Follow up instructions with reason.
Professional development series
This is Laura Lee Rose, a business and life coach that specializes in professional development, time management, project management and work-life balance strategies. In my GoTo Academy: Soft Skill Tools for the GoTo Professional continuous online coaching series, I go into office etiquette on various real-world IT topics in detail.
If you are interested in more training in these areas, please sign-up for the continuing online coaching series.
I experienced two very different situations that highlighted the need for explaining the reason for your instructions.
1) A friend received instructions from her doctor to take the next few days off and away from work. My friend agreed to take several days off – then proceeded to continue to read work emails and call into conference calls.
2) A family member wanted to increase their protein intake and purchased some Whey powder to mix in with their coffee. Since the canister’s instructions mentioned that 9 scoops will cover their daily protein requirements, she returned the product because she would not be using 9 scoops in her coffee.
As you can see from the above (very different) examples, different people interpret instructions differently.
But what if the instructions came with the following explanation or reasons?
What if the doctor said: “The reason I recommend taking several days off and away from work is to allow both your mind and body a break from work-related issues”?. I want you to unplug completely for several days to recharge and get well. This means no emails, no meetings, no nothing. Hand off any immediate tasks to your manager and then completely unplug.”
What if my family member understood that the protein supplement is just that, a tool or supplement to add more protein to your current dietary program? You wouldn’t necessarily need to use 9 scoops, if your current meal plan already included protein. It is only meant as a tool to assist you in absorbing the right amount of daily required protein in a balanced plan.
If my friend and family member had understood the purpose behind the instructions, their response would have been more in lined with the intent of the instructions. But by providing just the instructions, we have allowed room for error.
So – how can we, as team leaders and employers, avoid these pitfalls? The first step is to avoid one-way instructions or directions. Although email may be a convenient “instruction” media, it does not assure that the directions were interpreted correctly (or the way you had intended).
Here are some steps to assure that you will get what you want.
Understand the intent or goal of your instructions:
If you cannot articulate the reason for your request, it’s impossible for your employee or teammate to ‘hit it out of the park’ for you.
Verify that every step of your instructions support and are aligned with your goal.
Everything changes. What worked last month may not be relevant today. Verify that your current process is still aligned with your intentions.
For example: Requiring your salaried employees to submit time cards to verify that they are working the proper number of hours.
This procedure may not be accomplishing your true goal. Your goal is probably to make sure your salaried employees are performing and accomplishing the work they are committed to accomplish. You may want to consider weekly one-on-one meetings to verify status on projects and tasks (versus keeping track of the hours they are logging).
Convey both the directions/instructions and reason to your staff/team.
To properly convey the instructions and reason, you need to also include active and empathic LISTENING skills. Merely stating the instructions and reasons, only, do not assure that the message was received properly. You need to also ask Open-ended questions to verify the message was received correctly. This means sending an email-instruction is not sufficient. You need an interactive face-to-face or phone meeting. Some things to validate on that interactive meeting:
- Convey your instructions and reason
- Ask audience members to paraphrase your instructions and reason
- Ask audience members to share what these instructions mean to their current roles and responsibilities
- Ask audience members how these instructions will change the way they do their jobs (both positive and negatively)
- If any negative changes results, discuss/brainstorm on alternatives to accomplish your goal without negative impact to the team.
Conclusions:
Although these above steps take a little more time upfront (versus merely providing an email directive), it will avoid misinterpretations and some email-churn of Q&A after the project has started. Being impatient or too concise with your direction may cost you in the long run (because your instructions can be misinterpreted and your project derailed). Allowing your team to play a co-creative role in this solution will lead to a more collaborative working relationship.
If you liked this tips, more can be found at www.lauraleerose.com/blog or subscribe to my weekly professional tips newsletter at http://eepurl.com/cZ9_-/
The weekly newsletter contains tips on:
1) Time management
2) Career maintenance
3) Business networking
4) Work life balance strategies
If you haven’t taken advantage of your introductory time management coaching session, please contact LauraRose@RoseCoaching.info