I relation to my last post, the question that comes up is, “How will I know if I haven’t let go and if everything is flowing through me?” I have found a really simple gauge:

Go out of town and see how often your cell phone rings. When I go out with friends of mine who are Pastors, I am always alerted to this.

If your staff is constantly calling, that means they don’t feel the freedom to make decisions without you.

This is not good. In fact, it drives the best leaders away.

When I was at Buzz last week, my staff called me zero times. Zero. When I first noticed this, it bugged me and I’d call just to see if they needed my help.

But I’ve learned that this is a great compliment. If my staff feels empowered and equipped to make decisions, they will be much more effective.

Here’s the kicker: If you give them the freedom to make decisions, they are going to make decisions you don’t like. Here’s my advice: Deal with it! We need to give people freedom to make mistakes. That’s the only way we learn sometimes. And when you allow your staff to make mistakes and don’t freak out, they will love and respect you even more.