There's no point having a dog and then barking yourself Let's imagine that your neighbour just purchased a Rottweiler as a guard dog. They found the best, most well-trained dog they could afford and brought him home and set him up in the front yard with a good view out the front fence and a nice bowl of water. But then you noticed the owner himself sitting next to the dog. And whenever someone walked past, your neighbour would start barking at them. What would you think of that person sitting next to their dog in the front yard, barking at passers-by? That's right. You'd think they were off their meds. And yet a lot of leaders make this same mistake with the people and teams they lead. Instead of being the leader of the team and doing team leader's work, they do the work of the team members-which means that they end up competing with their own teams. There will of course be things that you as a leader can, and probably should, do. There may even be things that you can do better than anyone else you lead. And when you give responsibility for a task to another person and-heaven forbid they don't perform that task exactly the way you would have done it, or even as well as you would have, you will be tempted to sit outside and bark yourself. As a leader, however, it's your job to mobilize and multiply the people for whom you're responsible. And you can't do this when you're doing all the work yourself. You'll need to hand things off to other people on your team and let them take those things and run with them. And it will be your job to coach and develop them so that they perform those tasks as well as you can or better. Five reasons it's so hard This kind of delegation makes perfect sense-so why is it so difficult for leaders to focus on leading their teams rather than competing with them? Five reasons: 1. You got to be a leader by being really good at particular tasks in a particular area whether it's running Bible study groups, preaching, or meeting one-on-one with people. And as your growth in those skills increased, someone noticed and asked you to move into a leadership role where you'd be responsible for leading a group of people who in turn would be responsible for those tasks. It can be difficult, emotionally and even psychologically, to give up the very things that got you to this position in the first place. But if you're going to lead a team you need to be able to let that go. 2. You also probably really enjoy doing these things that you got into ministry to do in the first place. These might be the things you used to do in your spare time, and perhaps now you even get paid. And though it's difficult to give up and give over things we love to do, again, that's exactly what you need to do if you're leading a team. 3. You will often, at least at first, watch people performing these tasks who are not doing them as well as they could be done, or as well as you could do them yourself. Maybe your bark really is louder, or quicker, or clearer, or more eloquent than theirs at this point in time. And when this is the case you're more tempted than ever to sit down with them and bark more loudly, quickly, clearly, or eloquently. The temptation to take back the tasks can be so subtle that you might not even notice it or it might even seem to you like the responsible thing to do. "This ministry matters," you might say “These people should have the highest level of care. The preaching needs to be outstanding. This group needs to be run in a firstrate manner. So I should step back in and take over." The main problem with this kind of thinking is that there's some truth to it. Excellence is a virtue, quality does matter, greatness is important, and you probably are better at doing these things right at this moment. But it's almost always the wrong call. Your new responsibility is to help, coach, and encourage the members of your team to become as proficient as you are, if not better. 55 4. At first it will be quicker and easier to do things yourself. It takes a lot more time to meet with the people beforehand to explain the responsibility and then debrief with them afterward. Then meet and debrief. Then meet and debrief. Over and over. So you're right-it is quicker to do it yourself. But just because it's quicker and easier doesn't make it better. And it isn't quicker and easier in the long term. Doing it yourself won't be quicker and easier six months down the road when the time you've invested begins paying dividends and you have a team of people equal to, or better than, you doing far more than you alone could ever dream of doing. 5. Lastly, it might be difficult to let others take over these tasks because your ego struggles when others get more praise than you do for the things that you can do better than they can. People noticed you doing these things well, which is why you were asked to take on this leadership role in the first place. It's nice when people notice that you did something well and it can be painful when that praise and recognition stops and is transferred to someone else. And it can be even more upsetting when you're the one standing behind that person being praised-helping, training, and coaching them to be great. So you're tempted to jump back in so you can have some of that affirmation you used to get. But if you're going to lead a team you need to deal with your ego. Six reasons it matters Since it is difficult to delegate and let go of tasks you enjoy, it's important to know why barking yourself is so bad. As long as the job gets done, why does it matter who does it? A leader's job isn't just to get things done, but to get things done through people. Here are six reasons it's important to refrain from barking yourself: 1. It restricts the amount of ministry that can be done to what a single person can do. If you keep taking tasks back from people and doing them yourself, less will get done. Fewer people will be cared for and discipled, fewer preachers will teach God's word. One of the purposes of a team is that it multiplies the ministry. Doing everything yourself restricts the ministry that can be done. 2. It severely limits the amount and quality of on-the-job training that can happen. Coaching and feedback are the best methods for developing people as leaders. As we've seen, people need to be taught how to do something, then they need to do it under observation and receive honest feedback and coaching on how to do it better next time. Then they need a next time, another opportunity, so the process can be repeated. If this process is short-circuited, or taken away completely because you're barking yourself, then the people you're developing will have very little real-time training. 3. It will undermine the enthusiasm of the leaders in your care. When you delegate a responsibility to a leader and then step in and take it back, that's a powerfully demoralizing experience. If this becomes the standard procedure-you give a responsibility, things start not to go well, you take back the responsibility-then what you're teaching the team is not to try and not to invest in the task because it will be taken away. You'll also be communicating to your team that you don't think they're capable of the task. This will lead to you taking tasks back more and more quickly because the team will be putting in less and less effort. Eventually people will stop saying yes at all when you ask for their help. It's a vicious cycle that will eventually destroy your leadership and severely restrict how much ministry will get done. There's no point having a dog and then barking yourself L et's imagine that your neighbour just purchased a Rottweiler as a guard dog. They found the best, most well-trained dog they could afford and brought him home and set him up in the front yard with a good view out the front fence and a nice bowl of water. But then you noticed the owner himself sitting next to the dog. And whenever someone walked past, your neighbour would start barking at them. What would you think of that person sitting next to their dog in the front yard, barking at passers-by? That's right. You'd think they were off their meds. And yet a lot of leaders make this same mistake with the people and teams they lead. Instead of being the leader of the team and doing team leader's work, they do the work of the team members-which means that they end up competing with their own teams. There will of course be things that you as a leader can, and probably should, do. There may even be things that you can do better than anyone else you lead. And when you give responsibility for a task to another person and-heaven forbid they don't perform that task exactly the way you would have done it, or even as well as you would have, you will be tempted to sit outside and bark yourself. As a leader, however, it's your job to mobilize and multiply the people for whom you're responsible. And you can't do this when you're doing all the work yourself. You'll need to hand things off to other people on your team and let them in to do things yourself you will erode the trust your team has in you. Once you lose the trust of those you lead, you've lost any legitimate influence that you had-and so, effectively, at that point you've lost your leadership. You may still have a position and a title, and people may still do what you tell them to do, but you won't be leading them. The trust of your team is one of the most precious commodities that you have as a leader, and you need to be vigilant to never do anything that would erode or break that trust. If you've given people authority and responsibility for a task then make sure you allow them to own the task and see it through. Give them clear instructions and guidelines. Give them honest coaching and feedback along the way and watch them improve. That's a leader's job. Having a dog and then doing the barking yourself is a horrible idea. It restricts the amount of ministry that can be done, it stunts the growth of your leaders, and it inhibits new ideas and innovation. It erodes trust, demotivates people, and may even lead to anger and bitterness. It's not just that there's no point having a dog and barking yourself-it's also a recipe for failure.