“This is so slow and inefficient.” I’m embarrassed to say that those were my thoughts regarding my son a few weeks ago.
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It was a weekday night, and we had started the night-time routine in our household. I have a four-year-old that had some early-life challenges and consequently is catching up on a few life skills. We have been trying to let him learn by allowing him to do basic life tasks for himself. In this case, it was drying off after bath time.
However, unfortunately on this particular night, I had much I needed to do after putting him to bed. It was about 7:30pm, I had just given my son a bath, and he was drying himself off... a task I had normally done before.
I was in a hurry though. There was sooo much I needed to do after 8pm when I would put him to bed, and he was taking his precious time to dry off... just like any small child would. “This is so slow and inefficient,” I thought to myself.
That was about two weeks ago. Last night when we ended our evening routine I realized how much had changed. We had gone from him taking a painstaking amount of time to finish up bathtime, to me being able to tell him to dry off and get dressed without a second thought. It’s amazing how much a human can learn if we just give them the opportunity.
This reminded me of delegation and teaching (pronounced “allowing”) our team members to learn a task by taking it over. So many times, as entrepreneurs we believe that no one can do the job as well as we can. That may be true at that moment, but it is practically never true when we allow someone to learn by trying. When we give our team members the opportunity to learn by doing, which is likely an opportunity someone gave us earlier in our career, it's amazing how much an individual can accomplish.
I share this story in hopes that the next time you as a business owner watch someone doing a new task and think to yourself, “This is so inefficient,” that you will realize that the inefficiency is only for a brief time. In less time than you think, you will realize how much time you have gained back by merely giving someone else the chance to learn.
As always, I wish you the absolute best in your business.
Mark Goldman
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