Leadership Pitfalls: "This is not what I want"

 

Do you sometimes get frustrated that your subordinates keep getting it wrong? You have already given them a direction. You'd expect they'd know what a good deliverable should look like. You can't be giving them detailed step-by-step instructions. If that's what they need, then you might as well do it yourself right?

The problem is sometimes we don't even know what we want, and we place the responsibility on our subordinates to come up with something that will impress us. We have our own past experiences, biases and preferences. If we are not able to articulate well what we expect, it is difficult for our subordinates to create something to our personal tastes. I have seen one business leader who gets frustrated all the time, rejects the work of his team repeatedly, and points out the problems with every piece of rejected work after the work is already done. But he does not set clear expectations up front. He and his team keep repeating this pattern. He gets upset. His team gets demotivated. They both waste a lot of time and energy. What can we do about this? 1. Set clear objectives. Even if you do not have an idea what the end deliverable should look like, at least be clear what it will achieve. You don't have to spell out how to do the job, just the outcome that you want. 2. Learn to let go of your personal preferences. If the deliverable meets the objective, accept it. Let go of "my way". Work should be done in an objective manner and not left to be interpreted subjectively.