How to Accept Delegation
When your boss delegates a task to you, here’s how to set yourself up for success. Follow Get-It-Done Guy’s strategy to become a superstar employee.
There are only 3 roles you can play in life: superhero, super-villain, and minion (and for some reason, minions always work for the villain. You never hear about the hero’s minions).
We like to believe that we’re the hero or the villain, but actually, most of us are minions. And as minions, we’re the ones who get ordered around a lot. To be an effective minion and survive long enough to become a villain requires perfecting the art of being delegated to.
See also:Â How to Delegate Wisely
Â
Earlier in my career, when I was just a minion, my boss came in and gave me a scathing look. I didn’t take it personally; evil villains have to practice their scathing looks and evil laughs whenever possible. Those things don’t just come naturally, you know. He turned to me and said, “Write a logistics plan for assembling an army of robotic androids to take over downtown Detroit. I want it on my desk pronto!”Â
The secret to being a good minion is realizing that just because you’re the low minion on the totem pole, you can still take charge of the process to make yourself (and your boss) successful.
Sponsor This episode is brought to you by Harry’s. For guys like you who want a great shave experience for a fraction of what you’re paying now, go to Harrys.com. And get $5 off your first purchase by entering the code GETITDONE when you check out.
Clarify the Time Frames
I rushed to my desk to block out time to work on the plan. And…I didn’t know when “pronto” was. He gave me the instructions on a Thursday. Was “pronto” later that day? Was it Friday? Was it next Tuesday?
When you’re given a task to do, make sure you know exactly when it’s due, both the date and time. If your boss is planning to present the report to your Evil Board of Directors at noon, and you think it’s due at 5pm, there could be serious consequences.Â
As you have the time frame discussion, make sure to ask if there are any important milestones you should hit. For example, if your boss wants to approve an outline of the report before you fill in the details, agree on a time now. That way, you’ll be able to choose a time when your boss is in town, and not off on a quest to secure the One Ring, whose evil powers you’ll use to power your robotic androids.
If you or your boss wants regular status check-ins, now is the time to agree on those too. Personally, I like regular, weekly check-ins. My first boss told me, “The worst thing isn’t when things screw up. That’s just life. The worst thing is being surprised with no time to fix things.”
Regular check-ins, even just a 5-minute “How’s it going?” give you a chance to head off problems before they happen. You can casually say, “There was a shipping mix-up and we received a 55-gallon drum of zombie reanimation powder instead of the spare android parts. Do you think we can trim the schedule somewhere else to make up the time?” rather than surprising your boss a month later by missing a deadline when you couldn’t find a way to make up the time.Â
Define Deliverables
You also want to make sure to clarify what your evil boss expects. If it’s a logistics plan, do you just have to think everything through? Does it need to be typed? Formatted? Duplicated? Is your boss expecting it in black and white? Color? Inked in the blood of a virgin superhero? These details matter!
You want to clarify what your Evil Boss expects.
If possible, ask your boss for a sample of a past logistics plan he considers exceptional. You can model yours after it and see for yourself if those stains are superhero blood or just ketchup stains from an over-enthusiastic lunchtime excursion. My boss wanted a logistics plan that was color-coded, in a 3-ring notebook so we could easily add and remove pages.
Of course, I still didn’t know what should be on those pages. I’d never seen a logistics plan. I wouldn’t know a logistics plan if it bit me. I’d probably just think it was a really weird spider bite.
Agree on Coaching Levels
I was going to need help.Â
If you’re given a development assignment–one where you have to learn a new skill–have that discussion up front. Since you know the timeframe, estimate whether you’ll have time to learn what you need to learn quickly enough to be able to meet you master’s demands. If not, ask what resources and training you can count on and what you’ll have to do on your own.Â
We’re living in an age where most of the skills you need can be found online somewhere. If you want to develop a reputation as a real go-getter, learn to get up to speed on new topics yourself. As my insufferably competent intern MG once told me, “Stever, if I have to ask you how to do something, you’ll just Google it. I can Google it just as easily and save you the trouble.” His competence may be insufferable, but he’s worth his weight in gold as long as it makes my life much easier.
But my early career was pre-internet, so I didn’t have the benefit of Google. My boss gleefully informed me that he was providing no resources to help me learn what a logistics plan was, so I was on my own. And no, there would be no extra time in the schedule for me to learn. He was assuming I would hit the ground running.
What could I do? I muddled through and created a logistics plan for his android army to take over Detroit. Unfortunately, something went wrong. When I told the androids that “Proper execution matters,” they kidnapped my boss and…well, it’s too terrible to describe. I was left with a 55-gallon drum of zombie reanimation powder, a warehouse full of android parts, and a logistics plan that could easily be scaled up. The rest, as they say, is history.
When you work for someone else, you need to learn to be delegated to. Consider it your responsibility to drive the process so you can deliver what’s needed, when it’s needed. Clarify the deliverable due dates, major milestones, and frequency of status check-ins. Get the specifications up front, so you deliver the right thing.
If you can get an actual sample, even better. And if you’ll need a learning curve, agree on the time and resources you’ll need to learn what you need to fulfill your boss’ desires. In no time at all, you’ll be making the leap from minion to evil super genius. Think of it as a simple exercise in logistics.
I’m Stever Robbins. I help people develop the people and interpersonal skills to transform their careers. If you want to know more, visit SteverRobbins.com
Work Less, Do More, and have a Great Life!
You May Also Like…
About the Author
Stever Robbins was the host of the podcast Get-it-Done Guy from 2007 to 2019. He is a graduate of W. Edward Deming’s Total Quality Management training program and a Certified Master Trainer Elite of NLP. He holds an MBA from the Harvard Business School and a BS in Computer Sciences from MIT.Â
