By John Carroll

In my last column, we looked at the value of your associates’ and team members’ understanding the reasons for the importance of what you and others ask them to do.

Now we focus on ways to illustrate and communicate those reasons.

Include your reasons in every step

While the reasons are vitally important, let’s be sure to understand that there’s plenty more to effective delegation of tasks and projects. For example, if you don’t give the work to the right person on your team, it won’t matter how well you communicate the reasons for its importance. Therefore, matching the person to the task is critical to your success.

For example, let’s say that you are struggling with your manufacturing operation’s inventory management system. You have very little accurate information on the amount and specific type of inventory and run the risk of buying more of what you already have in stock. You have too much cash tied up in your inventory, your book and shelf numbers rarely if ever match, and your people never count on having material until they walk to the warehouse and physically retrieve it themselves.

To provide your reasons for choosing a specific person to manage your inventory, you might say, “I’ve chosen you for a special task because you’ve shown that you can handle a project from beginning to end, that you’re willing to ask for help when you encounter an obstacle and that you’re good at meeting deadlines. For these reasons, I believe you’re the very best person for this important job.”

Next, you want to be sure that you’re clear on exactly what is to be accomplished. Can you explain the desired outcome, not the process, simply, briefly and clearly?

The way you delegate to a key manager or team member might be to say: “I’d like you to organize our inventory so that we know exactly what we have, when it arrived, how much of it we have, exactly where to find it and the dollar value of each inventory item. I’ll know this is done when I can trust the information in the system without needing to see and put my hands on the material. When we need the material, people can simply look it up and easily

find exactly what they need when they need it.”

Despite the fact that this single delegation likely represents a major project, you have clearly and succinctly stated your ideal outcome. To add the reasons, you might say, “We’re at a distinct disadvantage with our inventory system as it is. We don’t really know what we have, which often results in our buying more, wasting what we have as it becomes outdated and costing ourselves money. Correcting the constant flow of errors is costing us thousands of dollars every month. By eliminating the errors, some of that money we save goes right into our performance incentive plan. That means improvements in our inventory can put money in your pocket and mine.”

Communicate expectations

Next, consider the authority and resources this person has to complete the project. Clarify how much of each he or she will have and communicate your expectations clearly. “I know this will require a great deal of focused effort. Therefore, you will have a budget of X staff hours for yourself and others to gather the information, take the necessary corrective action and measure your results. In addition, you may find that you need additional storage infrastructure such as shelving, so we’ve budgeted $X. All I ask is to see monthly reports on staff hours and out-of-pocket expenses as you proceed on the project. As long as you stay within the amounts I’ve given you, you already have approval to move forward. If you find that you’ll need more help or funding, please show me why and how you would use the additional resources.”

Now add a deadline with interim steps to check progress toward completion. “We need to have inventory errors reduced by 80 percent to reach our goals this year. Let’s give that target a date of six months from now and we’ll meet to measure your progress every 30 days. I don’t necessarily expect to see immediate improvement in the first month. I do want most or all of these errors to be a thing of the past in 180 days. As you track errors in inventory, I’ll want to see progress toward the goal, so expect to share those numbers with me.”

As a final step in this delegation, have the person feed back to you what you’ve just asked. Ideally, you’ve presented the project with some sort of visual support, even if it’s only a “chalk talk” illustration of the outcome and some of the details. Now say, “To make sure that

I’ve given you a clear understanding of the project and what I’m asking you to do, please tell me what I’ve just told you.” As this person feeds it back to you, you can add, correct and amplify what you’ve said and raise your level of confidence in the task’s successful completion.

Remember that young child in each of us, and constantly answer the single question of why.

John Carroll is a consultant and columnist as well as president of Unlimited Performance, Inc. in Mount Pleasant. Contact him at 843-881-8815 or at jcarroll@uperform.com.

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