Match Support to the Person

Are you frustrated that even when you are clear about what you want done, you still don’t get the results you expect?

Sometimes a team member takes a different approach than you would and still delivers what is needed—perhaps even producing a better result. Other times, the result disappoints. Clarity and ownership are essential, but they are not always sufficient. People need different levels of direction, support, and freedom depending on their experience with the assignment.

Sometimes the responsibility for a failure to execute sits clearly with the person who owned the task.

I have learned, however, that my leadership often contributed to the failure.

There were times when I dictated how an assignment should be completed based on my own experience and perspective. The problem was that some of my employees had more experience with the task than I did. They had developed their own successful methods and chafed when I told them exactly how to do their jobs.

Some may have even rebelled a little and withheld their best effort.

In retrospect, I understand their reaction completely.

I have hated being told how to do something since I was very young. It especially annoyed me when someone explained how to perform a task I had already completed successfully. It felt as though that person lacked confidence in my judgment and capability.

Yet there were also times when I needed more direction.

Sometimes I knew enough to ask the right questions. At other times, I did not even know what I did not know. I lacked the experience necessary to recognize which questions needed to be asked.

As a leader, I had to learn to be clear about what I wanted accomplished and why it mattered—and then become much more discerning about how much direction I provided concerning the method.

When people possessed the necessary competence and confidence, I needed to give them room to execute. Many times, they developed a more effective or efficient approach than the one I would have prescribed.

Occasionally, they failed. When the risk was manageable, those failures created opportunities to solve problems and grow in both competence and confidence.

At other times, I needed to be far more prescriptive. Inexperienced team members often required detailed instructions, demonstrations, frequent checkpoints, and greater support. Even experienced employees sometimes needed more direction when facing an unfamiliar assignment.

Effective delegation is not stepping away and hoping for the best. Nor is it controlling every step.

It is providing the level of direction, support, and freedom that the person and the assignment require.

REFLECTION QUESTIONS

• Who on your team needs more room to execute?
• Who needs more guidance than you are currently providing?
• Are you prescribing the method because the task requires it—or simply because it is the way you would do it?
  

CHALLENGE

Today, consider one important assignment and the person responsible for completing it. Evaluate that individual’s experience with the specific task, the consequences of failure, and the support required. Then adjust your involvement to give that person the best opportunity to succeed.
Meet your people where they are. Do not demand that they meet you where you are.
Leadership is never about you.