管理技巧：如何恰當處理任務分配問題？

Everyone knows leaders should delegate to ensure that they are working on the right projects and deliverables.  But if you find yourself frequently miscommunicating with your team on deliverables, hearing about issues at the last minute, and misunderstanding how your team set their priorities, it may be a sign you’ve delegated too much, leaving their employees to feel abandoned and unmotivated. At that point, it’s important to take back responsibility for certain tasks to insure you’re providing your team the guidance and structure they need. Here are three steps you can take.

每個人都知道領導者應該授權以確保他們在正確的項目和可交付成果上工作。但如果你發現自己經常在可交付成果方面與團隊溝通不暢，在最後一刻才聽到問題，並誤解了團隊如何設定優先級，這可能是你委派過多任務的一個信號，讓他們的員工感到被拋棄、沒有動力。在這一點上，承擔起某些任務的責任是很重要的，以確保你正在爲你的團隊提供他們需要的指導和結構。以下是你可以採取的三個步驟。

Take on a symbolic project. Obviously, you don’t want to overcorrect and start doing a myriad of low-level tasks in order to reconnect with your team. But taking on a symbolic project or task can be a visible way of demonstrating your re-engagement, as well as helping the company and advancing your own learning goals. For instance, I coached one senior advertising executive who realized she had delegated too much. She decided to get back into the details by learning a new piece of software. This gave her a new skill to share with other leaders in the company and her own team. Her time spent on the software also helped in the long run because when it was time to delegate, she understood all of the specifics of getting the work accomplished.

承擔一個象徵性的項目。顯然，你不希望爲了重新與你的團隊建立聯繫而過度糾正，以及開始執行大量低級任務。但是，接受一個象徵性的項目或任務可以是一種可見的方式來展示你的重新參與，以及幫助公司和推進你自己的學習目標。例如，我曾指導過一位資深廣告主管，她意識到自己委派的任務太多了。她決定通過學習一種新的軟件來了解細節。這給了她一種新的技能，可以與公司的其他領導和她自己的團隊分享。從長遠來看，她花在軟件上的時間也是有幫助的，因爲當她需要授權的時候，她瞭解完成工作的所有細節。

Reset with your team. One CTO I coached realized he’d been delegating too much because he no longer had proper visibility into what his teams were working on.  He’d been frustrated that departmental projects he had delegated — such as a dashboard and internal training, (which he felt would differentiate their department in the marketplace) got lost and forgotten with looming client deadlines. To combat this, he scheduled an offsite to reconfirm the vision for the department and get everyone on the same page again about goals and expectations.

重置團隊。我教過的一名首席技術官意識到，他委派的任務太多了，因爲他已經無法正確地瞭解他的團隊在做什麼。他曾委託的部門項目——比如儀表盤和內部培訓（他覺得這會讓他們的部門在市場上與衆不同）在客戶截止日期的迫近中迷失了方向，並被遺忘，這讓他很沮喪。爲了解決這一問題，他安排了一個額外項目來重新確認部門的願景，並讓每個人再次對目標和期望達成一致。

He realized through the offsite process that his team hadn’t understood the rationale or urgency behind the internal projects.  Afterward, he could follow up more effectively and make smarter determinations about where he could delegate without going too far, and his team was much more willing to focus on internal projects, as well.

通過從外查看，他意識到他的團隊沒有理解內部項目背後的基本原理和緊迫性。之後，他可以更有效地跟進，並做出更明智的決定，即他可以在哪裏委派任務，而不會走得太遠，他的團隊也更願意專注於內部項目。

Recommunicate the vision. The biggest over-delegation risk for leaders is leaving the  vision or culture of the company to others.  Of course, most leaders don’t think they’ve done this. Instead, they believe they’ve delivered and communicated the vision innumerable times. And yet, their teams are confused and missteps occur with delivering the work on a consistent basis. If you’re noticing that output on projects has stalled, there’s excessive disagreement on tasks and process, or unexpected and inconsistent behavior among team members, it may be a sign that you’ve over-delegated the vision to the point where team members feel they’re interpreting it or making it up on their own. A particularly obvious clue is receiving repeated questions from different team members asking you to clarify the vision.

重構願景。對領導者來說，過度授權的最大風險是將公司的願景或文化留給他人去構建。當然，大多數領導者並不認爲他們這麼做。相反，他們相信他們已經無數次地傳達和傳達了這個願景。然而，他們的團隊在一致的基礎上交付工作時出現了混亂和失誤。如果你注意到輸出項目停滯不前,有過多的分歧任務和過程中,團隊成員之間的或意想不到的和不一致的行爲,它可能是一個信號,表明你已經過度分配你的願景，團隊成員認爲他們已經在展現或自己創造願景。一個特別明顯的線索是，收到來自不同的團隊成員的提問，要求你闡明遠景。

For example, one CMO told me a story of how he had been working on a key partnership initiative for his company. He believed the partnership fit with the overall vision of the company laid out by the CEO. Unfortunately, the CEO had over-delegated the vision to other members of the executive committee and didn’t properly communicate a shift in his revenue strategy. When it was time to present the partnership to the board, the CEO rejected the work because it didn’t track with his new vision and the partnership stalled, wasting the CMO’s time and causing needless conflict and frustration.

例如，一位首席營銷官向我講述了他是如何爲公司的一個關鍵合作項目工作的。他認爲，這種合作關係符合首席執行官提出的公司總體願景。不幸的是，這位首席執行官把願景過多地委託給了執行委員會的其他成員，沒有恰當地傳達他的收入戰略的轉變。當向董事會展示合作關係的時候，CEO拒絕了這份工作，因爲這份工作與他的新願景不符，合作關係陷入停滯，浪費了首席營銷官的時間，造成了不必要的衝突和挫折。

As a leader, to combat this form of over-delegation, make sure you’re using every public communication opportunity you have to stress and reinforce the message. For instance, you could remind people about the overarching vision at the beginning of a project, during town halls and other forums, at senior leadership meetings, or periodically through email communications. Without this approach, there can be a cascading effect of morale issues, loss of creativity, and a lack of teamwork.  But most, importantly, there is a loss of credibility for the leader.

作爲一名領導者，要克服這種過度授權的形式，要確保你利用所有的公共溝通機會來強調和強化信息。例如，你可以提醒人們在項目開始的時候，在市政廳和其他論壇上，在高層領導會議上，或者定期通過電子郵件交流來實現這個遠景。如果沒有這種方法，就會出現士氣問題、創造力喪失和缺乏團隊合作的連鎖效應。但最重要的是，這位領導人失去了信譽。

While there are times as a leader to step back and delegate to let teams grow, over delegation can backfire.  By using the steps above, you can ensure your department, team, and company are moving in the right direction together.

雖然有時作爲一個領導者需要後退一步，授權讓團隊成長，但過度授權可能會適得其反。通過使用上述步驟，你可以確保你的部門、團隊和公司共同朝着正確的方向前進。