Friday 23 September 2016

The Art of Delegation

You can't do it all yourself! You can't. You can try. It won't work! 

I became a Head of Year at the start of a spring term. In the April of that year, I lead a brand new residential trip for four days with ninety odd children and twelve members of staff. Trip Leader? Yep, me. 

The day after that trip, I woke up at 14:30. Not got out of bed at, but woke up at! About 17 hours sleep...

I thought nothing of it. I'd been tired after every residential trip I'd been on and, this time, I had more responsibility. Of course, I needed more sleep.

No. 

It was earlier this year that I realised what had happened. For the fourth time, I lead that same trip. I returned home, cuddled toddler daughter, checked heavily pregnant wife was ok, slept and got up (07:00) - the same time as the rest of my family.

Difference?

In the first trip, I checked every seat belt and counted every child every time we got on a bus, I spoke at every meal time, always ate last, was at the forefront of every activity. I've since learned how and what to delegate to others. 

And, like me, I think this is unfortunately just something that comes with experience...

No comments:

Post a Comment