Managing Leadership^®

Okay, so we’ve spent some time talking about tasks, and what criteria to use for prioritizing - or jettisoning - them. But what about assigning them?

If you receive more tasks than you can possibly execute, you are intimately familiar with the inescapable result: some don’t get done, or most get done poorly. But has it occurred to you that your staff has the same problem? Have you considered the probability that you are the source of that problem?

If you want your organization or unit to be efficiently focused on what matters, it is not enough for you to be an island of calm in the midst of a torrent of tasks pounding the shores of everyone else in the outfit but you. You should be a bulwark against that torrent, preventing its propagation to those downstream of you.

How do you do that? Here’s the rule: don’t assign the sort of task that you wouldn’t accept yourself.

Yesterday we mentioned that you should examine every task you receive to see if it is appropriate for you given your role in the organization, and also if it meaningfully advances the organization’s purpose. If it doesn’t seem to, it is possible that you simply are unaware of or unable to see the reasons why it actually does so. So, ask what those reasons might be.

When you are assigning a task, you should make sure you are ready to answer questions like that. Consider the tasking from both perspectives yourself, before you assign it. You may determine that it should be given to someone other than your first choice. Or, you may come to a realization that it doesn’t warrant the valuable and limited time of your staff at all.

After all, you didn’t really think that it is only your bosses that dispense what turn out to be pointless burdens. We all do it. And we do it innocently enough: we just don’t discipline ourselves to examine the organizational validity of the work we are accepting, doing - or delegating.

So be sure you understand and can explain succinctly the purpose of the tasking you are making, and if you can’t, don’t make it.

But if it passes that assignment threshold, then convey the justification along with the assignment. You will find that the work will find its way to a higher position on the recipient’s to-do list, and will be performed with greater organizational relevance and efficiency.

—

You may wish to see all the posts in this series:

1. Running away from our problems
2. Nickels . . .
3. . . . and dimes
4. The triage of life
5. The golden tasking

—

Today’s tip: On the general topic of time management, please see Jared Sandberg’s latest WSJ column about the real reasons behind chronic tardiness. Does it reflect magical thinking, or “me” thinking?

—

Thanks for stopping by, today. If you enjoyed your visit, please take a moment to subscribe, so you can visit again in the future from the convenience of your email client or RSS reader.

Technorati Tags: task, criteria, prioritizing, execute, staff, organization, efficient, purpose, tasking, perspective, discipline, to-do list, Jared Sandberg, WSJ, tardiness, magical thinking