What's Stopping You?: Why Smart People Don't Always Reach Their Potential, and How You Can

High-FFs and Delegation

Delegation is another key requirement for progress, and is another one of those traumatic areas for those with a high fear of failure, especially when in a junior role. Many junior High-FFs fear delegating because they are suspicious of the motives involved – both of your boss who has instructed you to delegate, perhaps to undermine you, and of your colleague, who may seem overly keen to learn your job and take over. You may also fail to see training others as your role. You have a full workload and are unlikely to be assessed on how well you “make ourselves redundant” (to use the unhelpful phrase adopted by one of my seniors).

So what are we to do? Our best, that’s what.

It’s massively self-defeating to assume the worst. ...