Life+Work

Four Elements of Effective Delegation

One of the senior leaders I coached today told me a classic failed delegation story: "I delegated some research work to one of my junior staff members. I asked her to follow up with a client who needed us to assess the effectiveness of their web site. I gave her the client's phone number, asked her to call and get the URL, then look over the web site and give me a report on what she found on the web site. A week later, she emailed me 'Here's the URL you requested.' "

You can almost hear her sigh of frustration, can't you?

I find as I coach leaders that there are very specific elements that go into effective delegation. Without these, delegating becomes a frustrating cycle of failed attempts to get work done that leave you wishing you'd just done it yourself. Maybe even questioning the competency of your staff. 

Here are four key elements to effective delegation:

• Explain context and big picture. People do tasks more effectively, independently and intelligently when they understand how the small task fits into the larger picture. 
• Ask questions. Don't assume you've been clear. Find out. For example, the leader I coached today might have asked:
  
  • Are you clear about what I want you to look for on the client's web site? 
  • That was a multi-part request--will you recap it for me so I'm sure you caught it all?
  • What questions do you have about how to summarize that in a report back to me?
  • What's your workload like? When will you be able to fit this in?
    
• Build in ownership and full responsibility. I've heard more than one leader complain about staff not following through on assigned tasks. Here are a couple of ways you can build in ownership:
  
  • Have your employee take notes on your request and send them to you in email. This allows you to verify they heard and understand all parts of the task. It also gives both of you a written record of the request. Easy to forward the email to them later and ask "where are we with this?"
  • Make it clear how and when you want them to update you on progress. Not every employee realizes that it's their responsibility to loop back with you. Successful delegating means you don't have to track and follow up on your requests.
  • Be clear about the priority of the task and consequences of not doing it well or on time. Like understanding how a small task fits in with the larger picture, people are more likely to take the appropriate level of care and responsibility when they're clear on it's importance.
• Assign a deadline. Even if there isn't a clear deadline, assign one. We all tend to put things off until they're due.

4 Ways to Wade Through Low Motivation and Stay Productive

When you have a long to-do list and low motivation, how do you stay productive? A coaching client posed this question to me on Thursday. I knew exactly what he was struggling with. It’s been a hot September week here in California. My body wants to kick back and stay relaxed like it’s still summer. My mind knows that it’s fall, and the typical crush of 4^th quarter work is barreling down on us. Now is the time to get in gear, not fall behind. But getting myself to be productive feels like wading through mud.

Here are four things that keep me productive even when my motivation is low:

1. Board game. Do you have a typical way that you track your to-do items? Switch it up. My client keeps his to-do items in a spreadsheet. I find mixing it up helps on a low energy, low motivation day. I post my to-do lists on the wall in front of me and make a game out of trying to clear the wall. The visual of things disappearing from the wall gives me incentive to keep going.
2. Random encounters. Sometimes the best plan is no plan. On a low motivation day, give yourself room for spontaneity instead of forcing yourself to keep to a plan. I let myself wander around my office or house and play the game "whatever I see next, I'll do." A surprising amount gets done this way, with the side benefit that a lot of visual clutter disappears. (I'm an "out of sight, out of mind" person. The visual reminders I leave out for myself create piles and clutter if I fall behind on my to-do list.)
3. Most annoying. This is a to-do list game to release and reclaim energy. Find the item on your list that irritates you the most every time you see it there. Channel your irritation into a determination to get it done, today. You "leak" a little energy every time you see that item and give it attention without doing it. You'll be amazed how much energy is gained by the relief of getting it done and saved by no longer having to think about it. This weekend I blended the perfect cocktail of low motivation with annoyance and got several house chores done that I'd put off all summer. As cooler weather and rain clouds moved in today, I feel extra pleased with myself that these tasks are finally done.
4. Remain in motion. Above all, just keep moving, even if it’s slow. Think of building a fire: start with small twigs (the easy mindless chores), build up to the larger sticks and logs (tasks that take more energy or concentration). This weekend was my last free weekend before a long stretch of busy work weeks and weekend commitments. Regardless of my motivation and energy levels, I had to get things done. I let myself have brief breaks to power nap or zone in front of the tv--part of my low motivation was also being tired--but if I lingered more than 20-30 minutes, it took even more energy to get going again. Looking back on the weekend, 1) I can't believe how hard it was to keep going and 2) I can't believe how much I actually got done. "Remain in motion" was an essential strategy for me.

Get Your Crayons Back: How to Win Over Your Inner Critic and Recapture Your Creative Self

My work requires me to be creative and confident. If I don’t figure out how to set strategy for my business and come up with great ideas for what to do next, I won’t be successful. Those of you who are in a senior leadership position or self-employed know what I’m talking about.

