Servant Leadership Workplace-No Dumping

7 Ways Dumping Ain’t Delegating

Servant-leaders are great at delegating.

Indeed, purposeful delegation is one of the three key practices of servant-leaders in the workplace.*

And what’s the opposite of great delegating?

Dumping!

From a servant leadership perspective, here’s 7 ways dumping ain’t great delegating:

  1. Dumpers withhold authority. The hallmark of dumping is assigning a task and withholding the authority needed to do it. But servant-leaders share authority – an important form of power** – in the workplace, especially through great delegating.
  1. Dumpers give short notice. Dumpers often dump because they are disorganized. Servant-leaders may not be any more organized than average, but they care about the schedules of those with whom they work. Dumpers don’t.
  1. Dumpers don’t connect to the mission. In effect, dumpers say, “Just do it.” Servant-leaders, on the other hand, help others to see how a present assignment is an important means to achieving a future end.
  1. Dumpers don’t consider whether the task is reasonable. Dumpers simply seek to get work off their plates. If that can be accomplished, they dump away. But servant-leaders consider whether the assignment at hand is sensible, a priority and a good use of resources.
  1. Dumper don’t play fair. Dumpers often give pleasant tasks to people they like and unpleasant tasks to people they don’t like. Servant-leaders, on the other hand, are impartial and match task to talent.
  1. Dumpers are inconsistent. I knew a dumper who claimed to be too busy to finish drafting a document . . . on the way out of the office to watch a baseball game! That’s not how servant-leaders work.**
  1. Dumpers don’t care if the task is doable. Dumping can often set people up to fail. Servant-leaders at work make sure that never happens – they want results and they measure their success by the success of those they serve.

What do you think? Did I miss something? What would you add to my list of list of dumping behaviors?

Let us know.

As always, we appreciate your views.

Thanks!

And don’t forget to download our latest ebook, Servant Leadership in the Workplace: A Brief Introduction. It’s free!

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* “Servant Leadership – 3 Workplace Practices”

And here are two more on purposeful delegation: “4 Distinctive Reasons Servant-Leaders Delegate” and “Purposeful Delegation – A Key to Staff Development”

** Check out this one:  “5 Ways Servant-Leaders Empower Others at Work”

*** For me, one of the worst forms of inconsistency occurs when a dumper assigns a task that she or he would be unwilling to do herself or himself.

Man, that bugs me!

Maybe that’s why I wrote this pair on the subject: “Servant-Leaders Don’t Eat Sugar” and “Servant-Leaders Lift Trees”