Comments on: Delegating Like a Pro in 10 Easy Steps! http://vervecoaching.com/delegating-like-a-pro-in-10-easy-steps/ Expert Coaching for Entrepreneurs, Small Business Executives & Aspiring Leaders Thu, 04 Dec 2008 04:40:46 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5 By: Ellis Cohen http://vervecoaching.com/delegating-like-a-pro-in-10-easy-steps/#comment-40185 Ellis Cohen Sat, 17 May 2008 14:29:08 +0000 http://vervecoaching.com/?p=237#comment-40185 I really like the notion of asking the person if you can count on them not just to do the job, but to do it as you asked. Of course, even if they answer yes, there will be plenty of cases when they don't -- perhaps because they didn't allocate time to get the job done, or because they didn't understand something and didn't want to look bad, so they didn't ask. Reports really do help here -- and the ones that are vague or ambiguous are your wake-up call to go get more information. And still things don't work out -- there's a mismatch in understanding assumptions, or techniques or goals which sometimes don't get discovered until too late. It's tempting (if you don't just give up and do things yourself, as Kelly notes) to immediately think about improving or adding reports and other processes, and sometimes that is the right thing to do. But it's equally important to improve reflection and communication -- to create a culture where the people you delegate to think about whether they've got the assumptions, techniques and goals right, raise their own questions, and discuss them with each other and with you. Of course, creating that culture could be a whole other article. I really like the notion of asking the person if you can count on them not just to do the job, but to do it as you asked. Of course, even if they answer yes, there will be plenty of cases when they don’t — perhaps because they didn’t allocate time to get the job done, or because they didn’t understand something and didn’t want to look bad, so they didn’t ask. Reports really do help here — and the ones that are vague or ambiguous are your wake-up call to go get more information. And still things don’t work out — there’s a mismatch in understanding assumptions, or techniques or goals which sometimes don’t get discovered until too late.

It’s tempting (if you don’t just give up and do things yourself, as Kelly notes) to immediately think about improving or adding reports and other processes, and sometimes that is the right thing to do. But it’s equally important to improve reflection and communication — to create a culture where the people you delegate to think about whether they’ve got the assumptions, techniques and goals right, raise their own questions, and discuss them with each other and with you. Of course, creating that culture could be a whole other article.

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