Ensuring Understanding, Supervision, and Accomplishment

My child, listen to me and do as I say, and you will have a long, good life. I will teach you wisdom’s ways and lead you in straight paths. When you walk, you won’t be held back; when you run, you won’t stumble. Take hold of my instructions; don’t let them go. Guard them, for they are the key to life. Proverbs 4:10-13 (NLT)

Some may say this is out of context, but look closely. The last post I wrote dealt with delegating, and I insisted that you make sure you "don't delegate without instruction. Let your people know what you are thinking and then let them get to work".

Good leadership instills success into the lives of the led. In other words, you should set your people up for success, not failure.

FM 22-100 says, "Oversupervision causes resentment and undersupervision cause frustration." I concur with that thought. When you supervise your people, you see how well your orders were communicated and how well your people understood the task at hand. They need to know your standards and your expectations or they will become frustrated and resentful.

Resentment stems from trust. When you task your people to do something, you are placing your trust in them and their abilities. They are not you. They will be innovative. They will at times fail.

If you have set standards and have communicated expectations, your people will respond. Give them a chance, evaluate, and talk about ways to improve performance. This leads to better understanding and less frustration.

Ken Blanchard says it like this:

• Accept performance that meets your standards
• Reward performance that exceeds your standards
• Correct performance that does not meet your standards
• Determine the cause of poor performance and take appropriate action
• But above all - Let Them Try!

Let your people learn how to be responsible in order to teach them how their actions as individuals and how their actions through team work accomplish the mission.

Here is a simple formula for teaching your standards and expectations:

• Do it first
• Do it with them
• Let them do it and provide instruction
• Let them do it
• Let them do it and train others

The last part will get you a lot of questions, and that is good. I find that I learn best when I train or instruct others. Give it a try.