March 1; Getting Work Done Though the Hands of Others
MANAGEMENT BY THE BOOK:
365 Daily Bible Verse &
One-Minute Management Lessons For The Busy Faithful

Chapter Three: Execution

1 March

…and appoint them as officials over thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens.

Exodus 18:21b

Delegate

His father-in-law was correcting him. The younger man had the position as the singular leader of an immense organization. He was a brilliant administrator and was universally respected as a wise decision-maker. And he did it all.

He worked non-stop from dawn to dusk. The elder counselor was concerned about his son-in-law’s crushing burden. He was worried. The wise, old Jethro knew that his daughter’s husband had to pace himself or his health would suffer.

Moses was facing the common management challenge of the ages, “If you want something done right you’ve got to do it yourself.”

This traditional ‘management’ maxim is, of course, a lie.

If the manager does the doing, he’s not performing as a manager—he’s backsliding to staffer. The manager is doing the literal hands-on work that individual contributors should be doing (even if badly).

The manager does no ‘work’ as commonly understood by non-managers. The boss does not roll up his sleeves and get his hands dirty. Sure there are exceptions, but ‘hands-on’ micro-management was the rule for Moses the ruler.

Managers just don’t get things done. Macro-Management get things done through the active, thinking support of other people.

Jethro advised Moses on this management fundamental of the ages: find competent men.

The Israelites had a new hierarchal organization that any manager today would see as the familiar pyramid org chart. The new structure enabled Moses to lead his people out of the desert wilderness to the Promised Land.

The success was possible because Moses followed the advice of his father-in-law and learned to delegate.

Exodus 18:21b, and appoint them as officials over thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens.

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