An article from the book ‘Money, Wealth & Abundance!’ by Manoj J Lekhi (Amrut Vivek).

If one wants to grow, one needs to build a team. If one has a team, he needs to delegate, and if one delegates, he must delegate with responsibility.

What does this mean? Most people in the world delegate, but when things are not done properly, or not done on time, or not done just the way they want it, they get very upset that it was not executed the way they wanted it done.

When things don’t go your way, when people don’t follow your instructions verbatim, when people don’t listen to you, when people do things differently and, consequently, something turns into a failure, then it is the most important time to reflect and introspect.

Are you cursing them, complaining about them, passing the buck to them, or have you taken the responsibility of seeing how you have been responsible in creating such a situation? Once you realize and comprehend the thought, ‘I am responsible’ for that situation, you go to the next level of learning, which takes you one step forward, towards being WEALTHY. ‘I am responsible for the situation’ means ‘I own up for the situation.’ Own up for it because, at the end of the day, ‘It’s my show and I have chosen to appoint these people.’

Delegation for me started when I was 18 years of age and I started my business. The first thing I did was to appoint a secretary who would file all the documents and write all the cheques. I remember the time when she was getting a salary of ` 5,000, and she was earning more than what I was earning. I never complained as I knew at the time that it was because she was doing that work that I was getting the time to think and to plan the strategies as to how to take my business to the next level.

In the early nineties, I was fully involved in my business. We had about 100 workers at that time, but only 6 to 8 were reporting to me. The rest of them were karigars who were reporting to my brother. I was learning to delegate to more and more people at that time.

But when I started our SSY’s school, MET Rishikul Vidyalaya, 10 years ago, all of a sudden, there were so many departments and so many people, and I found that I had to give different directions to different people. There was a pre-primary section, a primary section as well as academics, sports, arts and various other divisions; so, delegation became very important for running the school. That is the time I started to delegate a lot, and I began discovering that a lot of work would not be done the way I wanted.

So, I began to look at it from the point of view of how I was responsible for the same and, in the process, learnt something new with every step. Every time things did not happen my way, I asked myself, “In what way am I responsible for the creation of this situation?”

Most of the time, I would get answers such as “I was not clear in my communication”, or “I did not give proper directions”, or “I have not created proper systems to ensure that it happens the way I wish it to” or “ I have not trained my people to be motivated and capable.”

This is what happens in all organisations. The boss is so much in a hurry that he gives his instructions and directions very fast and mostly verbally, which are not understood and interpreted in the right manner by the subordinate. Why? Because most of the time they do not listen properly. People are generally not good listeners, so one needs to give the instruction in writing.

The people to whom I would delegate would say “Yes” to what I say, but would not do it, and would give excuses of forgetting etc; hence, I would reiterate to myself the following points:

• I am not clear enough in giving instructions. 

• I am not patient enough to let them write the instructions down. 

• I am not calm enough to witness things going the other way. 

So, in this process, we came out with something new called the ‘thought-pad’, and I would give all the instructions and wait for the person to write them down; this practice increased my patience, my calmness and my ‘okayness.’ It also increased the efficiency of the person receiving the instructions and the chances of the results I got being positive.

The important principle involved in growth through a team is the following: ‘I delegate with responsibility.’ ‘Responsibility’ means taking the blame and the failure in the right spirit and learning from each step. Learning why it did not work is the most important step in creating wealth and living in abundance. You curse or complain that things are not happening the way you wanted, and it sucks your energy and pulls you down, and you feel totally lost.

On the other hand, if you notice that in every situation, there is a message and there’s something to learn, you take the learning, create better policies and systems, and take your efficiency to the next level. Your team members feel motivated because you have taken the blame and not passed it on to them.

M.S. Dhoni is a perfect example for this in modern-day cricket. They start revering you and looking upon you as a leader.

This is where Samadhi Meditation comes in. The more we meditate, the more we become calm, peaceful and silent. In silence, one automatically becomes responsible. The more you enter into silence, the clearer your delegation becomes and the more effective the decisions made become. The better your decisions, the more the wealth you create. This happens only when the entire team is joyful.

Joyfulness is the result of SILENCE. So never complain about your team members. Take the responsibility, and check out what is lacking in yourself and whether that is making that particular task not being carried out the way you want it. Then, enter into silence – create policies and systems out of silence, and take your product or service to the next level.

You may not be able to change a person, but you can build policies and streamline execution once you yourself are calm and silent. This will bring about a change in the person.

Take out 3 to 4 days in a month for a meditative retreat and enter your fullness within. This will ensure that you become a calm and peaceful person who can delegate with responsibility, thus creating more and more wealth.