Delegation

Delegation. The definition of delegation is “sharing some of your responsibilities with people who work for you”. In my experiences, delegating is much easier said than done. Ever since I was a young girl, I have always been a leader; even in my grammar school days, I was the one who was reading to the rest of the class, volunteering to be line leader, etc. Volunteering to be line leader or to be chalk board-eraser evolved into volunteering to be editor of the school newspaper and running for class president, which then evolved into micromanaging everyone and everything I was involved in. Although I am fully aware of my micromanaging habits, I have a difficult time addressing them and overcoming my urge to have a say in or to take part in every little thing that I am involved in. With age, I have become more aware of this issue and am slowly learning how to delegate. More specifically, since beginning my time at CIA, I have had to ‘let things go’ and ask others for assistance in group projects or let someone else have final say in what our team wiki looks like. Some of my acceptance of others help is voluntary, while other times it is because I know I would be too overwhelmed if I tried to do everything by myself. Learning about delegating in class and the importance of being a good delegator has helped me pay more attention to my actions and be more aware of when I should delegate. Hopefully, I will be able to observe my chef instructors delegate duties to classmates and myself and will be able to copy-cat the things I observe.