Are you often in a position in which you have to coordinate what projects your people work on? Maybe you find yourself once in a great while having to deliver the news of a new assignment or perhaps you have to deliver such news on a daily/weekly basis. Leaders have to do this and more often than not.
How do you deliver this news? If you have to do it via the phone, does your recipient imagine you with your head down and eyes closed while the reality of your voice plays out in sloooowwwww motion? If this happens, is it because you yourself are not excited about the project at hand because you view the work as daunting and difficult? Maybe it's because the reality statement points to a totally crummy/irrelevant project no matter who is doing it - yes, that can happen, but that is not where I am taking you.
If this is happening (the sloooww motion lethargic delivery) - the relevance and importance of the project just got blasted into pieces through the lazy delivery. The leader of delivery in this just cooked up a nasty tasting task to one who will likely approach the job with a negative mood state that hampers the productivity, customer service and overall morale of others.
The way you as a leader present things to your people can set the stage for the energy and enthusiasm for which they take on the reigns. Your delivery will dictate the relevance of the duty. Patrick Lencioni tells us that irrelevance is a sure sign to a miserable job. Don't let your funky deal flow disrupt the opportunity for your people to come off the bench with fire!
I am not asking you to sugarcoat the news or even lose sight of the reality that sometimes the news is just not good. When it's not, it's just not and you should communicate that.
Reveal the relevance and importance through your delivery and watch the troops march with similar energy. It's not what you tell them - It's HOW you tell them.
My awesome friend Dan Glaze sent me this intriguing read. Check it out to understand the HOW:
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