431: How to Delegate Without Micromanaging: Define What Done Looks Like

0:00When I hired a new assistant a while back, one of the first things I asked her to do was simple. Book me a lunch meeting near my office. Easy, right? She booked it. And when I looked at the address, it was in Manhattan. And my office is in Brooklyn. Now, that might not seem like a big deal, but if you've ever been to New York City, you know it is. So I asked her about it. And she said, totally calm. It's only two miles away. And here's the thing. She wasn't wrong. Two miles is close. If you don't live in the city, two miles is practically next door. And she didn't live in the city, but I did. So to me, near my office meant within about 20 blocks, walking distance, definitely not crossing a river.

0:43In my head, I had drawn a circle on a map around my office. I just never showed her the circle. By the end of this episode, you'll be able to write what I call a successfully done statement. You'll know the four things that you need to include, and you'll know how to get really clear on the outcome you want without tipping in to micromanage. And if you want to go deeper on delegation after this episode, I have a mini course that walks through the whole process step by step. You'll find the link in the show notes at themodernmanager.com slash successfully done. Hello and welcome to The Modern Manager.

1:14I am Mamie Camper-Stewart, and today we're talking about delegation and one very specific moment in the delegation process. The moment you hand something off. Those few sentences you say when walking down the hall after a meeting or when you type into Slack asking someone to take something on, That is the moment that decides almost everything about what you get back. Now, before we dive in, take a moment to follow the show in your favorite podcast app so you never miss an episode. And if you find the show helpful, I would be grateful if you left a rating or review. That is the best way to let other managers know that this show is worth a listen.

1:48When most of us delegate, we give the headline, book me lunch near the office. Can you pull this deck together for a client? Can you clean up the onboarding dock? And the headline, it makes perfect sense to us because we're carrying around all of the details in our heads. We know what near means. We know what the client cares about. And we know what cleanup means. The other person gets the headline. And then they have to fill in the rest with their own details, which are usually perfectly reasonable details. They're just not yours. And this doesn't just happen with new assistants and lunch reservations.

2:20It happens every single day on every team with people who are smart and capable and trying really hard to get it right. Now, if you've been listening to the show for a while, you already know that clarity matters. You've heard it from me. You've heard it from plenty of my guests. And pretty much every management book out there tells you to set clear expectations. And still, so many managers I work with believe that they are being clear. And that's a problem. Nobody delegates thinking, let me be really vague about this one. We think we're clear because the request is clear to us. And there's a name for this.

2:53It's called the curse of knowledge. Once you know something, it's really hard to imagine not knowing it. So the details that feel obvious to you become invisible to you. You don't leave them out on purpose. You don't even notice that they're there. So hearing be clear one more time, it's not gonna fix this. What you need is a way that forces the invisible details out of your head and onto the page before the work ever leaves your hands. Because when we skip that step, here's what happens. The work comes back and it wasn't what you wanted. So now you've got two options. You redo it yourself or you send it back.

3:27Either way, you've lost time and the other person feels like they failed at something that they didn't actually fail at. They did what you asked. You just asked for something different from what you really wanted. And here's the worst part. You start telling yourself a story. It's just easier if I do it myself. And then you stop delegating. Your plate gets fuller, your team stops growing, and no one's happy. My assistant did not fail that day. I did, and I had to own that. She booked a perfectly nice restaurant two miles from my office. That was a completely reasonable answer to the question I asked.

3:59It just wasn't the answer to the question I meant. And this is why it's so important to get clear on what successfully done looks like before you hand anything off. So here's the process. A successfully done statement is a short description of what the finished work looks like, and you write it before you delegate. It has four parts. Number one, the outcome. What are you actually trying to get back? Think result and let go of the task for a second. Book a lunch, that's the task. A calendar invite with a confirmed lunch reservation, that's the final outcome. Number two, measures of success or criteria.

4:36These are your non-negotiables. For my lunch, a reservation confirmed under my name and the address in the calendar invite. Number three, the deadline. And I mean a specific date and time. End of the week is not a deadline. It could mean Thursday at five, Friday at noon, or Sunday at 11 p.m. And no matter which time you really mean, it's unlikely the other person thinks the same thing. So say it, Wednesday the 14th by 3 p.m. And finally, number four, the one that would have saved me the trouble, the details that you think are obvious but might not be so obvious to the other person. This is that circle on my map.

5:13Near my office means walking distance, about 20 blocks from my office. And because my calendar fills up fast, I need travel time booked before and after as well. If you want a template, here it is. Successfully done looks like the outcome. It needs to include your must-haves. I need it by date and time. And a few things that might not be obvious, your hidden details. So let's go back to that lunch. Here's what I originally said. Can you book me a lunch meeting near my office for 12.30 on Thursday? Here's what I should have said. Successfully done looks like a confirmed lunch for two on Thursday at 1230 with the event scheduled on my calendar.

5:52It needs to be booked under my name with the address of the restaurant in the calendar invite. Please get it done by 5 p.m. Tuesday so I can confirm with my guest. And one more thing that might not be so obvious, near my office means walking distance, about 20 blocks. Also, the travel time before and after should be blocked on my calendar. That's like five sentences, maybe an extra 45 seconds of my time. And notice what's not there. I didn't tell her which restaurant to pick, I didn't tell her to use a certain app or call three places and compare menus. I told her what done looks like, and I trusted her to get there.

6:23Which brings me to the question that I get a lot. Amy, doesn't this sound like micromanagement? Fair, fair concern. And here's how I think about the difference. Micromanagement is getting explicit about the how. Which steps to take, in what order, with what tools, and checking in at every turn. A successfully done statement gets explicit about the what. Be explicit on the what and leave the how to them. That's what the circle on the map is. How they take the route to get there, that's up to them. You draw the circle, they pick the route. And there's one more layer here. Sometimes you don't know exactly what you want.

6:59Or you do, but you also want the person to bring their own expertise and maybe take it somewhere that you hadn't thought of. In that case, you can still write a successfully done statement and then add on one more sentence. I'm open to your thoughts on what else would make this successful. Or I'd love to know what you think might be missing in this request. I did this recently with a designer who was working on my new brand, and I was really specific about the graphics that I needed. And then I asked, what other graphic elements or templates do you think I might need? And they came back with two that I hadn't even thought of.

7:30So you're still drawing the circle. You're just inviting them to tell you if that circle should be bigger. So try this. Pick one thing you're going to delegate this week. Before you send it, write a successfully done statement using the four parts. Your outcome, the must-haves, a deadline with an actual date and time, and the details that feel obvious to you. Then spend an extra minute on that last part because that's where the gap often shows up. And ask yourself, if this person had never been inside my head, what might they get wrong? Whatever pops up, write it down. That's exactly the stuff that you would normally leave out.

8:03And if this is work where you want their expertise, add in that last sentence. I'm open to your thoughts on what can make this even better. Then send it and see what comes back. I think you'll be surprised how much closer it lands. I think about that lunch more often than you'd expect because my assistant did everything right. She took the request, she used her judgment, and she found a great spot two miles away. The only thing missing was that I never drew that circle for her. So the next time you hand something off, don't stop at the headline. Tell them what successfully done looks like. If you want to go deeper on delegating well, check out my mini course at themodernmanager.com slash successfully done.

8:39I'll help you turn this into a habit so that you know how to delegate every time, even on a busy Tuesday. Thanks again for joining me. Until next time.