Delegation and trust go hand and hand, but you’ve got to ensure those around you understand that you trust them when you give them a task. One of my many challenges was developing young officers and getting them to make a decision. I’d give them a task and before they would make a decision they would come to me to make sure I was okay with each step along the way. I’d have to sit them down and explain that wasn’t my intention in giving them the task. I wanted them to make those decisions…good or bad. The world wouldn’t end if they made a bad decision, but what they would get out of it was a lesson learned. Good decisions had to be followed with a well done too. Bottom line, it shows that I trusted them with a task and wanted them to get used to making good and bad decisions…because no matter what we do in life we are going to make both and have to learn to deal with them. I eventually incorporated this lesson into my initial feedback with them and again when giving the tasks. It was great to watch them grow and now I see them growing younger officers today…pretty cool!
Deliberate Development 