Supposedly, Dakota Indians passed on the wisdom from one generation to the next that “when you discover that you are riding a dead horse, the best strategy is to dismount”.
Dutch and English proverbs basically say the same thing: “don’t pull a dead horse” and “flogging a dead horse”.
Now, as simple as this lesson may seem, in a business context it is less obvious.
So what does a dead horse in the office look like?
Let’s focus on one specific type here: delegating a task or responsibility to a team member whose strengths are not aligned with that responsibility.
The team member may acquiescently assume the responsibility as a professional or maybe because s/he doesn’t know his/her strengths that well. After a few days or weeks no progress is made. You then should immediately realize that you have run into a dead horse and act accordingly.
Now, you could apply the tactics that are written in the below picture, but the fact is that a dead horse remains dead and will not magically come to life by applying patience, persuasion, pressure etc.
I have learned this the hard way. Spending time and effort in progress meetings, 1 on 1 conversations, training etc. Much like the tactics in the picture ☹
Over the years I have found a strategy that seems to work effectively.
To understand this better you need to know that at Accenture we adopted CliftonStrengths. This is an assessment tool that measures your strengths, traits that you are inherently good at.
The basic idea behind the methodology is that you want to further develop your strengths, rather than to remove your weaknesses. Applying this positive approach, you will become more successful as it focuses on the strengths you already have.
In Accenture all employees are encouraged to go through the assessment. Quite a few colleagues of mine were very open about the outcome, e.g., sharing their strengths in their email signatures.
What I did with the teams that I led was to ask everyone whether they felt comfortable with sharing their strengths with the group. Almost everyone did share them. We would then plot those strengths against the contract management responsibilities. See a simple example in the table below.
Team Member | Strengths | CM Responsibility |
Linda | Ideation | Contract Drafting |
Rafael | Analytical | Contract Interpretation |
Satish | Arranger | Deliverables & Obligation Management |
Etc. | | |
In this way we would collectively assign roles and responsibilities in accordance with everyone’s strengths.
Of course, there are certain mundane activities that need to be done in any case, irrespective whether the sum total of the team’s strengths cover those activities or not. However, by following this approach we were able to assign responsibilities more appropriately and objectively, which definitely helped the engagement and success of the teams.
Applying CliftonStrengths is not the silver bullet. As manager, you still need to verify closely if you are on the right track with delegating a responsibility. Watch body language, check progress regularly and ask questions when you are in doubt whether the co-worker knows what s/he is doing, is interested etc.
I’d encourage you to consider the above approach. This may reduce the number of dead horses in your office.
---
If you found this tip informative, consider subscribing to our newsletter with more practical tips like this one.
Comments