Have you ever banged your head against the desk because someone who works for you failed to carry out what you thought was a simple request but got it all wrong? Not a pleasant experience for either of you. When you said: “Sort out that storeroom…it’s a tip!” ,you wanted a storeroom that was tidy, had some logic to it and it didn’t take ten minutes of fruitless searching and cursing under your breath when you failed to find what you were looking for.
“Sort out” can mean lots of things to lots of people. To your employee his interpretation was to make it look tidy. The idea of putting some logic to how it operated never crossed his/her mind. Well you never mentioned it….
Take some comfort – you’re not the only manager with the proverbial sore head who thinks that initiative went out of fashion with the advent of the internet. You may be able to justify to yourself that in their shoes you would have acted differently…but would you? How many times in the past have you thought you knew what your manager wanted only to find out later (when you had put a huge amount of effort into the task) that all you hard work was a total waste of time. Worse still, you blame your manager for letting you carry on without ever asking you what you were doing.
There are many reasons why this scenario happened in the first place but blaming others and getting angry with yourself may help you let off steam, but it will not stop the problem happening again. Let’s try to analyse the cause then we can work out a solution.
- We don’t talk the way we write. We tend to speak in vague generalities – “the broad brush” approach. Fine for inspiring a crowd but not very effective on a one-to-one basis. Writing forces us to be much more precise.
- We assume the person receiving the message is tuned into our way of thinking, unless they tell us something different. Sometimes they don’t.
- We have a clear picture in our brain of the final result but we forget that the “picture” is made up of several bits of jig-saw and we fail to break them down and explain them to the person we are talking to.
- Often both parties are reluctant to seek clarification. The unspoken conversations going on simultaneously could be the following:
Employee: “If I ask a question, he will think I’m stupid, better get on with it.”
Manager:” If I ask him if he knows what I want, he will think I’m stupid. Better just let him get on with it.” So the employee used his initiative, you let him get on with it and the result was……. not what you had expected. To stop this happening in the future, here are some suggestions:
1. Stop being vague when talking -hard but essential if you want to get a result.
2. Write down to yourself what you want before you tell it to someone else.
3. Use a SMART objective to paint the picture in your head. SMART means;
Specific – in this case a store room that is tidy and organised in a way that is logical, safe and where items can be found easily and quickly -and they don’t run out!
Measurable - for example the time it takes to find an item, the volumes/value of stock to be held at any one time etc. etc. The list could be endless but decide your priorities.
Achievable - can the task be achieved by this person without other resources?
Realistic - what will the final “picture” look like and can it be done within the current layout?
Time-bound – if you specify a time for the task, it sends a signal on how urgent you regard the task and when you want it completed. But go back to Realistic before you set the time limit.
4. Now for the psychology… You want to be reassured that the person opposite you knows what you want doing but you don’t want them thinking that you don’t trust them or worse that they are incompetent. Get them to tell you how they are going to go about the task. Better still, ask them to put together a plan of their own which incorporates the main points you have covered and ask them for a few ideas of their own.
Try it. You have nothing to lose but a sore head and you might begin to discover you are surrounded by a group of very results- driven people who make decisions for themselves. Now that would be useful…wouldn’t it?
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