Three Questions to Give ULTRA Clear Tasking

We’ve all been there before.

You give your employees a task, even something innocuous like, “Hey can you pick up the Tacos for the lunch party today”

Only to get 3-10 text messages later asking for details, additional information, or help. Sometimes, if you can imagine it, they find very subtle yet successful attempts to hand the task BACK to you.  

(What? No! Never! 😉)

What if it’s a bigger task:

“I need you to meet with “XYZ” and get them on board with our annual budget goals”, or

“I need you to develop our ad strategy for the next 6 months”, or even

“I’m taking a month off, I need you to take charge of the office while I’m gone.” (woah, look at you!)

I’ll tell you as a busy leader, manager, or business owner you do not have time to do your team’s jobs for them.

You just don’t!

It is costing you too much time (which is money),

It is costing too much money (which is also money, #btw),

It is costing you lost employee momentum (you get the point here),

It is costing you your sanity, as you get more and more frustrated,

It is costing you your health, as that frustration leads to chronic stress,

And, probably the worst of all:

It is ultimately robbing you of your joy and passion for the career.

So! The next time you give out tasking I’m going to suggest you ask yourself these three questions to give the employee ULTRA clear tasking and avoid dreaded execution which can often be broken down into two* reasons:

1.      You didn’t give clear enough direction, (or)

2.      The individual didn’t feel comfortable enough with their skills or their resources on hand to run the task to ground.

*Note: While typing out the two I came up with an Honorable Mention: The employee may just be lazy…  (again, I know… “that never happens, Joe!”) which I will also address.

The THREE Questions!

Before tasking anyone I want you to prepare answers to these questions and then ask them when you give out tasking:

Question One: “Is this tasking clear to you?”

If you don’t receive anything but a firm “yes”, explain the situation until employee says: “Okay, I completely understand.” If you CAN’T get them to understand I want you to first CHECK YOURSELF and see if YOU are the one being unclear – which happens a lot more than we all care to admit.

Question Two: “What do you need to make this happen?”

This is a resourcing question and somewhat of a subtle trap for the Task-ee. Here is another chance to clarify what should be needed to complete the job. If they agree they have all the need, this will significantly cut down on any “return to sender” issues. Asking this question also will give the individual a slight confidence boost: “Yes, I have everything I need to do this task.” Now all they need to do is follow through.

Question Three: “When can we have this done?”

This is the deadline negotiation. Choose a reasonable time that works with you and them with their present workload, give them a smile, some words of encouragement, and a hearty: “Great! Get after it!”

Bonus question here, if the deadline is a few days out and you want to schedule a check in: “What’s a good day to do a follow up on this?” Again, pick a day, schedule it on your calendar, and do a follow up. This is a basic management trick that can be extremely effective when utilized.

These questions also work great on that perceived “lazy” employee. The questions are designed to put the onus on the member and if there’s a recurring issue this one sentence could be a potential checkmate: “You said you knew exactly what to do, you had all the resources you needed to complete the task, and we had a mutually agreed deadline – What happened?”

Boom. Time for a crucial conversation about follow through.

Moving on, we’re going to make a deal – you and I.

From here on out I want you to pinch yourself every time you think or say out loud: “Well, it’s just faster if I do it.” 

It may be faster today; however, you’ve permanently lost a great opportunity grow your team and make yourself replaceable – ultimately giving you more time to work on those BIG things.

Here at Momenta we LOVE these opportunities, and part of my webinar I put out talked about Leveraging and Investing your Time. Where EVERY interaction you have with your team is a thoughtful and deliberate opportunity to build their skills/confidence, and make the team a little more autonomous.

Does that sound good to you? You can check out the webinar below for that and 4 more simple shifts to dramatically upgrade your leadership skills.

Thank you for your time today,

Joe

Want more on this topic and other powerful leadership shifts?

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