Don’t hand off the job. Hand off the reason. People do better work when they know why it matters.

LEADERSHIP

WHAT THIS MEANS

A task with no context gets done to the letter and no further. Somebody who knows what it is for will catch the thing you forgot to mention, make a sensible call when the instructions run out, and care about the result rather than the completion. The reason is the part that lets a person think.

Add one sentence of why to every request this week, including the ones that look obvious. Say who it affects and what goes wrong without it. Then stop specifying how, and let them surprise you.

A QUESTION TO SIT WITH

When you hand off work, do you explain why it matters?

MORE IN LEADERSHIP & INFLUENCE

Free, with nothing to buy inside it.