So how do you wake up every day and get creative? I find myself in near-continual creative crisis, which might surprise friends and colleagues to hear. I generally look like I have my business act together and take far more creative risks in life than the average person, including venturing into making visual art late in life. But keeping a clear channel open to my creativity is a big hassle in my life. Right now I have a lot of business development work to get done that requires my best creative thinking and most days feel like a slog. Days can go by with nothing important accomplished. My inner critic, desperately trying to keep me from creating and going public with something really foolish, wins.

Isn’t it easy when someone compliments and encourages you? I always have a streak of brilliant productivity. Finding external sources of motivation and inspiration is a useful strategy. I’ve created some wonderful master mind groups and co-coaching partnerships with colleagues to give myself regular doses of external inspiration and validation. But it’s a temporary fix. In the end, it’s still you sitting by yourself doing the work, slogging it out with your inner critic.

I find my inner critic leaves me vulnerable to being derailed not only by myself but by people who could potentially give me inspiration and validation—a serious flaw in relying only on external sources. Last fall a dear friend asked repeatedly if she could watch me create my metal and neon art. I think I’m not very exciting to watch, but I said yes. It was kind of flattering to have someone be so interested in my process. I’d been telling her about a piece I was working on called “The Heart Revealed.” I liked the concept—how opening our heart up can feel like tearing ourselves open to reveal tender chambers that don’t often see the light of day. But I didn’t like how the piece was coming together—the metal being peeled back to reveal a slender stroke of pale lavender neon inside a dark chamber didn’t look enough like a tear. It just wasn’t edgy enough.

I forgot to tell my friend it was all very metaphorical, so when she saw the piece she asked a logical question, “Where’s the heart?” I tried not to let the question bother me, but it snuck in through the door my inner critic had left open and took up residence. I have not been back in my studio since. After almost nine years of making art without flinching at what anyone thought, it took me by surprise.

I realize that although I successfully managed my critical voice for years while making art, I have not learned to do that as well when I write or take risky new steps in my coaching business. As a result, during the last three years of trying to find my creative voice in business my inner critic has gotten a lot of air time, which is now spilling over into my art work.

To set business strategy for a bold new direction, create a new breakthrough idea or product, or create a work of art, we have to get into a productive relationship with our inner critic.

My brother, always a great gift-giver, just gave me the perfect birthday present: the dark, cynical and quite funny Hugh MacLeod’s (gapingvoid.com) book, “Ignore Everybody, and 39 Other Keys to Creativity.” This blog-to-book is the perfect read for your inner critic. It’s full of great advice and sarcastic wit that puts things in perspective for your inner critic, like:

1. Ignore everybody. You don’t know if your idea is any good the moment it’s created. Neither does anyone else. MacLeod’s first chapter is a great analysis of how resistance to change and power dynamics with friends and business colleagues play into how our inner critic rushes in to protect us. I often say fear is your friend; this first chapter usefully connected the dots on relationship dynamics I wasn’t fully conscious of yet.

2. The idea doesn’t have to be big. It just has to be yours. The more the idea is yours alone, the more freedom you have to do something really amazing. This chapter does a 180 reframe on why it’s great to try stupid things no one else is doing. Put a big smile on my face.

4. Good ideas have lonely childhoods. …the better the idea, the more “out there” it initially will seem to other people, even people you like and respect. Useful insights on how and why new ideas get squelched by your boss, your team, and your close friends. Helped me remember that several great things I've created in my life, like my current co-housing arrangement, had most of my friends and family very concerned and skeptical at first.

6. You are responsible for your own experience. Nobody can tell you if what you’re doing is good, meaningful, or worthwhile. The more compelling the path, the more lonely it is. A little chapter full of straight talk to the inner critic busy calling your latest effort stupid: generally speaking, only comfortable, familiar (aka second-rate) ideas get big applause the minute they’re born. Buck up and carry on with your stupid idea. All the best ones are.

7. Everyone is born creative; everyone is given a box of crayons in kindergarten. Then when you hit puberty they take the crayons away and replace them with dry, uninspiring books on algebra, history, etc. Being suddenly hit years later with the “creative bug” is just a wee voice telling you, “I’d like my crayons back, please.” A completely fabulous chapter on how to listen to yourself and sort out creative voices from critic voices.

There’s 35 more gems in this little book that Seth Godin calls “a work of art, a brilliant insight, a book that will change your life.” I agree. Go get your own copy. Find your “box of crayons,” whatever that is now. Let’s all go make surprising stuff happen.

 

With public thanks to my brother and Hugh for helping me find my way back to myself: I made a date with an artist friend to work together in my studio this Friday. I have several ideas for next pieces I can’t wait to get out and start playing with. I have not one but five new blog posts I’m having fun working on. And I am dusting off notes for a class I began creating two years ago and bringing them with me to a seminar I’m taking this weekend to get some feedback. I feel ready for whatever people have to say to me.

I’d love to hear about what you want to create, where you struggle with your creativity in work or life and what you’ve found helps you unleash yourself.

