Last week, in an article entitled Delegating Like a Pro in 10 Easy Steps!, I gave you a step-by-step set of instructions on how to delegate tasks to other people.

Today, I’m looking at the dark and seedy underbelly of the delegating world…that terrible place where leaders and managers must go when that which has been delegated doesn’t get done!

The question is thus: After I delegate something, what do I do when the person I delegated to doesn’t do what they were supposed to do? How do I address the slips and mistakes that usually cause me to stop delegating to others and just do it myself?

Chances are, if you’ve ever been in a position of leadership before, you’ve grappled with questions like these. Here’s why…

Slips and mistakes are a normal part of delegating to other people. They provide a necessary feedback loop that gives us information about our own effectiveness as leaders. The challenge is in recognizing the lesson available, and applying what you learn.

It’s a matter of context. If someone slips up or drops the ball on something you’ve delegated to them, you can go down one of two roads. You can see it as a failure on the part of the person who dropped the ball, and you can blame them for screwing up, or you can see it as information about your own leadership, and an opportunity to expand your ability to produce results through other people.

Whichever road you head down is going to give you a context for addressing the slip or mistake. The context you hold, or the way you relate to the situation, is going to influence how you respond.

In the first case, the road usually gets bumpy pretty fast, and then ends abruptly when you get so disgusted with other people’s stupidity and sleaziness that you give up on them altogether and resort to never trusting anyone again with anything of any importance. I’ll do it myself, thank you very much.

For some people, the fear or awkwardness of addressing someone’s failure, or confronting their mistake, is enough to send them down this road. Their fear is a mask that hides or conceals an insufficient context. In other words, somewhere underneath that fear or awkwardness is a point of view. From that point of view, someone else is responsible for the mistake. If someone else is responsible, you’re off the hook. (Remember what happens to the kite when you let go of the string!)

In contrast, if you take the other road, you take the case that the slip-up communicates something useful and valuable about your leadership skills. From this point of view, there’s something to learn about yourself, by addressing the mistake. There’s something to gain by learning everything you can about the slip.

This context is going to influence how you respond to the situation. Instead of being fearful or angry, or disgusted with the person who dropped the ball, you’re apt to be interested. You’re apt to ask questions and to try to discover the source of the problem. You’re apt to communicate differently, because from this point of view, it’s not about disciplining someone, it’s about uncovering something, the uncovering of which feeds you power and makes you a stronger leader.

If you haven’t figured out where I’m going with this yet, I’ll clue you in now. Addressing slips and mistakes is a matter of context. I’m not going to tell you what to say. If you see it as an opportunity to learn something valuable and expand your leadership skills, you’ll come up with the right words on your own.

I will, however, give you a couple of pointers…

1. Coming from the right context, you can say anything. You can hold people to account. You can be firm when you need to be firm. You can push when you need to push, you can relax when you need to relax.
2. Never underestimate the power of humor to transform your experience of reality!
3. Always address slips and mistakes in the moment, or as soon after as possible. Waiting fosters resentment; resentment causes the context to deteriorate.
4. If you feel yourself avoiding or resisting addressing the mistake, take a hard look at the context you’re holding. Which road are you headed down?
5. If people often screw up the things you delegate to them, go back to the 10 steps and see which step(s) you’re missing.
6. Remember that slips and mistakes are a normal part of delegating tasks to other people. Even with slips and mistakes, you can increase your productivity and effectiveness by delegating, so there’s really no excuse for giving up on people.
7. When you do give up on people, it’s because you’re attached to your point of view.

Related Posts from Verve Coaching:

Leadership for Unprecedented Results
Management Coaching: How and When to Give Feedback

This post was contributed by guest author Sheldon Yarmovsky, a Verve List small business partner

If you really analyze most marketing campaigns, you’ll find a ton of data about a company’s product coming at the prospective buyer in the form of product literature, or direct mail and email. Unfortunately, what many business owners fail to do with these campaigns is generate a real, two-way conversation with their prospects and customers.

The answer is called Conversational Marketing. Conversational Marketing can be used to dramatically improve the results of your marketing campaign, by incorporating automated opportunities for two-way conversation, feedback and clarification in real-time.

