How Much Discretion Did You Intend To Delegate?

Does your evaluation of work done by team members sometimes differ from their own perception of that same effort? That might be because you and they had different perceptions of the amount of discretion they had in carrying out the tasks.

Regardless of your intentions, you may be communicating very different messages about your expectations to your associates, depending on the type of language you use.

It’s probably fair to say that regardless of the general level of maturity and experience of your team or its members over time, communication between management and workers changes from situation to situation, depending on the nature of the work to be done. We may be delegating more or less discretion to our team because of the language we use:

Specs-based: “It’s in the database. Take a look at the requirements.”

Fiat-based: “Here’s what I’m looking for. By Friday.”

Rewards-based: “There’ll be bonuses for on-time completion.”

Guidelines-based: “Some approaches are X, Y and Z. I’m looking for you to pick the best one.”

Expectations-based: “Here’s the direction we’re headed, what we want to accomplish and what we expect to be able to say when it’s done. I have confidence you’ll exercise good judgment to generate alternative ways to get us there, and pick the one that’s best under the circumstances.”

Cognitive-based: “Think about it this way and maintain the right attitude and I’m confident you’ll do the right things.”

As you can see from the examples above, there can be a range of discretion delegated to the team, intentionally or unintentionally, depending on the language you use — from none at all to virtually complete delegation of all aspects of the task or project.

Next time you’re preparing to ask someone on your team to do something, be sure to consider how much discretion you want them to exercise, and choose your words carefully to communicate that message clearly.