Delegation (3)- Exodus series (3)

Our number one priority is to have a right relationship with God.


What's number 2? Let's look at verse 20: "Teach them the decrees and laws, and show them the way to live and the duties they are to perform." What Jethro is saying is, "Moses, you don’t have to counsel, you spend your time teaching others how to counsel."

What does this mean? It means that for a short time (the short term), there might not be anyone to counsel. This means that Moses might have to endure being accused of being distant, too big for his britches, full of himself, or losing touch with the people, but the process was necessary if he was to ever have trained leadership.


Verse 21 says: "But select capable men from all the people—men who fear God, trustworthy men who hate dishonest gain—and appoint them as officials over thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens.


Here’s something that I’ve learned about being successful at delegation. Fully ninety percent of successful delegation is not training but taking on the right people.

Get the right person with a little training and you’ll do great, but with the wrong person with a lot of training and they can do untold harm.


This is why we have to put the right people in right place so they will do well. That is why it is so important to give people jobs that they love doing because then the focus becomes serving God, others and themselves with joy and not with drudgery. When a job becomes too hard and it is no longer fun, then you are not serving out gladness. If the job is hard, and you can still find the joy in it then you are working out of your true servants heart.

Verse 22 reads: "Have them serve as judges for the people at all times, but have them bring every difficult case to you; the simple cases they can decide themselves. That will make your load lighter, because they will share it with you." Moses, don’t mess with the small stuff, deal with only the heavy issues.


President Eisenhower is said to have told President Kennedy at his inauguration, “You’ll find no easy problems will come to the President of the United States. If they are easy, someone else will have solved it.”


This should be true of all leaders. The delegation of authority empowers and encourages those who are serving and working with you.


Verse 22b: That will make your load lighter, because they will share it with you. As an organization grows, the job of the leader should get easier, not harder. The decisions do get harder because more people are impacted and there is more pressure. But you are not mired down in the minutiae. The things you don't care about, and if truth be told, you probably aren't good at.

Know who you are! Know what you do best.


Fred Smith in his book, Learning to Lead writes, “If you are somebody, then you are in control of your time.” And the only way to control your time is to pass some of the responsibilities on to capable people.


Then Jethro says to Moses, and now the people will go home happier. They will each be satisfied and they will get better counsel. We have so many great people doing work around us, with us and for us. Let them! This is what Moses learned and I continue to learn it as well.

[continued tomorrow...]