So what is Conversational Marketing? It’s an innovative software technology for marketing campaigns that allows the prospect or customer to give the marketer feedback, through links to web surveys. The survey answers reveal and qualify the prospect’s interest level, as well as the timeframe that the prospect or customer will act on to purchase the product or service.

But that’s not all… One of the biggest problems that company leaders are facing today in their direct marketing campaigns is that usually only the hot leads are followed up by their sales forces. There are many other leads from people that are semi-interested in their products or services. These leads are typically lost because the companies don’t have the administrative resources to follow up and nurture these semi-interested leads until they are ready to order. This is precisely where Conversational Marketing can help.

With Conversational Marketing technology, the customer database is linked to a rules-based engine, and depending on the way that a lead responds to web survey questions, the software can automatically place the lead into a separate “nurturing campaign” which can trigger a series of timed emails, direct mailings, or telemarketing follow up calls.

At any time during this lead nurturing campaign, if a lead identifies themselves as an interested party, then the software would contact the sales person or sales manager via email and request a follow up call. The salesperson would then proceed to close the sale. The beauty of this process is that it is totally automated, and the marketing manager of the company does not require internal staff to implement and monitor the nurturing campaign.

Besides lead nurturing, Conversational Marketing can increase the probability of closing the sale with hot leads because of the survey feedback. When your prospect or customer has a real conversation with you, and you understand what their interest level and time to order is, it’s much easier to craft an offer, at the right time in the sales cycle, which will excite them and allow your sales team to close orders.

If you have an interest in developing a conversational marketing campaign, feel free to contact sales and marketing expert Sheldon Yarmovsky:

Email: syarmovsky@hotmail.com

Phone: 781-258-6748

Visit Sheldon’s profile page on The Verve List.

Last week, I wrote about the difference between delegating something and “passing it off”. JoLynn, over at The Fit Shack commented that she wants to start delegating but hasn’t gotten there yet. I don’t think JoLynn is alone on this one, and the question she’s hinting at is incredibly relevant to most small business owners, executives, and entrepreneurs.

Essentially, the question is “How do I learn to delegate?” or “How do I start delegating?”

While it may seem like something you’re either born with or you’re not, the ability to delegate effectively is a skill that can be learned and practiced by anyone in leadership. It’s not hard, and a little practice yields amazing results.

Here’s what to do, in easy to follow steps, to turn yourself into a masterful delegating machine!

The first set of steps describes the process of preparing to delegate a task. This is what you need to do before you delegate:

1. Choose one specific task that you would like to delegate. Start small. Pick something very simple and easy to to do.
2. Get very clear about the task you have in mind. Determine what steps are involved in performing the task effectively. Are the steps obvious or do they require explanation?
3. Determine what desired result the task allows for. What specific, measurable result is produced by completing the task?
4. Create a reporting system. This sounds technical, but it’s not at all. A reporting system is a tool that exists outside of your head, in physical reality, that tells you whether or not a specific task has been completed. A checklist makes a very effective reporting system.

The second set of steps describes the process of delegating to another person. Set aside some time to meet face to face with the person you’re delegating to. You need to have a conversation with that person, and the conversation needs to accomplish several things:

1. The conversation you have must clearly address the fundamental five W’s (Who, When, Where, What, and Why). For example:

   “Jack (who), I’d like you to start performing this task on a regular basis. It needs to get done every Tuesday and Thursday, between 1p and 4p (when). You’ll need to go to Jane’s office (where) and get the invoices, then sort them and bring them to Bob (what). I need you to do this so that Bob can start paying the invoices on time, every week, with no exceptions (why).

2. Make sure the person you’re delegating to understands exactly how to perform the task. What’s obvious to you may be completely hidden to Jack! After explaining the task, ask if the person has any questions about what to do or how to do it.
3. Tell the person what specific, measurable result you’ll be expecting to see as a function of this task getting done consistently and reliably.
4. Train the person how to use the reporting system to let you know each time they complete the task, so you can stop worrying about whether or not it’s getting done.
5. Ask the person, now that they understand the task and everything the task requires them to do, if you can count on them to get it done as you’ve asked them to. This is really, really important, because it marks a shift in the person’s relationship to the task. If they relate to the task as something they said they can be counted on to do, they experience a greater degree of ownership and accountability for getting it done.

