"It is the leader's job!"

“Chris, it is the leader’s job.”  That is what the owner of the moving company we hired told me when we were discussing one of the challenges we experienced with moving day (it took much longer than a day, but that is a different story).  Moving, as I found out, can be quite a stressful event.  Even if all goes according to plan, the situation is stressful.  But when things go awry, it can really challenge those involved.  However, thanks to my experience moving, I learned a very valuable leadership lesson.

Our two movers were great guys.  They arrived early, worked hard, and did their absolute best to protect our items from any possible damage.  I even sent a text message to me wife during the process saying, “These guys are good.”  All seemed to be progressing nicely and we were able to get from the old house to the new house without any significant hiccups.

Arriving at the old house we began unloading, unpacking, and doing our best to put things in their proper place as quickly and as efficiently as possible.  This is when we experienced a setback.  While moving items into my daughter’s new room one of the movers, Will, noticed that he could not locate the hardware to put my daughter’s bed back together.  Now, this was going to present a problem.  My wife and I do are absolute best to keep our daughter on a strict schedule and we adhere to the established bedtimes.  This is a win-win for us as it results in a happy, cheerful child the next day along with two well-rested adults (we like our sleep).  Now we were facing a situation that would most likely push bedtime back or even result in Sloane sleeping in the ‘big girl bed' with mommy and daddy.  This was most definitely not a win-win situation.

Long story short, a day later the owner of the company was at our home--after purchasing the requisite parts--and we were discussing the moving experience.  This is when I learned a very valuable lesson in leadership.  It was readily apparent that Ben, the owner, was mildly upset with his crew, especially the crew leader, Mike.  I explained to Ben that Mike was, in fact, not the person who disassembled my daughter’s bed and was therefore not the person responsible for losing or misplacing the missing parts.  This is when the learning took place.  “Chris,” Ben replied, “it was Mike’s responsibility as the crew leader.  In fact, he should have been the one to disassemble the bed as he possesses the greater experience and that is a task you have to get right.”  He went on to state, “Disassembling the furniture is a task he does not like performing, but it is too critical to pass it off to a newer, much lesser experienced employee.”

I thought about our conversation a great deal over the course of the next week.  It made me reflect upon what I do on a daily basis and ask myself if there were any critical tasks I was handing off to my team that should remain my responsibility.  As leaders we need to delegate in order to get things accomplished in an efficient and effective manner, but we must be sure that the person we are handing the task to is ready and capable of completing the task.  Moreover, there are some tasks that must remain our responsibility because they are simply too critical to pass off.  It is the leader’s job to make the appropriate decision and to assume responsibility for the completion of those tasks that are critical to the success of the operation.