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Isn’t your first broken bone supposed to happen when you’re a little kid doing something fun, like climbing a tree or riding a bike? Or at least when you’re an adult doing something worthy of bragging rights, like skiing or paragliding? Having recently experienced my first broken bone (wrist) through the simple act of stepping from a carpeted to a tiled surface, I feel really ripped off. Aside from the obvious jokes (“You should have seen the other guy” or “I was desperate for some time off”), I couldn’t think of a single way to make this mishap seem cool or exciting.

My only thought was “I NEED this hand!” (it was the dominant one, of course). And I didn’t think about the fun stuff I needed it for, like kayaking, cross-stitching, or guitar playing. I thought about work. How was I going to do my job without my right hand for six to eight weeks ?

The answers to this question were many and varied, but the underlying message was always the same: people are willing to help when I am willing to let them.

The first day, while still under the delusion of omnipotence and the influence of pain killing medication, I told my manager and project team members that this wouldn’t change my work schedule. All I needed was dictation software and the ability to conduct meetings from home for a couple weeks. I sounded so good that on the second day—the one known as “the day I hit the wall”—one of my project team members sent me a 26-page Microsoft Project file to edit. I had to say “uncle” and admit that I wasn’t fine.

This was a bitter pill to swallow for me as a project manager. Project managers are supposed to be in control. It’s amazing how out of control you feel when you are faced with less than full physical mobility and dexterity. You have to plan everything in advance, from deciding how to take a shower in the morning to figuring out what position to sleep in at night. I planned how to get to my medical appointments, open a cat food can, and get my arm through a sleeve. But I forgot to plan for being a fallible human being.

I had to send my team member to someone else to edit that document. I had to ask team members to take minutes for me, because recording meetings on WebEx was easy but transcribing them was hard. Even once I started coming back to the office, I had to allow teammates to get the conference calls going, pull up documents, and record action items. Occasionally I would reach for the mouse and realize I had literally given over control of the computer to someone else.

Did this mean I had given over control of the project? Not for a minute. Everything continued to get done. It turned out that asking for help (or in PM parlance, “delegating”) is an important part of planning and managing a project. I just hadn’t been forced into a position to learn that lesson before.

You don’t have to break a bone to learn how to delegate. Try asking team members to take turns taking meeting minutes, plan meeting agendas as a group, or make individuals responsible for certain documents. In most cases, the team will be happy to help and feel more invested in the project!