The Real Work

It may be that when we no longer know what to do
we have come to our real work,

and that when we no longer know which way to go
we have come to our real journey.

The mind that is not baffled is not employed.
The impeded stream is the one that sings.

~ Wendell Berry ~
(Collected Poems)

Leadership

Posting this so I can refer to it later.  Reference is here, or for the full PDF of the book, here.  Number 4 stings me the most.

Elder Neal A. Maxwell, then a member of the Presidency of the Seventy, suggested the following reasons leaders sometimes fail to delegate:

“1. We would really rather do it ourselves.
“2. We are not really willing to use our time and talents in order to train others so they can help.
“3. We dislike asking others to help, forgetting that receiving help is as much a part of the gospel as giving help.
“4. We like to feel a bit harried because it gives us a false sense of being noble.
“5. We say we are concerned about ‘quality control’ if the task is delegated, and sometimes there is good reason for the concern; other times, however, we actually worry not about tasks being done poorly, but too well.”

Elder Maxwell advised: “The sense we may have at times of being devoured by duty . . . is at least partially avoidable. . . . We could, if we chose more often, delegate, thus developing others, including our children, more and, finally, thereby reducing unnecessary burdens on ourselves” (Wherefore Ye Must Press Forward [1977], 99–100).