One of my pet peeves is when I’m asked to do something then told I need to get permission for every step in the process. It’s so infuriating. The gut check moment was when I realized I did the same thing with someone and it completely shifted how I approach task assignments and delegation of duties.
To get started we need to differentiate between permission and authority. In my mind there’s a huge difference. Permission is simply telling someone they’re allowed to do something. Or even giving someone the ability to go in a direction or accomplish a task. Authority is opening a door for someone and giving them parameters within which to operate to accomplish that task. Let’s look at an example, the one where I failed actually.
As a pastor we lead a vacation bible school every summer. I asked my coworker to make sure VBS happened and that it was hers to run. Then unintentionally, really it wasn’t anything personal or intentional it just happened, I jumped in from time to time to give my input (unsolicited input mind you). Eventually it was realized that I had given her permission for the task of doing VBS but all the steps to get there were still something I wanted to control.
As soon as I realized what I had done, we changed things up a bit. Instead of just saying make sure VBS happens, I set some boundaries. Here are a list of my expectations. Aside from these expectations, you have the authority to make decisions. You have a budget to work with, timeline in which to operate, goals for how many children we’d like to see, etc. I will check on the boundaries to make sure you’re staying in the lines. If you’re in bounds then you have the full authority.
You see when something is important to us or when we have a passion for something, we tend to cling tightly to it. We hold the over arching authority and try to give a little task here and there to make it seem like we’re giving it away. Actually we’re giving task permission instead of role authority.
Here’s the problem…when we hire someone to fill a role then don’t resource them with the appropriate budget and authority to operate within given boundaries all we’ve done is hire a glorified assistant under a new title. But when in a leadership role you can give authority away, not only does it free your plate for other intentional and meaningful work, it also runs a very strong likelihood that productivity will go up and new people will be reached.
The longer we withhold sharing authority, the weaker the organization grows. And the more tired and unsettled the staff becomes. Hold on too long and you lose your staff and your organization crumbles.
So give permission if you want to keep the status quo for the short term. If you want to see your organization grow and thrive, you need to give authority and let go.
