As You Get Older, How You Delegate Becomes the Center of Work
What becomes central in work in your 40s and 50s is not how much you can move yourself. It is the judgment of how far you hold things yourself, and from where you delegate to others. In younger years, there were situations where holding everything yourself was valued, but in a managerial position, continuing to hold everything can lead to delays in handover and to people around you not growing easily.
There are habits in how each person delegates. In this article, we organize those habits in general terms from the nature of the 12 signs. Please read it not as whether it applies to you, but as material for knowing something close to your own habits.
Delegation by the Fire Quality — Aries, Leo, Sagittarius
Aries moves quickly, so this is a type where the habit of starting yourself before delegating tends to appear. Even after delegating, you may intervene midway and change how things are done. As a way of drawing a line, a form that fits is to decide in advance a range where you will not intervene in delegated work until the deadline.
Leo is concerned about how results look, so there is a tendency to find it hard to let go of final checking of delegated work. Checking itself is necessary, but if you try to pass everything through yourself down to the details, there is no room left for the other person's judgment. The key point is to narrow down the items you check.
Sagittarius is good at handing over a large policy, but this is a type that tends to omit detailed handover. What troubles the person you delegated to is not the policy but the procedures. A habit of handing over only the procedures in writing is effective.
Delegation by the Earth Quality — Taurus, Virgo, Capricorn
Taurus tends to take time to let go of work that has been fixed in your own way. If the person you delegate to does things differently, you tend to feel uneasy. If you switch to a form of judging by deadline and deliverable, not by method, it becomes easier to delegate.
Virgo has a high awareness of detail and completeness, so this is a type where corrections to delegated work tend to increase. If there are many corrections, the other person will start to ask for your judgment from the next time. The way to draw a line is to limit the standard for corrections to correcting mistakes only.
Capricorn, out of a sense of responsibility, tends to hold important work yourself. The higher your position rises, the stronger this habit becomes. The key point at this age is to separate work that only you can do from work that should be passed on next as experience.
Delegation by the Air Quality — Gemini, Libra, Aquarius
Gemini is quick to hand over information, but this is a type where follow-up checking after delegating tends to become thin. From the other person's standpoint, it can become unclear how far they should proceed. A form where you fix only the date and time for checking fits well.
Libra tends to weaken points made about delegated work out of consideration for the relationship. If you continue to hold back, you become unable to correct problems while they are still small. It becomes easier to convey if you decide in advance that points are made about the conditions of the work.
Aquarius is good at delegating through systems, but can overlook individual circumstances that do not fit the system. The key point for handover is to decide in advance who to consult when an exception occurs.
Delegation by the Water Quality — Cancer, Scorpio, Pisces
Cancer has a strong sense of looking after others, so this is a type that tends to step in ahead of time even after delegating. Preventing the other person's failure can, conversely, reduce opportunities for experience. The way to draw a line is to decide a range where you wait for consultation before stepping in.
Scorpio delegates a large amount to a person you trust, but tends to be strict in checking until trust is established. If that difference is large, it can be hard for those around you to understand. It is effective to put the standards for checking into words and share them.
Pisces changes how you delegate according to the other person's situation, so standards can appear vague. For stability, convey only the scope and deadline of what you delegate in the same form regardless of the person.
Two Judgments to Make After Knowing Your Habits
The habits for each sign are different, but the judgments to make are common. One is to decide what to hand over. Starting from work that would cause trouble after you leave, you create a form of handover. The other is to draw a line. You decide in words the range you will check yourself and the range you will leave to the other person.
These two judgments become harder to postpone as you get older. If there is a part close to your own habit, first try deciding the scope to delegate for just one piece of work. Creating a form in a small unit leads, as a result, to advancing the overall handover.