Friday, February 28, 2025
When I was at the university, I dreaded being department chair. It turned out to be nothing. I didn’t have to “make” work, consider “big decisions,” and contemplate large, strategic moves. That was left to the big shots.
Everything seemed to arrive on my desk. The dean’s office gave assignments and deadlines, then I trusted my colleagues and delegated appropriately. I wasn’t left with loose ends. In the rare occasion I got stuck, upper management swooped in and “took care of it.” I soon learned the power of letting go – delegation, simplicity, and concision. Secretly, my role was much ado about nothing.
Life, secretly, doesn’t take much. Like middle management, things come. I can get them done easily. The delegation of the “heavy lifting” can be given over. When you find yourself overwhelmed, you’re overthinking your pay grade. You’re more like middle management. Your so-called work will come. Your agenda is set. The pretentious big shots are frantically running the world. But in life, there seems to be an authority that goes over our heads, thankfully.
Leave it. I’m not talking about leaving it to a singular individual or a conceptual god in the sky – but a hierarchy that works through the collective, something that goes beyond, but that is fundamentally intimate and preeminent. Best to stick with middle management. What you don’t know goes above your pay grade. That gives you plenty of time for rest, play, and love.
Leave those “big decisions” alone. Your part is cake once you let go of believing that you’re running the universe (or the university). Your part is minimal and virtually disappears, once you learn about delegation to upper management. This requires a great deal of trust; however. But it’s a better, more loving, and a more leisurely way to manage. Trust me, your part is minimal, and that’s a relief.