It is Your Mess, You Clean It Up (2)
Successful delegation means going all the way. You delegate and then step back. If things go wrong, or a delegate does something differently from the way you would do it, you don’t jump in and try to fix it. And not every project ends in shining success, not every delegated task is perfectly executed.
You learn, you figure out what you did wrong, and you move on. The successful delegator asks herself what she did wrong when a delegate fails to attain specified goals—and assesses her role and effectiveness, whether goals are achieved or not.
If there was a failure of communication, or if she delegated a task to the wrong person, or set expectations that were unreasonable, she will learn from the experience and delegate better in the future. As I say, after one of A.J.’s school infractions, “You pick up the pieces and you go from there.”
When I delegates, I has firm expectations and I’s not afraid to push until people meet those expectations. I squeezes, not for the fun of busting balls (well, most of the time), but in order to achieve goals and make good on my vision—to run a better business, train better executives, maximize profits. I prods the impressionable Christopher, pushes my hot buttons. I delegates and squeezes, then delegates larger chunks of responsibility and squeezes harder.
