In my last three decades of consulting in the area of leadership, I have repeatedly observed a common tendency on the part of the least effective individuals who have been thrust into leadership roles. Invariably, these individuals over-delegate duties, and attempt to absolve themselves of much responsibility. Yet, the interesting thing as that most of the time they user the same explanation, that a leader should involve others and assign them duties, and not micromanage them.

The term micromanagement may be one of the most overused, misunderstood, and misused terms in business. Micromanagement only occurs as a detriment when a leader tries to do everything himself, although he has capable people around him. While I have observed a few cases of misused micromanagement on the corporate level, where talented middle and lower managers have the abilities, yet are not permitted to complete tasks, it is rarely the case with volunteers, because by their very nature, most volunteers only spend a limited amount of time on volunteer work, because they still have other primary responsibilities that must take priority. In addition, since the vast majority of organizations do not adequately identify or qualify potential leaders, and then do not conduct true leadership training, few of the individuals that ascend to these positions have the knowledge or expertise to accomplish many essential tasks. In addition, the vast majority of those holding these type of positions in organizations are somewhat "clueless," when it comes to what needs to be done, as well as how to accomplish necessary tasks.

As deficient as the expertise is in many other areas, the three areas that the vast majority of organizations suffer the most in are: in negotiations; conference/ convention/ event planning/organization, etc.; and in many fiscally related areas. In fact, in the crucial fiscal areas, most organizations suffer because of inadequately trained and knowledgeable fiscal officers. Basic things like budgeting, cost effectiveness, financial analysis, and fiscally "thinking outside the box" are often overlooked or downplayed.

As if these things are not challenging enough to an organization's ability to achieve its goals and missions, most small to medium sized organizations suffer from inadequately trained or competent paid staffs. Whether it is because of inadequate training, qualifications, supervision, or the inability to sufficiently compensate "good" help, it has often appeared that many staffs of organizations end up nearly sabotaging an organization's efforts.

The reality is that it is quite difficult to motivate individuals to be willing to volunteer their time and efforts, especially in today's hectic society. That is one of the primary reasons that so many organizations today have so many challenges. However, until and organization is willing to directly address the issue of professionally and adequately identifying, qualifying, and training leadership, the challenge will not be successfully met.