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<v Speaker 1>Helping leaders motivate their people to a higher level of

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<v Speaker 1>performance through strong human relations, team building, and golachieving. This

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<v Speaker 1>is the seven Minute Leadership Podcast with your host Paul Fellovledo.

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<v Speaker 1>Hello everyone, and welcome to the seven Minute Leadership Podcast.

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<v Speaker 1>It's episode six point twenty. Today we're talking about a

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<v Speaker 1>decision every leader wrestles with, whether they admit it or not.

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<v Speaker 1>When do you automate and when do you delegate? This

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<v Speaker 1>question sounds technical, but it is deeply human. Get it

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<v Speaker 1>right and you buy back time, trust and momentum. Get

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<v Speaker 1>it wrong and you quietly break your culture while wondering

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<v Speaker 1>why everything feels harder than it should. So let me

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<v Speaker 1>start with a picture that you have probably lived your

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<v Speaker 1>buried emails or stacking up small tasks pulling at you

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<v Speaker 1>from every direction, and you start thinking, I should automate

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<v Speaker 1>this or I should hand this off. And that's where

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<v Speaker 1>leaders mess this up. Because automation and delegation solve very

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<v Speaker 1>different problems. Automation is about consistency, delegation is about growth.

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<v Speaker 1>If you confuse the two, you end up with frustrated

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<v Speaker 1>people in broken systems. So let's break this down in

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<v Speaker 1>real terms. Automation is for tasks that should never depend

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<v Speaker 1>on mood, personality, or creativity. Things that should happen the

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<v Speaker 1>same way every time. Scheduling, reminders, payroll processing, data backups,

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<v Speaker 1>intake forms, status reports, anything where variation creates risk. If

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<v Speaker 1>the task needs judgment, nuance, or relationship, automation will failue.

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<v Speaker 1>Leaders who try to automate human judgment end up sounding cold, robotic,

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<v Speaker 1>and out of touch. Now, delegation. Delegation is not dumping

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<v Speaker 1>work onto people. Delegation is trust with structure. It's saying

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<v Speaker 1>I believe you can carry this, and I'm going to

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<v Speaker 1>support you while you do it. And here's the leadership

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<v Speaker 1>mistake I see constantly. Leaders automate because they do not

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<v Speaker 1>trust their people yet, or leaders refuse to delegate because

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<v Speaker 1>they trust no system but themselves. Both come from the

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<v Speaker 1>same place control. If you are automating something because you

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<v Speaker 1>do not want to coach someone through it, that's a

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<v Speaker 1>red flag. If you're holding onto tasks because you think

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<v Speaker 1>nobody can do it like you, that is also a

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<v Speaker 1>red flag. And let me give you a simple test.

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<v Speaker 1>Ask yourself this question. If this task goes wrong, do

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<v Speaker 1>I need human judgment to fix it quickly? If the

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<v Speaker 1>answer is yes, delegate it. If the answer is no, automated.

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<v Speaker 1>And here's another one. Does this task help someone grow,

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<v Speaker 1>learn or build confidence? If yes, delegate. If no, automated

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<v Speaker 1>automation removes friction. Delegation builds leaders. They are not interchangeable.

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<v Speaker 1>Here's another story. I once watched a leader automate a

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<v Speaker 1>weekly check in email to their team, same message, same tone,

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<v Speaker 1>same time every week. It looked efficient, it felt modern,

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<v Speaker 1>and it completely failed. Why because the team didn't need information,

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<v Speaker 1>They needed connection. They needed to know they were seen.

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<v Speaker 1>Automation gave them a message leadership would have given them meaning.

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<v Speaker 1>Now flip that around. I've seen leaders personally approve things

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<v Speaker 1>that should have been admated years ago. Expense reports, schedule swaps,

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<v Speaker 1>routine approvals. They called it being involved. The team experienced

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<v Speaker 1>it as a bottleneck. That's not leadership, that's self inflicted chaos.

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<v Speaker 1>And here's the leadership sweet spot. Automate the predictable, delegate

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<v Speaker 1>the developmental. If the task exists to move information, automate it.

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<v Speaker 1>If the task exists to build people, delegate it. Now,

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<v Speaker 1>let's make this actionable. Here's a quick audit that you

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<v Speaker 1>can do this week. Make a list of everything that

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<v Speaker 1>pulls at your time in a normal week. Emails, approvals, meetings,

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<v Speaker 1>follow ups, reports, that sort of thing next to each

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<v Speaker 1>item right A or D. A means this should be automated.

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<v Speaker 1>D means this should be delegated. And be honest, not comfortable.

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<v Speaker 1>Be honest. Then ask yourself one more question, why have

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<v Speaker 1>I not done this yet? The answer will tell you

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<v Speaker 1>more about your leadership than the task ever could. Fear

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<v Speaker 1>of losing control, fear of mistakes, fear of being replaceable,

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<v Speaker 1>fear of slowing things down. Those fears quietly cap leaders.

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<v Speaker 1>Strong leaders build systems and people at the same time.

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<v Speaker 1>Automation frees your time. Delegation multiplies your impact. If you

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<v Speaker 1>automate everything, you end up alone. If you delegate everything

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<v Speaker 1>without systems, you end up exhausted. Leadership lives in that balance.

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<v Speaker 1>So here's your takeaway for this episode. Stop asking what

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<v Speaker 1>is faster for me, Start asking what is better for

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<v Speaker 1>the team and for the future. Automate what must be consistent,

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<v Speaker 1>delegate What must be learned that this decision made repeatedly

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<v Speaker 1>over time, is the difference between a busy leader and

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<v Speaker 1>a scalable one. This has been the seven minute Leadership Podcast,

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<v Speaker 1>and I thank you for listening. For more Paul fell

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<v Speaker 1>of Alito podcasts, visit paulfellowalito dot com