DELEGATE TO ELEVATE The Secret to Being a Great Leader
Poor delegation is the Achilles’ heel of most leaders, who often confuse being “involved” with being “essential.” To determine if you’re holding on to work you should delegate out, the Harvard Business Review (HBR) recommends asking this simple question: “If you had to take an unexpected week off work, would your initiatives and priorities advance in your absence?” If your answer is no or you aren’t sure, then you’re probably too involved. No one person should be the cog that keeps everything in motion, no matter their position in the company. Luckily, HBR has created an audit using the following six T’s to identify which tasks can be delegated. Tiny: Small tasks that stack up can undermine the flow of your work. Registering for a conference, putting it on the calendar, and On the evening of Dec. 8, 1881, the Ringtheater of Vienna, Austria, burned down when a stagehand, trying to light the gaslights over the stage, accidentally set fire to the prop clouds. The theater was already packed for the evening’s performance and in the chaos, the fire procedures were not followed. By the end of the evening, over 600 people were dead. The damage from the fire made it difficult to identify the victims. Fortunately, officials were able to use dental records to identify many of the victims so their loved ones could give them a proper burial. The unique nature of teeth has allowed investigators to determine identity in many different circumstances. While the Ringtheater fire was the first time that forensic odontology was used to identify victims of a mass disaster, it wasn’t the first time dental records were used to determine identity. Dental forensics
booking the flight are all small tasks someone else can handle.
task will get done faster and at a much higher quality.
Tedious: These tasks are straightforward but not the best use of your time. Someone else can input lists into spreadsheets or update key performance indicators for a presentation. Time-Consuming: These important, complex tasks don’t require you to do the first 80% of the work. Identify what they are, pass them to someone else, and step in for the final 20% to give approval. Teachable: Is there a task only you know how to do? If so, teach someone else to do it, and step in for the last quality check when it’s done. Terrible At: It’s okay to be bad at some things. Great leaders knowwhen to pass tasks off to someone who is more skilled than they are. The
Time-Sensitive: These tasks need to get done right now but are competing with tasks of a higher priority. Just because it has to get done immediately doesn’t mean you have to be the one to do it. Sure, some tasks only you can accomplish, but these are extremely rare. As the Virgin Group founder Richard Branson warns, needlessly resisting delegation is the path to disaster. “You need to learn to delegate so that you can focus on the big picture,” Branson says. “It’s vital to the success of your business that you learn to hand off those things that you aren’t able to do well.”
PAUL REVERE, FORENSIC ODONTOLOGIST?
A Brief History of Forensic Dentistry
happens to have a long history in the United States, where the first forensic dentist was none other than Paul Revere. A silversmith by trade, Revere studied under George Washington’s own “dental surgeon,” John Baker. Before the start of the RevolutionaryWar, Revere had his own dental practice. One of his patients was Major General Joseph Warren, who would eventually send Revere on his famous midnight ride in 1775.
Revere built a dental prosthetic to replace two of Warren’s teeth.
Warren was killed at the Battle of Bunker Hill and his body buried in a mass grave. By the time Warren’s loved ones were able to give him a proper burial, it was impossible to tell the bodies apart. Revere was summoned and able to identifyWarren based on the prosthetic he’d made. The National Museum of Health and Medicine notes that, “Revere’s confirmation of General Warren’s identity was the first instance in this country of an identification of a military service member using dental remains.” Thanks in part to this founding father of forensic dentistry, the practice has expanded to aid many different fields. From law enforcement to archeology, dental records are used to solve mysteries and bring closure all over the world.
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