4 facts and 1 golden rule:
- This is about delegation vs micromanagement. Remote workers -even more than others- dislike micromanagement. To me, working remotely is about finding happiness by discovering and getting more degrees of freedom.
- According to Cambridge dictionary, to delegate is “to give a particular job, duty, right, etc. to someone else so that they do it for you“. This is just to command. I’m more with Merriam-Webster. To me delegating is “the act of empowering to act for another“.
- Micromanagement kills delegation and converts it into command.
- Horizontality creates participation and foster creativity.
This is easy to say, hard to do. Nope. Good news: There is a golden rule I found clearly verbalized in ‘The replaceable founder‘ by Ari Meisel. (blinkist)
and the rule: DELEGATE WHAT TO WHO
If you trust a person, just delegate what needs to get done. Allow them to find the how = Give them freedom and enjoyment. Bonus: You’ll get extra time as you won’t need to check the process but just the outcome. And keep in mind that creativity and participation is boosted when you reward success… and failures and punish just inaction(*)
Remember: It’s delegation vs micromanagement.
(*) (Cool idea I got from Ingenius, by Tina Seelig. See the quote starting by ‘Bob argues’)