 

Fear is Your Friend

With all the "think positive" advice out there, what's a person to do with their fear, anxiety, worry and other “negative” emotions? Block them? Stomp them out?

I have found it useful for myself and my coaching clients to think of fear as a friend. All of our behaviors, beliefs and feelings have a positive intention behind them. Constricting feelings like fear and anxiety exist to keep us safe from something, like failure, embarrassment or pain. They broadcast loudly to get our attention. (Robert Dilts, an outstanding thought-leader in NLP, provides excellent detail on the concept of positive intention.)

What I do with constricting emotions like fear, worry and anxiety makes all the difference. If I let them hobble me and stop my progress, then I’ve missed their gift. If I stop and listen carefully to those emotions, there's always a useful message about what I want and need to feel balanced and take the next steps along my path. 

Here's some questions you can ask to do this for yourself:

1. What is something you keep feeling, thinking or saying to yourself that drains your energy or makes you hesitate to move forward?
   
   For example, I used to dread international travel. My thoughts and feelings before a trip were not excitement about going to a new country, they were all dread and anxiety about being trapped in a plane for 12+ hours. It took me enormous emotional energy to prepare for a trip when so much of me was in resistance to getting on the plane.
   
   
2. Ask yourself how this thought, feeling or image is trying to help you; for example, is it trying to show you a way in which you could be better prepared?
   
   When I listened more closely to the travel anxiety, I specifically kept imagining how uncomfortable I was going to be during the long flight. I saw myself not sleeping, feeling my legs twitch, my back ache. These are all things that happen to me regularly and would in fact keep me from being fresh enough to work effectively when I arrived.
   
   
3. What actions can you take to address your underlying concern and resolve the anxiety, worry, doubt or fear?
   
   I used my specific concerns to plan my trip better: book an aisle seat, look into mileage upgrade, consult with a Feldenkrais practicioner to find out how to sit more comfortably, get permission to fly in a day earlier, ask well-traveled friends what they did to fly comfortably. The result of taking all these steps was gaining a whole new set of useful travel strategies that continues to give me a feeling of complete inner calm before international travel. I listened to my anxiety and it no longer needs to broadcast loudly. The most amazing result? I've even learned how to sleep on a plane.
   

Here's a story based on a client's experience (name and details changed for privacy):

One of my coaching clients Peter had taught a couple of training classes at work and loved it. He knew he wanted to do more and hoped some day training would be a regular part of his role. When a re-organization at work gave him a new opportunity to train a class, he immediately said yes. The class was being sponsored by his new manager Teresa, who would likely be in the room observing him. He’d heard Teresa had very high standards and he found himself nervous about training with her at the back of the room watching.

Peter decided to take action and really brush up on his training technique. He had seen me train several times and admired my training style and presence, so he called me for some short-term coaching on how to be an even more effective trainer. We had a great first session, during which he enthusiastically committed to several follow-up steps. We made an appointment to meet again in two weeks.

At our next coaching session, Peter reported having a terrible two weeks. Every time he thought about training the class, all he could think about was his new manager Teresa sitting at the back of the room watching him. The more he tried to concentrate on preparing for the class, the louder his fears got. He began having nightmarish dreams about the training going badly—participants clearly bored or openly challenging his knowledge, completely forgetting what the class was about, having his words get caught in his throat. All the while with Teresa as a dark figure at the back of the room, staring at him as he failed miserably, taking notes on everything he was doing wrong. He was a wreck.

He was embarrassed to admit that he had not completed a single one of the follow-up steps. Yes, he thought they were all excellent ideas. No, it wasn’t that he had run out of time. “All I can think about is not being able to control Teresa’s opinion of me,” he finally confessed.

I observed that it sounded like his fear of training in front of Teresa had him paralyzed. "Part of that fear is really valid—you want to do well in front of her, you know she has high standards, and you were already feeling like your training technique could be better,” I said. “Do you know what specifically Teresa considers hallmarks of good training? It seems like not knowing what would work for her leaves you worrying that she could criticize everything you do.”

Peter was initially resistant to asking Teresa about her training standards. He worried that she would take his questions as a sign of weakness. But the more he sat with the idea, the more he realized that without specific information on what she was looking for, his mind was left to make up worst case scenarios.

We listened to his worry about talking with Teresa--he wanted to look confident, not weak. So we planned out questions that he felt confident asking, like "What would success look like for you with this class?" and "In your experience, what are great qualities in a trainer?" These questions felt less personal and more naturally professional for Peter to ask Teresa.

After talking with Teresa, Peter felt calm and relaxed. He knew exactly what to emphasize in his training and how to best leverage his trainer style to be successful in front of Teresa. The most useful result for Peter was that he remained calm and relaxed even when he hit a few bumps, which allowed him to gracefully course correct and continue on with the training day.