I’ve written before about the importance of delegating and accountability, but Andrew Carnegie really sums it up with his quote about the need to not try to do it all, nor take all the credit.
Carnegie came from poverty in Scotland, moved to America as a young boy with his parents, and rose to become one of the world’s richest men by 1902 and the greatest philanthropist of his time, giving away some 90% of his wealth.
As he said to a friend who was telling him about how productive he was in getting to work early each day, “You must be a lazy man if it takes you ten hours to do a day’s work. What I do is get good men and I never give them orders. My directions do not go beyond suggestions. Here in the morning I get reports from them. Within an hour I have disposed of everything, sent out all my suggestions, the day’s work done, and I am ready to go out and enjoy myself.”
Isn’t this a great lesson in the power of delegating and accountability?
Even his tombstone reflects this belief, reading, “Here lies a man who knew how to enlist the service of better men than himself.”
It reminds me of Steve Jobs’ famous saying, “It doesn’t make sense to hire smart people and then tell them what to do; we hire smart people so they can tell us what to do.”
There’s absolutely no question that if you’re to be truly effective in business, you have to become an expert at delegation, and that holding the people to whom you delegate tasks accountable is critical to success.
Master this leadership skill and you free up your time to do the important stuff: working ON your business, and not just IN it.
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- You can also learn more about delegation and accountability from these related posts
- 3 Rs of Great Leadership – Results, Reputation and Relationships
- The Best Leaders Will Do This In 2022
- Does Your Business Own You, Or Do You Own It?
- Success Comes from Working ON Your Business, Not IN It.
- “Lack of direction, not lack of time, is the problem. We all have twenty-four hour days.” – Zig Ziglar
- “Accountability closes the gap between intention and results.” – Sandra Gallagher
- The Power of Accountability in Business Success
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