What Produces Your Best Results?
December 26, 2008 by Phil Gerbyshak
Filed under Business
In the comments of my recent book review of Age of Speed, I was blessed with some great questions and feedback from you, the brilliant readers of Slacker Manager.
First, a question: Raymond E. Foster made a fantastic point every manager should think about: “I think the biggest part of “speed” or working smart, or whatever the current term is figuring out which activities actually produce the best results.”
Of course, someone offered a solution. J.D. Meier offered this nugget:
“The way that’s worked for me is fix time, flex scope. The key of course is figuring out how to right-size the value and chunk it down so you actually have “cuttable” scope. (… and the secret to cuttable scope is scenarios).”
When I think about which activities produce the best results, I try to focus on this question: “What can I do right now that only I can do?” If it’s not something only I can do, it’s something I probably should be delegating to one of my direct reports, or something my team or I shouldn’t be doing at all. Sure, this isn’t something I always follow, because there are plenty of times when for some reason or another, I have to do something that anyone can do.
What do you think?
How do you figure out which activities produce your best results?
I really like your test of – what can I do right now that only I can do?
Some people try to protect their *value* or they don’t invest in others. I got groomed early on to scale myself and never be the bottleneck. My hand me downs are somebody else’s growth and a way to move everybody up the stack. A test on the team is there’s no single point of failure.
Delegation is such an art and science and I think the right questions helps us, since it’s so dynamic. It’s super tricky with knowledge work since one individual can be 10,000 times more productive than another.
When I delegate, I do a quick gut check – does it feel like my load is getting lighter or heavier? This question cuts to the heart. If it doesn’t feel like your handing the batton over, then it’s either the wrong person or a capability issue or an investment. I plan for investments, but I balance with results.
The ultimate goal is to have the right people working the right things.
The big question for me, in regard to the above philosophy, is “do managers truly understand how to delegate and delegate effectively?” If they do, then it may work. If they don’t, then they could run into issues.
I’ll give you an example: at my organization, a good friend got promoted to a level four manager (he now has two individuals working for him). Speaking personally to me, he mentioned that he struggled with the thought of delegating important tasks to his subordinates. And, to add to the mix, he had a personality type that may have skewed his ability to determine whether or not a project could truly be accomplished only by him. If you run into a situation where the above is the case, the delegation of tasks could become an extremely complex undertaking. Over time, I’m sure he’ll get better – as will others struggling with a similar situation. However, until then, what do you do to combat that lack of understanding and those behavioral norms?
Coaching is one way. Reading a book about management and/or leadership is another. Any other suggestions?
Another word on determining what is important. I put as much of a lag time in deciding to act or respond. As an example, as the editor of several highly visible websites I get a lot of emails from readers. And, at least two or three times a week the reader is a moron or a knothead. Part of me wants to fire off a pithy response. What I do now, with almost all email, is wait 24 hours. Yes, I look at it daily, but I go through it and decide which to respond to and how to respond the next day. At that point, I am emotionally distanced from the issue and make better decision on what and how to do things. In my book, we discuss these as strategic and tactical pauses. I have extended this to most business activities and decisions and find I am better able to determine the value of an action after a strategic pause.
Ah delegation. I think there are only two reasons to delegate: 1) someone can do it better than I can 2) someone needs to learn to do it better than I can. If you switch your thinking from “the best use of the leader’s time” to the “best use of the followers time” you enter the realm of superior leadership.
“Only I can do it best” is a mindset that comes to me naturally. In order to delegate, I had to realize others might not do it as well as I could, and that is ok.
One method I use for sorting out what is necessary and what is not is deliberate procrastination. I am always surprised at the things that nobody misses when they do not get done.