developing others.
5.认为“这件事只有我能做”。面对一个复杂的项目或任务的时候，大家可能会对自己说：“如果我把这个工作派给别人，他们肯定会搞砸。我绝不能让这种事发生，所以我只能自己做了。”如果这话你听起来很耳熟，那么这也不奇怪。这种心态是导致相当一部分比例的经理人在职业生涯中压力过大、过度工作以及表现不佳的一个重要原因。事实上，你并不是唯一能做这件事的人。越早了解这个事实，就能越早着手做你真正的工作——开发他人。
When you see that something big needs to be done, call your people together and say something like this:
当你有一个重大任务需要完成时，你可以把下属叫到一块，对他们说：
“Team, thanks for coming. We are facing a BIG challenge here. Parts of it are even new to me. I admit we are under some time pressure as well as financial pressure. I need your help because I know I can’t do this alone. I want to hear from each of you in the next 48 hours how you think you could help with this, what role you would like to play. I’ll be speaking to each of you individually to get your ideas and perspectives. I’m looking forward to your support and you can count on me to stay connected and support you all the way. This can be a case study for our success as a team.”
“同志们，谢谢大家的到来。我们现在正面临一个重大的挑战，甚至有一部分对我来说也是头一次遇到。我承认我们现在也面临着一些时间和财务上的压力。我需要你们的帮助，因为我不可能独立完成这个任务。我想在接下来的48小时里听到你们每个人的意见，看看你们觉得你们能帮什么忙，协助我一起完成这件事，还有你们愿意扮演怎样的角色。我会单独与你们每个人谈话，听取你们的想法和观点。我希望获得你们的支持，我也会全程和你们保持沟通，支持你们。这个任务将来有希望成为我们团队的一个成功案例。”
If you start operating this way by inviting others to an opportunity, you will start to discover the real magic of delegating effectively. You no longer have to be the smartest person in the room. People will want to help. People feel honored to be invited and feel motivate. They will trust you and give you their best ideas and best efforts.
如果你用邀请别人参与某个机会的方式来委派任务，那么你就已经发现了有效委派职责的真正魔力。你不必再是办公室里那个最聪明的人。别人会开始想要帮助你。如果你邀请别人参与某个任务，他们会感到光荣，而且还会表现得更有主动性。他们会相信你，为你贡献出他们最好的点子，尽最大的努力。
Why? Because you discarded your old ‘I’ perspective and adopted a new ‘We’ perspective. Because you admitted that your old “only I can do this” attitude is the ego-driven mindset of the sole technician and that the new path to your success lies in your commitment to developing others, trusting them, supporting them, rolling up your own sleeves when needed and giving credit to others when credit is due.
为什么？因为你摒弃了以“我”为中心的视角，开始采用新的以“我们”为中心的视角；因为你开始承认那种“这件事只有我才能做好”的态度属于一种固步自封的“唯技术论”心态。而你的成功最终依赖于你是否努力开发你的下属、相信你的下属、支持你的下属，并在需要的时候挽起袖子亲自上阵，在需要论功行赏的时候把功劳留给他们。
Bottom Line: About 80% or your success as a manager or leader lies in your ability to effectively delegate large chunks of responsibility to others. If you want to be seen as an outstanding manager, set your goal to become an outstanding delegator. This is your biggest growth opportunity, your chance to find a “new way of being important”---by becoming a coach that consistently develops others.
总结：作为一个经理人或领导者，你的成功有80%取决于你能否成功地把大量责任有效地委派给其他人。如果你想在人们心中成为一名优秀的经理人，首先你要致力于成为一名优秀的委派者。这是你最大的成长机会，只要努力当一名持续开发其他人的导师，你就能够找到“体现重要性的新方法”。