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.

Looking for More Time in the Day? Focus Your 1:1 Meetings

It doesn't seem to matter whether the economy is booming and work is pouring in, or the economy is down and you're scrambling to keep clients and get everything done with a lean staff. There is a perpetual Big Squeeze for time. Nearly every business leader I coached last week was facing the same dilemma: where do you find more time when you've been over-committed for years and there's nothing left of your life to squeeze more time from?

One of the executives I spoke with last week described how her organization had advised everyone to block out 30% of their time for the unexpected. Sounded like a wise plan to me. But she reported her "unexpected" workload regularly far exceeded that 30% figure. When I probed on exactly what the unexpected work looked like, it turned out that recent layoffs and reorganizations were causing even more impromptu 1:1 meetings and phone calls than usual. "It's where I lose the most time every day," she told me. "People drop by my office unexpectedly, my calendar is crowded with 1:1 meetings. I never know how long these things are going to take. They eat up my whole day."

How much of your day is spent in 1:1 meetings? You might not have even considered talking with one other person a meeting, but every time someone calls you on the phone or stops by your office to "run something by you," bring you up to speed or get your advice, it's a little mini meeting.

Like any other meeting, a 1:1 meeting can benefit from a little structure. Most of us let our 1:1 meetings be conversations. We let them start and finish organically, with some wandering in the middle. We may or may not leave with clear result in hand. They typically take up as much time as we scheduled or as much time as we can spare.

You can add just enough structure to save precious time by asking one simple question at the beginning of any 1:1 meeting: what would we/you like to get out of this conversation? Asking this question establishes the goal of the meeting. Knowing the answer lends just enough structure to keep both of you focused and, most importantly, know when you've talked enough and the meeting can end. I regularly end meetings early and keep my impromptu meetings brief by taking a moment to identify the goal.

Tips on how to implement this simple technique:

• Ask this question as one of the opening lines of your meeting or early in the conversation when you find yourself wondering what the other person wants from you. For example:
  • "Hi Mark, good to see you! So, what's this meeting about? What were you hoping we'd accomplish?"
  • "So Helen, it sounds like you're concerned about how the schedule is slipping. What would you like to get out of this conversation with me? Was there specific advice or input you wanted? Or did you just want to give me a heads up?"
  • "Hey Jerett, thanks for meeting with me. Before we start, I'd love to clarify a couple of things I hope we walk out of here with. I'd like to get your agreement on whether we're ready to move forward with X, and then get your input on Y."
• Typical goals for 1:1 meetings include
  
  • sharing information so that one of you can go take action
  • reaching an agreement or making a decision together
  • creating a list of next steps
• Use the goal to keep your conversation on track. Often people provide unnecessary context, raise unrelated issues, or just lose track of what they're talking about. You can use the goal as a reference point to keep the conversation on purpose. For example,
  • "I'm not sure I need all this detail right now. If what you want is my agreement on X, let me just ask you this last question..."

Go save some time! Let me know how adding goals to your 1:1 meetings works for you.

Getting Things Done: 5 Things I Learned From David Allen

Everyone I coach struggles at some point with how to get more done and focus on what's most important for their life or career. I've learned a lot from one of my long-time clients about David Allen's approach to Getting Things Done. This client has a typically complex life and work role that requires him to track a myriad of small details, manage projects that require short and long-range thinking, while still maintaining a strategic focus. Sound familiar?

One of my client's main goals is to feel really masterful in his productivity and focus. It's been impressive to hear how Allen's approach keeps my client focused, on task and able to track the full complexity of his job.

I confess to not being much of a systems person. I'll probably never embrace Allen's systems quite as fully as my client. But I am finding real value in some of the foundation principles of the book.

Here's two highlights and three useful details:

• Get everything out of your head. This is the key to having relaxed control, with your mind available for being creative and strategic. Get everything (large or small) off your mind and into a tracking system so your mind is clear for the important stuff. I loved Allen's side bar about this: "There is no reason to ever have the same thought twice unless you like having that thought."
  
  Where to put your mental "stuff"? Into whatever set of collection tools work for you: in-basket, notebook, PDA, electronic file, digital recorder. I have a dear friend who captures everything on post-it notes. Her computer screen has post-it note fringe. It works for her.

• Be clear on how to take action. You know those important items on your to-do list that you keep putting off? (Recently procrastinated items from my own to-do lists: Learn Twitter, *Do taxes!, Find blogs, Party invite!) Here are three new things that can make a difference in actually getting them done:

• Make them a project. Allen calls anything that takes more than one action step a project. Initially, I rebelled at the idea of cluttering my world with more projects. But the project concept has become my favorite new tool. The shift in frame puts your focus on two things you always need to know about a project: goal and action steps. 

• Give your project a goal. What is the outcome you want to achieve? Identifying exact outcome has created a surprising amount of traction for me.
  
  I had Party invite on my list for weeks. It gnawed at me but always seemed less important than today's emails, appointments and fires. Until I identified my desired outcome for that item: get the invitation out before people's summer schedules filled in. The priority of this item shifted immediately for me.

• List the next action. The great flaw of most to-do items is that they aren't actually doable as written. Breaking things down into small specific action steps gets you into action and helps you map a path to completion.
  
  I had **Do taxes! on my list, with stars and highlights to motivate me and focus me on its importance. It seemed so...doable. Clearly important and deadline driven. Why wasn't I doing them? Yes, I hate bookkeeping, but that wasn't the issue. Every time I looked at that to-do item, I knew there were several other steps to catch up on backlogged bookkeeping before I could do my taxes. But those weren't on my task list! As soon as I wrote out all the action steps to Do taxes, I started weaving in these more doable tasks into my day.
  
  When I wrote out next actions for Party invite, I realized an obvious but overlooked first step that wasn't on my list: research and book a venue for the party, which I also broke down into small doable substeps.

What's your favorite way to get things done?