Remarkable-Practice-The-Delegation-Ladder-review

business breakthroughs www.remarkablepractice.comin minutes 01773 821689How to liberate the peoplepotential in your businessby unleashing the power ofinitiative…Wouldn’t it be great if you could ©istockphoto.com/jpa1999get your people to do a better jobthan you could do yourself? Let me explain… 6.30am and had earned the right to have a At a recent training event held in a hotel, hot drink and a pastry.It doesn’t need to be so the tea and coffee failed to show up whendepressingly demoralising when planned, at 9.30am. One team member asked the hotel staffyour people get the job done, The event was scheduled to start at 10am. twice to get the coffee sorted but with nobut only just. Wouldn’t you feel Some delegates had been travelling since effect. Delegates were getting thirsty andreassured to see your people take frustrated (to say the least). The speaker formore responsibility for results Here’s a proven solution the day was getting agitated too because hisand make the business less for you… audience were in anything but a receptivereliant on you? frame of mind. The delegation ladder gives you fiveHere’s a bitesize business steps for generating greater initiative At 9.50am another team member gotbreakthrough you can start and greater results from your team. And involved. She charmed the staff at theimplementing today so you can eventually frees you up from ‘doing it all concession coffee shop in the hotel to comeget more from your people more yourself’. and take orders for ‘posh’ coffee for theoften. You can then do more delegates. The event started 5 minutes latevaluable work or even enjoy but the delegates were impressed and alsomore free time. in the right frame of mind too.In a nutshell Smarter delegation of work and tasksresults in greater initiative. Greater initiativeresults in improved performance from yourpeople (and frees you up to do other things). Encourage more initiative from yourpeople by applying the delegation ladder toall your team interaction.

businessbitesize | The Delegation Ladder©istockphoto.com/AlexanderNovikov attitude to mistakes. One of his executives, back in the 1960’s, made a substantial errorInitiative at work… Stephen R Covey in his book Principle of judgement that cost IBM more than a Centred Leadership suggests five levels million dollars in hard costs. High-initiative businesses get more from of initiative.all their people, with startling results... The executive took a deep breath before Covey also suggests that the same person walking in for her meeting with Tom Watson …where would Fred Smith be without can express all five levels of initiative. The and checked her jacket pocket to makea wedding dress and a healthy dose degree of initiative expressed depends sure her resignation letter was there. Tomof initiative? on what job they are doing and what Watson’s reported response to the executive’s expectations have been set by their manager expectation of being asked to leave was: In the early stages of FedEx, the now or leader.international parcel courier, one employee “Why should I ask you to leave whenresponded to a delayed wedding dress with For example, an experienced delivery I’ve just invested one million dollarsgreat initiative. She arranged and paid for driver will be expected to deliver and in your education? Go and share youra private jet to fly the dress across the USA, report routinely on established routes. On experience and new-found insights acrossand land at a local airfield, in time for new routes they might be encouraged to the business so we never make the samethe wedding. ask questions or make a recommendation. mistake again.” And when a new fork-lift is introduced they Naturally the bride (and groom) were might be told to wait until instruction in the Your attitude and response to mistakesdelighted their wedding was uninterrupted. interests of health and safety. ultimately determines the initiative youIn fact this ‘rescue mission’ was the talk of are able to encourage. When you viewthe wedding. And this ‘talk’ resulted in FedEx Delegation ladder or Initiative mistakes as ‘learning opportunities’ (like Tomwinning a substantial parcel contract from ladder? Watson) you support your people’s increasingone of the wedding guests (a senior exec in initiative.a high-user of parcel services). Simple answer. Both! You’re unlikely to experience mistakes and It’s reported that without this contract, Only if you change your behaviour (the risks as big as the IBM example. HoweverFred Smith the FedEx founder, would have way you delegate work) will you increase the you can, and should, manage and minimisefailed to secure an additional round of initiative from your people. the risk…funding. No wedding dress, no initiative, no Few managers and leaders communicatecontract, no funding, and probably no FedEx! what level of initiative they expect from their Managing the risk is simple… people. Use the delegation ladder and you’ll Clearly, initiative can have a profound delegate better and your people will show …take baby-steps towards greater andeffect on business results. And if you want to more initiative over time. greater initiative. Use the delegation laddertap into this source of improved results you in order to climb one-rung-at-a-time usingmust encourage greater initiative, but how? BEWARE! Initiative is a risky the key skill associated with each step. On business… the back page and in the support tools you’llInitiative can be learned… find all you’ll need to help you do this. There’s a risk connected to encouraging Just like you can learn to drive a car, ride a initiative. Initiative means people are making “Effective delegation takes emotionalbicycle, or learn a foreign language, initiative decisions and taking action with less and less courage as we allow, to one degree orcan be learned too... control from you. another, others to make mistakes on our time, money, and good name.” ...but only if you, as the leader, create an The greater the initiative the greater the - Stephen R Covey, from his book Principleenvironment where initiative is encouraged. risk, because people make mistakes! Centred LeadershipHow do you share your For example, there’s a famous story about When you use the delegation ladder youinitiative expectations? Tom Watson, the founder of IBM, and his and your people take the valuable next-steps to greater initiative, with minimum risk. You will have experienced different levelsof initiative from your people. Do it (report routinely) Do it (report instantly) Recommend Ask questions Wait til told

