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Insights You Can Use

Entrust to Another

©  2006 Esther Derby

This article originally appeared in the insights newsletter.

Greg believed his manager, Ross, wanted him to succeed. That is, until Ross pulled the rug out from under his feet.

Ross delegated responsibility for creating a tool strategy for his group to Greg. Ross and Greg discussed the time frame and boundaries for producing the strategy. They talked about the goals of the group and which technologies were out of consideration. They mutually decided when the strategy needed to be completed and outlined the main concerns to cover in the strategy. Greg had done similar, though smaller, tools analysis in the past, and Greg felt confident he could do this work. 

Greg worked with the developers and testers to understand what tools would support their work. He talked to the VP of Product Management to understand the product direction and the VP of Development to understand the platform direction.

 When Greg shared a draft of the strategy with his team, they were enthusiastic: “You’ve really captured what we need to do our jobs,” a team member said.

When Greg emailed the strategy to Ross, he anticipated they’d review it during their one-on-one meeting scheduled for later in the week.

But the next day at the team meeting, Ross brought the strategy with him.  “This is headed in the wrong direction,” he said. “We need a different set of assumptions,” Ross declared. “Gloria, do you have time to pick this up?”

Greg could feel his face turning red.  If he didn’t like the strategy, he could have told me in private, Greg thought. And why is he giving the strategy to Gloria? Does he want me to look bad in front of the entire group?

Obviously, Ross and Greg are not on the same page here.  And the way Ross is handling the situation isn’t helping.

Delegating significant work can build trust, capability, and confidence. Here are some questions Ross might have asked to prevent the misunderstanding:

·        What are the parameters of the task?

·        Are there any solutions that are unacceptable?

·        Who has final approval for the task?

·        What are the interim points where a check-in makes sense?

·        Does the person have the skills and authority to complete the task?

Knowing the answers to these questions will help you hand off a task with clear expectations on both sides. But even experienced managers don’t delegate perfectly every time. When that happens, maintain trust by owning your part in the miscommunication or missed expectations in a private conversation. 

That might be:

“I didn’t make it clear that there were some solutions that were out of bounds.”

“I wasn’t clear that I intended that I had final approval for the product.”

“I wasn’t clear that I wanted you to bring options, not a final product.”

Sometimes, seeing a product sparks new thinking.  If that’s the case, make that clear, rather than announcing the new idea as a criticism or rejection:

“Now that I see what you’ve produced, I’m getting some new ideas on how do to this. I sure wish I’d thought of this earlier. I think it’s important enough to reconsider.”

Embarrassing people in front of their peers is deadly poison.  Give feedback about the quality of the product in private.  And if you must reassign the work, do it discretely.

After the incident in the story, Greg started looking for a new job. Ross tried to convince him to stay, but Greg turned him down.  He felt he couldn’t trust Ross again.

The dictionary definition for delegate is “to commit or entrust to another.” To build trust, set clear boundaries and expectations when you delegate. And when there’s a misstep, maintain trust by owning your part in the misunderstanding and give feedback in private.