How To Know What Shouldn’t Be Delegated
In contrast to last week’s article where we talked about tasks that should be delegated, this week we look at some tasks that should never be delegated and should typically remain as the Manager’s/Supervisor’s responsibility.
What Shouldn’t Be Delegated
Each church leader must determine those tasks, responsibilities and projects that they and they alone should do, assume, or lead. These are usually critical to the mission of the church or are duties and responsibilities that appear only in your job description and in no one else’s. Some of those typically include:
Mission, Vision, and Values: These play an important role in determining the purpose, direction, and culture of the church and are the responsibility of the highest levels of church leadership and should never be delegated.
Strategic Planning: Though aspects of strategic planning should and must be delegated to ministry and team leaders, the overall process has to be driven and plans ultimately approved by the highest levels of church leadership.
Hiring Decisions: Though downline employees may be involved in the staff recruitment and interview process, the supervising manager must never delegate determining how a candidate fits into the church culture or the final decision on who to hire.
Onboarding/Orientation of New Employees: Again, several down line employees may be involved in specific aspects of a new employee’s orientation, but the Manager/Supervisor cannot abdicate their role in welcoming new employees, communicating the church culture, and clarify job duty expectations.
Discipline: Managers/Supervisors who pass off disciplinary actions and difficult conversations to others in the organization will lose the respect of employees and therefore should assume these challenging responsibilities themselves.
Performance Reviews: Employees should always be evaluated by their immediate Manager/Supervisor. Having employees conduct their own reviews and just signing off on them is a disservice to the employee, others on staff, and to the church.
Conclusion
At first glance, knowing what not to delegate may not seem of critical importance. But, delegating something that shouldn’t be delegated can have more grave consequences than not delegating something that could have been delegated. In short, church leaders have historically made more grievous mistakes and received more justified criticism for delegating tasks and responsibilities they should have kept for themselves than for failing to delegate tasks and responsibilities. Thus, by determining those things you will never delegate you can avoid making a poor decision in the pressure of the moment.
Posted on June 1, 2021
