Text / Shi Beichen
The first time I felt my rapid growth was when I became a "manager" for the first time: I started leading a team of nearly 20 people a few years ago, and I just felt a lot of pressure.
Looking back now, there are a lot of things to improve in this past experience: I know how to write a manuscript, but being in charge of a technology media is another matter. Just understanding the business is not enough. If you hand it over to others, in addition to exhausting yourself, it is also difficult to achieve the company's goals.
How to lead people is skillful, and the most important part of leading people is: assignment. How to hand over things to subordinates, and let them hand over things to make you feel at ease or even surprise you is a big knowledge - in fact, let's not say "surprise", most of the time as long as you don't "scare" you , is already very rare.
Learning to delegate work is probably the biggest challenge facing a new supervisor. Most leaders of many teams are promoted because of good job performance, not because of the so-called "leadership ability". Many directors often only have the capabilities of senior managers or even managers, and managers actually only have the capabilities of supervisors or specialists.
Because when a person is promoted to director, it is not because he has performed very well in the position of director, but because he has performed well as a deputy director or senior manager, he is promoted to director. At this time, the position of director means that he is right ta's expectations for future work, but ta's actual work ability has not reached the level required by the position of director.
When an employee is promoted to a supervisor, he is often in a panic before assigning a job to a subordinate. Japanese management consultant/human resources consultant Hiroko Ogura summed up the various hesitations of the new supervisor before the assignment. , in the book "Assigned Technology":
The supervisor is worried that there will be problems in assigning the work to the subordinates, and finally the responsibility falls on himself.
The supervisor is worried that after the work is assigned, the subordinates' work efficiency is not good, which will drag down the company's overall performance.
The supervisor feels that it is better to give the work to the subordinates and guide them one by one, and it is better to go into battle in person.
Supervisors have not yet organized workflows that can teach subordinates.
The supervisor feels that his expressiveness is not good enough, and he does not have the confidence to teach his subordinates well.
Subordinates are reluctant to add work and sometimes refuse new responsibilities.
Supervisors worry that assigning work to subordinates will increase workplace pressure and make the work atmosphere low.
Supervisors worry that delegating work to subordinates may be suspected of not doing things.
Supervisors are used to the fulfillment of being busy and do not want to hand over work easily.
The supervisor himself is a perfectionist, and does not allow any mistakes after the work is assigned.
Although the supervisor wants to delegate the work to his subordinates, he does not know how to allocate and plan.
...
Many people have been ordinary employees all their lives, but to a large extent they have not broken through this psychological barrier. Although a variety of reasons have been summarized, before handing over the job, the supervisor is actually most worried about one:
What if the subordinates do not do well?
Dismantling this one, several questions will arise:
1. If the subordinate does not do well, it may delay the delivery time (deadline);
2. If the subordinate does not do well, I may need to redo it;
3. I don't know how to communicate with the subordinate about the part that he is responsible for.
If the problem starts to be broken down, the solution starts to become clear:
1. If you are afraid of delaying the delivery time, set the delivery time for your subordinates a few days ahead of the actual time;
2. If your subordinates do not do well, you may need to redo it yourself, so you can use it as training and training your subordinates’ abilities. Anyway, you have never brought subordinates before. You were also a good player in the business before, so just treat this job as your own. made;
3. Communication is a matter of responsibility. Tell the other party clearly what the deliverables you expect to receive, show the other party a case, and ask the other party to repeat it after the explanation is completed-note that it is very important to repeat it, many times the other party I thought I understood, but in fact I didn't. If the other party can repeat what you want, there won't be much deviation at this time.
At this time, the question arises again: what should I do if I am always worried that the other party will not do well after I have handed over the work?
Imposing intervention will disrupt the rhythm of the other party, and it is easy to cause distrust on both sides; but ask, how to grasp the work progress of subordinates and control the quality of work?
At this time, there needs to be a regular monitoring and communication mechanism. If it is a task to be completed within a week, it can be set for the two parties to communicate the progress one-on-one every day, and ask the other party if they have encountered difficulties, what resources they need to support, whether there is any information that needs to be further understood, etc., so that not only Without excessive intervention, it can instantly understand the project progress, and ensure that the project progress is in the correct direction and the quality is controllable.
After the two sides have run-in/cooperation very deeply and get to know each other well, the supervision mechanism can only be asked once or twice every other day or even in the middle of the project. Assignment and authorization is a gradually expanding process.
So, which jobs are suitable to be handed over and which ones are not?
First of all, it is best to assign tasks that are suitable for the other party's work according to the other party's expertise; secondly, the supervisor is particularly good at the work that the subordinates need to develop their abilities; if both parties are not good at it, it is more suitable for both parties to work together or divide the work to advance.
There are several types of jobs that are not suitable for subordinates:
1. Unfamiliar work. If the subordinate is particularly unfamiliar with a certain job, the best way is to gradually progress. For example, when I am going to hand over a customer to a team to follow, I will bring my supervisor and core backbone to a meeting with the customer; when discussing the plan, I will bring the team with me, and even let the team lead, and I will give opinions; When I went to the client to talk about the plan, the team supervisor and I each talked a part, so that the supervisor could get exercise. After a sufficient understanding of the information in the early stage, when the team goes to connect with the customer, it is very clear about the customer's needs, and the next work also knows how to meet the customer's requirements.
2. Non-urgent and important work. Kokura Hiro said in "Technology Assigned":
If a department can complete the above-mentioned "non-urgent and important matters" one by one, the department will surely become a constant victor. If you are an individual, you can live a happy life by practicing the above "non-urgent and important matters". But people tend to postpone these "non-urgent and important matters" indefinitely, and instead are stumped by the lower-priority "non-urgent and important matters".
This sentence is very reasonable. When I saw this sentence, I was reflecting on my own. It seems that I handed over "non-urgent but very important work" to the intern to do... It's not that the intern's ability is not good, but if the company's ability is not good. If you speak of very important things and do not match the core team resources of the company to promote, there must be a problem with the level of attention.
"Non-urgent and important matters" often have a fatal impact on the enterprise, and the implementation process is often full of many uncertain factors. For the subordinates, these are terrible jobs that "don't know where to start" and "always put off unconsciously". They are also the most difficult and highest-level jobs in "unfamiliar territory".
When the subordinates hand in the assigned work, the supervisor's feedback and approval are very important. If a man’s brain tends to “solve problems” and a woman’s brain tends to “seek recognition”; the boss’s brain, like a man’s brain, tends to “problem-solve”, while the subordinate’s brain is like a woman’s brain , is more inclined to "seek recognition". The achievements made by subordinates must be recognized, so that the other party feels that their efforts have been rewarded.
The process of entrusting work to subordinates is actually the best way for subordinates to learn. I have always believed that the best learning is to do it directly. If you do it badly, you will learn it. If you do it well, you will learn better. Zuckerberg never "learned" how to create the biggest social network, he just made it. The so-called Learn by doing, is also the case in assigning this matter.
https://www.huxiu.com/article/164115.html