This week, Business Insider featured a profile about Bracha Cohen, a partner at Goldman Sachs and an Orthodox mother of 7. Cohen told Business Insider that knowing how to delegate responsibility is crucial to excelling in her job and at life. "Does this need to be me directly, or is this the kind of thing that a delegate could do just as well, and it won't compromise the outcome?" Cohen's approach to delegating plays out both at work and at home. Some responsibilities, Cohen said, are "truly non-discretionary," but others can be passed on either to colleagues at work or family members at home. “I learned to be very organized and to delegate at home. I decide what activities I consider to be high value, and I make sure to do those myself. So, for example, I would prioritize being the one to take my kids to the bus and be home to put them to bed but hire help to do the laundry. It’s also important to me that I create structure for my family, so they know what the routine is and when I’ll be with them on a consistent basis. Even now that my children are older, I carve out uninterrupted time to talk with them and advise on important decisions in their lives, and do some of this during my drive to and from work. Prioritizing my time and creating structure are obviously also useful skills at work.” As it relates to juggling work and family responsibilities Cohen suggests “"Allocate your time and energy intentionally. That's the key." The priorities that on their face might seem to clash with Cohen's job, like raising many children and observing Shabbat, have actually taught her skills crucial to her success: time management and long-term planning, to name a couple. According to a BBC article delegating is one of the more challenging aspects of leadership. It actually gets harder to do the higher someone goes up the corporate ladder, said Laura Lunsford, an associate professor of psychology at the University of Arizona. It’s a struggle for two reasons. Most people know that work needs to get done, but they can’t properly articulate what the end result should look like, so it’s just easier to do it themselves. Executives also have difficulty giving up control, especially if they’ll get blamed when something goes wrong. Here are a few more reasons why delegating can be difficult. 1) If you are a perfectionist or take great pride in doing your job really well, you may find it difficult to believe that anyone else can match your standards. 2) You may fear that someone else could take over aspects of your role and do them even better. No one likes to feel under threat in this way. 3) You may feel that delegating takes too much time: you’ll have done the work twice over before you can even begin to explain the ins and outs of it. If you’re very busy it can be impossible to even think about delegating in a logical way. You just put your head down and get on with things. 4) You may not have the confidence to delegate even if you want to. What tasks should you delegate? How should you go about it? How much guidance should you give? What if the person resists taking on the work? If you have a hard time delegating- don’t worry, you are in good company. Moshe Rabbeinu also had a difficult time delegating. At the beginning of the Parsha we read how Yitro saw his son in law busy all day with the nation’s questions and problems. Yitro immediately told Moshe that the system was not sustainable. He advised Moshe to appoint a team of people who could serve as guides and teachers - and to whom Moshe could delegate. Perhaps it was Moshe’s humility that made it difficult for him to see what was so obvious to Yitro. Perhaps it was one of the other impediments to delegating that are described above. Whatever the root cause may have been, the Torah emphasizes in our Parsha the importance of utilizing our strengths, maximizing our time, and knowing when to delegate.
