Don't Make the Insignificant Significant

Hey Boss, can I give you a quick update on that new project you asked us to launch last week?

As the Account Executive stood at my door asking that question, I couldn’t for the life of me think of any new project I had asked her team to launch the week prior.

I welcomed her into my office and invited her to update me.

In the next 90 seconds I knew something wasn’t right.

She began to tell me about a project to review all of the communications that we were sending for our clients to their constituents, with a specific set of goals, how they would manage the project, when they’d have a complete report to review, and who on the team was responsible for each aspect of the project.

The problem?

This is not a project that I had requested, nor was this the right time for our team to undertake such an initiative. It would have taken our focus away from other key initiatives that were more important at the time.

As I poked a little more into the genesis of this project, she said something very interesting.

In our team meeting you said a project like this would be valuable, and that you thought it’s something that would be wise for us to do. We all thought that was your way of saying you wanted us to do this. And you’re the boss, so we figured we needed to do it now that you’d said that. That’s why we launched this project now.

Well then. I now see what happened.

In that moment it became clear to me that my statement in our initial meeting was taken as a directive when I was in fact only verbally acknowledging that the idea was worthy of exploration. At some point. But not this point in time.

But I wasn’t clear about that.

The combination of my not-clear-enough statement and my position in the organization left my people to assume that they needed to pick up the ball and run with it.

I admired their desire to be responsive and take action. I’d much rather rein that in from time to time than have to light a fire under everyone just to get them to do anything (that’s a topic for another article at some point). But in this instance, the lack of clarity caused a number of people to do unnecessary work. And it created a situation where I needed to walk back a project that had already started — which could mean people would feel like they had failed in some way. They hadn’t.

What I learned from this experience is the importance of being really clear.

It’s why now when my team and I are talking about ideas and future potential projects I will often say something like, there’s nothing I need you to do with this at this point, but what do you think about this idea?

Or, this isn’t an assignment for you do take action on, I’d just like your input on this concept at this time.

Conversely, when I do need someone to take action on something, I’m also very clear about that these days. Often that conversation is something like, Here’s what we need to accomplish [insert specific project details]. I’d like you to lead the charge on this to make this happen. It would be ideal if we could get this done by [date]. Is that possible, given the rest of your current projects? What resources do you think you’ll need to get this done? And lastly, what questions do you have before you kick this off?

As a leader you need to remember that your position carries weight. Your title, whether you realize it or not, influences many people. And your words both influence and inspire action.

Make sure you’re aware of that and clear in your conversations so you can help your team avoid confusion and wasted or misdirected effort.