The final step is not really a step, but a fundamental attitude toward the work you delegate. Even though you delegate the work, you’re still accountable for the results! Remember, it’s the tension on the kite string that keeps the kite aloft. Use your reporting system to make sure the task is getting done how and when it should be, over and over again. Immediately address any slips or mistakes you see, so that Jack knows you’re counting on him.

Remember that as leaders, whether we delegate or not, we’re always on the hook!

My colleague Tim Brownson over at A Daring Adventure recently got me onto the subject of asking ourselves the right questions.

Tim suggests (here) that the ability to question yourself on an ongoing basis is a fundamental key to personal development, so long as the questions are tough, thought provoking, and empowering.

In leadership, the kind of questions that really make a difference are the questions that allow us to deepen our sense of self-awareness and gain insight into why we see things the way we do, why we think the way we do, and why we act the way we do.

“What’s behind this habit of mine, or this habitual line of thinking?”
“What’s underneath this strong feeling I have?”
“What’s informing my point of view that has me respond in this particular way?”

As leaders, we have to try to understand our own internal machinery… the inner workings of our hearts and minds, so that we can recognize the patterns of thought and behavior that we rely on and depend on, as well as those patterns that fail to serve us, and that fail to serve others.

Why? Because leading people requires understanding how they think and feel, and our ability to understand how others think and feel is a function of how well we understand ourselves.

I fear this is now becoming woefully abstract. If you’re still with me, you’re either a brilliant leader, or you’re almost as crazy as I am. Let me try and say it again in a way that has some practical value…

Great leaders understand how people think and feel, and furthermore, what motivates them. In order to understand how other people think and feel, we have to be able to step outside of our own patterns of thought and behavior… our own ingrained filters and perceptions.

These patterns of thought and behavior exist so deeply within our subconscious minds that most of the time, we don’t even know they exist! We can only glimpse them by way of asking ourselves the right questions.

What are the right questions to ask yourself?

Any question that interrupts the way you normally think. Any question that challenges you to embrace a different point of view. Any question that forces you to look deep within yourself. Any question that leaves you in a better position to serve the people you lead.

As a manager, business owner, or entrepreneur, learning how to delegate effectively can make a profound difference in your level of productivity, your organization’s culture, and your experience of being at work.

One of the fundamental keys to delegating effectively is understanding the difference between delegating a task or responsibility, and simply “passing it off”.

The difference has to do with accountability, or more specifically, whether or not you continue to relate to the task or responsibility as something that belongs to you, even when you no longer perform that task or responsibility yourself.

“Passing it off” implies that you will no longer be responsible. The movement is lateral. The task was on your plate, but it’s not anymore. It’s on the plate next to yours… someone else’s plate. You don’t have to think about it anymore and you’re not at all concerned about the outcome. You’re not accountable anymore.

In contrast, when you delegate something, you remain accountable. You give away the task but not the responsibility for completing it. You don’t do the work yourself, but you have a reliable way of making sure it gets done, and you are both interested in and invested in the outcome.

Flying a kite is a good analogy for delegating. If I remember right (it’s been a while), you start off holding the kite in your hand. It’s not flying yet. You have to launch it, usually by throwing it up into the wind and running against the wind to create tension on the kite string.

It’s the tension that allows the kite to stay aloft, even though you’re no longer physically holding it up there. Delegating is the same way. The task itself is given over, much like the kite to the wind, but you have to keep tension on the string or else the kite will crash.

Working with managers, executives, and entrepreneurs, I come back to the difference between delegating and “passing it off” all the time. As a leader, I’d wager it’s way easier to hold 300 kite strings than to hold 300 kites, although I’ve never personally tested this theory.

The reason why this topic comes up so often, and why the distinction is so important, is because as business owners and leaders, what we WANT to do with stuff is pass it off. What we NEED to do is delegate it. In the moment, passing it off always seems easier and less time consuming. Passing it off is deeply seductive. The problem is that it’s unsustainable, and it ultimately causes more work for us.

The bottom line is, when you’re in a position of leadership, you’re never off the hook, so don’t act like you are! When YOU pass something off, it ends up affecting YOU more than anyone else. When YOU let go of the string, the kite is almost guaranteed to fall on YOUR head!

When you delegate effectively, you increase your capacity for producing results, you decrease your work load and stress level, and you provide an example of accountability and sustainability for those you lead and manage.

Learn how to “Delegate Like a Pro in 10 Easy Steps”