Key Verse: Verse 18 – "Thou wilt surely wear away, both thou, and this people that is with thee: for this thing is too heavy for thee; thou art not able to perform it thyself alone."
Key Words: Thou wilt surely wear away
One area of leadership is the ability to realize the abilities and limitations of others and the willingness to delegate to others responsibilities where they have the ability to carry out the task at hand.
D. L. Moody once said, “It is far better to put a thousand men to work than it is to do the work of a thousand men.”
The degree to which a leader is able to delegate work is a measure of his success.
One of the great Biblical illustrations of delegating is found in the life of Jethro and his son-in-law, Moses. Jethro saw that Moses could not keep pace with all that was before him. Jethro made two great arguments for delegating some of the work to others.
First, in Exodus 18:18 Jethro says that the work is too heavy for Moses: “Thou wilt surely wear away.” I have noticed in the ministry that those who for whatever reason will not delegate work to others grow weary, not only of the work, but of the call of God upon their lives.
Secondly, Jethro observed in verse 23 that delegating to others would speed up the work.
Writing about the leader of a large missionary endeavor, a staff member commented: “He had a great gift of leadership in that he never interfered with those under him. He allowed us to do our work and allowed us to learn from our mistakes.” Another staff member wrote: “He knew what people could do and saw that they did it, leaving them to make the best of their opportunities and investigating only if things went wrong.”
A good leader will follow up, but not interfere with the work which is delegated.
What to do:
✞ I always tell them under me a key to leadership is follow-up, follow-up, and then follow-up on the work of others, not interfere, interfere, and interfere. This is frustrating to others.
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