www.remarkablepractice.com | 01773 821689TIME TO DISAGREE: It wastes my money…“People either have initiative “Why invest valuable time 4 helping handsor they don’t. No matter what encouraging people if they up for you…I do makes any difference to and leave the business afterthe way they behave.” a few months or a couple of Put these 4 things to work for you years.” and you’ll improve the level of Certainly some people display more initiative of your people and improveinitiative than others. This argument is often voiced when your business performance too: investing time and money in training people. But most people can show more initiative Here’s the crux of this issue: 1. Share your initiativewhen you give them opportunity and • Would you prefer to avoid encouraging expectations each timeencouragement. you ask for some work and training your people and they end to be done using the If you want greater productivity from your up staying? delegation/initiative ladderpeople, greater results for your business and • Or would you prefer to train andgreater freedom for yourself, encouraging encourage your people and some of 2. Teach the delegationinitiative can help you. them leave? ladder to your people so Yes the ones who leave cost you. But the it becomes a regular orIs it worth the effort? ones who stay are more capable than if you even habitual conversation didn’t invest time and energy growing and in your business“I’ve tried encouraging training them.initiative but no-one takes In fact good people tend to stay with 3. Have framed delegationany notice! If I want a good businesses that invest in them. Good people ladder pictures or postersjob doing it’s quicker, easier leave businesses that don’t invest in them. in your workplace toand cheaper to do it myself.” encourage using it Not an uncommon reaction! Most Use the Business Bitesize 4. Acknowledge andbusiness owners experience the difficulty of support tools to help you put recognise initiative whengetting people to do a great job, rather than the delegation ladder to work it is shown – catch youra bare-bones job. for you. people doing it right However, taking it all on yourself can only You’ll find our support tools on our ULTIMATE ARGUMENT:take you so far. Business Bitesize web page – see speech “How do I know this bubble below for the website. will work for me and my Encouraging and expecting your people business?”to do the job well is the only solution if youwant sustainable growth for your business You don’t know the delegation ladder will work until you successfullyand your profits. Tell me more… test it. And you’ll prove it’s value A UK business leader we know of recently if you test it first with your most compliant and supportive colleagues.suggested; Leading and managing people and teams Share the delegation ladder with them. Then support each other as“Isn’t it interesting how our people is a complex subject, and one worthy of you experiment with the delegation ladder, using the guidelines in thisperform DOWN to our expectations greater study if you’re committed to growing report and in the support tools to help keep you on track.of them?” your business. STOP: answering your people’sShouldn’t you be expecting more initiative If you like the ideas behind the initiative/ questions for them and encouragefrom your people and sharing your initiative delegation ladder you’ll recommendations from them instead.expectations with them? benefit from studying START: Sharing your expected the book by Stephen level of initiative for each piece of work you delegate. R Covey – ‘Principle Centred Leadership’.Use the Business It’s available onBitesize Support kindle, as an e book,Tools And Resources audio book or in printed copy.to help you make the most of thisedition of Business Bitesize – gohere: www.businessbitesize.com/remarkable_practice to downloadthese Your feedback is important to us. We’d love to know what you think of this edition of Business Bitesize and how you use it or plan to use it. Also we’d welcome your suggestions for future editions of Business Bitesize. To give us your thoughts please use the simple feedback form here: www.businessbitesize.com/ remarkable_practice

www.remarkablepractice.com | 01773 821689Your next steps: Encourage greater initiative by using the delegation ladder…Here’s your bitesize initiative anddelegation action plan. When you ask anyone to do a job, you have an opportunity to share the level of initiative you expect. When you do this you encourage yourThis checklist will help you improve people to perform at a more productive and valuable level.the level of initiative expressed byyour people and the results your The ultimate aim is to get your people doing work brilliantly, achievingbusiness achieves. the expected result and you only get involved when they routinely report results either weekly or monthly. When this happens yourStart by taking delegation skills and their initiative is at the top of the ladder.responsibility: Level 5: Share your expectation to ‘Do it and Report Routinely’Your people are the ones who do thework, but you delegate the work. Key requirements from you: willingness to let go; setting up routine results reporting; commitment to routinely reviewing results.By sharing the delegation/initiative You can move up to level 5 on the ladder when your people consistently report instantlyladder with your team you can share on great results.your initiative expectations of them. Level 4: Share your expectation to ‘Do It And Report Instantly’More tools andinformation for Key requirements from you: be available instantly a job is done; see any mistakes asyou: learning opportunities; agree specific process/time for reporting instantly. You can move up to level 4 delegation only when you see and hear consistently well-As well as the checklist here, you can judged suggestions about what needs to be done and how it should be done.use the forms and checklists in theonline supporting tools. Level 3: Share your expectation for ‘Recommendations’Together they’ll help you make more Key requirements from you: recognise questions are being asked; don’t answerof this bitesize business breakthrough. questions; acknowledge the question but ask for their thoughts, suggestions, and recommendations. You can move up to level 3 delegation only when you see and hear consistently well- judged questions about what needs to be done and how it should be done. Level 2: Share your expectation for ‘Asking Good Questions’ Key requirements for you: recognise good work; ask good questions about the work; encourage/insist they ask questions too. You can move up to level 2 delegation as soon as you can. If you don’t create an expectation for questions some people won’t ask and they’ll forever wait to be told what to do. Level 1: Share your expectation to ‘Wait til told what to do’ Key requirements from you: be clear about what you want doing, how you want it done and why it’s being done; show (rather than tell) people how it’s done and watch them do it too; ask good questions about the work. Because new people or new tasks require detailed and careful instruction it’s OK to set an expectation on certain tasks so your people wait until told. If however you have too many people (or any) who remain permanently in a ‘wait til told’ mind-set on everything they do, you might ask yourself are they the right people for the job?YOUR SUPPORT TOOLS ARE HERE: Go to the link below and you’ll findsupport tools to help you make better use of the delegation ladder andgenerate greater initiative in your business.Find the support tools to help you here - www.businessbitesize.com/remarkable_practice business breakthroughs in minutes