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Delegating in a Distributed World: New Demands on the CEO
| Guest post by: Jess Wells |
Article Overview: In a distributed world, a CEO is called upon to adopt new methods of delegation. There's a higher level of writing, documentation and communication skills demanded of the CEO. I recently interviewed Mark Levi and Mark Henricks for a Cisco BizWiseTv interview: "Keys to Delegating in a Distributed World".
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Delegating in a Distributed World: New Demands on the CEO
In a traditional company the CEO can simply walk through the office to be sure people are working: meetings denote progress, charts on the wall show the plan of action. But in a distributed world, where employees are spread across the country and vendors around the world, a CEO is called upon to adopt new methods of delegation. These days, strings of emails just aren't sufficient. Processes and quality standards have to be documented and distributed, procedures have to be codified and then updated, and a system of intranet-based folders become the backbone of the business. When wikis and intranet folders become the CEOs glimpse into the workings of the organization, there's a higher level of writing, documentation and communication skills demanded of the CEO.
While with Cisco's BizWiseTV, I called upon Mark Levi, SCORE counselor who spent 29 years as an executive with National Semiconductor, and Mark Henricks, author and small business pundit, to discuss the changing communication demands that have become "Keys to Delegating in a Distributed World." I've included the transcript that includes material left on the (digital) cutting-room floor.
BizWise: When I think of delegating, I just think of giving orders. But, in your book, you say no, not so, it's a little bit different. How so?
Henricks: Well, giving orders is the visible part of delegating. There's a lot more to the actual delegating than it may seem. If you're going to do it right, you have to go all the way back to writing a job description, hiring the right person, training and developing him until they're in the position to accept the authority you want to give to them. And then, I think you have to have the trust in them that they can do it. You have to tell them that you have that trust - you know, endorse their ability. And then, give them responsibility to do it, and follow up later. So, it's a lot more complicated than that.
Cisco BizWise: We're hearing and seeing a lot about the 20-somethings entering the workforce. I would imagine that modern workers want to see more authority and less specificity. So, how does that affect the dynamic here?
Levi: I think it really emphasizes what Mark's just said - clear definition of delegation means telling me what my responsibility is and my authority to do it, so I understand. And then, they expect to have some kind of formalized follow-up; that is, as - on a regular basis - I get to report the progress that I'm making, and I'm expected to report progress whether it's good or bad. That's part of the entire process that I think people are looking for.
Cisco BizWise: So now, we're looking at a workplace that is more distributed, with employees all over the globe; and we're looking at workers who want more authority, less specificity. How has that affected the workplace generally? Has it made life more challenging?
Levi: I think it does place a burden on all of us to figure out how to be better communicators, how do we - over video, over the telephone - make our messages clear and how do we give clear feedback? That's much more difficult. On the other hand, we have tools today that are just incredible, that help us to do that task.
Henricks: Communication is all about clarity. The workforce we have today is the most diverse workforce we've ever had. To me, that's the biggest characteristic of it. I mean, you have all kinds of people from all kinds of cultures that are going to be a part of your workforce, and so it's important not to be unclear when you're talking to them. You have to tell them exactly what you want them to do and don't be vague about it, and try to take into account cultural differences.
Cisco BizWise: Mark Henricks, you talk about the fact that CEOs have to be more specific, detail -oriented, than ever before; they've got to document everything. How is that playing out in the workplace, in terms of delegating things?
Henricks: Well, it's a different role for a lot of the CEOs, but the good thing is that there are a lot of tools these days that make it much easier for CEOs to do that. For instance, software incorporates a tremendous amount of expertise in it to help them do things right, in the same way that uh spreadsheets kept them from making arithmetic mistakes. Nowadays, you can have human resources software that'll help you write a job description, that'll help you integrate someone into the workforce, that will tell you when you need to follow up with a performance review, and similar things can help with all kinds of things, from project management to putting together a team. There's a whole lot of tools out there that help you do your job and document at the same time.
Cisco BizWise: What kinds of processes and relationships have to be documented now that weren't in the past?
Henricks: Well, when you have a project that's being run by a team that's all over the globe, you can't have meetings every day, so you have to do things online. You have to have online to-do lists, you have to share documents online. At-at the same time, these uh - when you're sharing documents and things like that online, you can have different versions so that everybody knows who did what, and you can make sure that you're working with the most recent version of a document or a schedule or a project.
Cisco BizWise: You've really got to document those quality standards, though, so that everybody in the distributed workplace understands what they are. How do you do that?
Henricks: The best thing to do is to understand your own business and map your own processes and describe your own workflow. And when you do that, then the things that are required to do a good job will become apparent to you.
Levi: Standards have risen for all of us. Competition - there's tougher globalization - does nothing but increase competition. So, we expect more from all of us, from CEO down to the lowest worker. One of the other things that I wanted to mention is we have these tools, but we also find that people work as a social group, and so, one of the things that you need to do, even though you're delegating to people in-in widely different locations, is you need to take some time to work on the socialization, to make sure that everybody appreciates what everyone else on the team is doing and how - so that they can all contribute to a common goal. That helps to raise the standard.
Cisco BizWise: Who's doing this effectively? And who has a hard time with it? What contingent of business leaders would you say are really handling this well?
To view this video and to read the entire interview, go to the CiscoInnovators website and search for "Delegating in a Distributed World: New Demands on the CEO"
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Who Said Twitter Doesn't Work...?
- Last month, the BBC World Service programme, The Strand, featured 21 year-old Icelandic pianist/composer Olafur Arnalds.
Arnalds achieved extraordinary success through his internet-led project to compose 7 tunes in 7 days, post them on his website and then post links to it via TWITTER. As a result his website got thousands of visitors eager to listen to his music, catapulting him to fame and bringing his music to the attention of the BBC, who featured an interview with him on the World Service programme, The Strand!
So who says Twitter doesn't work? (HINT: It does help if you have something uniquely your own that other people want to get hold of...)
Re: Exotic Tea Shop Website for Review
- Hi David,
- Background is nice and fitting, but I don't like the header. The title completely blends in with the background?
- About Us shouldn't be second from the left on the navigation bar. People read from left to right. The commercial intent is to buy, the online store should probably be second.
- Online Tea Store... too many choices without supplementary information. No description of product choice. oz and pricing should be stylized separately from the name of the product.
- Online Tea Store.... Visuals is definitely very important in raising commercial intent. Someone who comes to the site through SEO is searching for exotic teas and not particulars. Meaning they're browsing. Text is not enough for a browsing shopper.
- World of Tea... the information can be organized a bit better. Again, visuals. Some of this info belongs to online tea store. I'm not too sure on the name.
- Tea & Treasure... not sure on this name either... mainly because you have "World of Tea" next to it. Navigation should be transparent in conveying information to the users. Why not call it "Find Us" or "Visit Us"?
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Again, my humble opinion. Hope you find it useful!
Tale of a success story!
- First, Shonika, thanks for that link! I'll check it out.
Now, yahoooo! I'm so excited right now that I hope I'll be forgiven if I gush gush gush on what's turning out to be a success story.
And one that I planned. I had a feeling, back in September when the Red Sox were leading their division so comfortably (before those dang Yankees made it tight!) that the Sox would be going to the World Series.
So, I'm thinking to myself, they've got this rookie, Jacoby Ellsbury, first Navajo in the major leagues. That type of thing always draws readers, as does the first Japanese player, etc. etc. And not only was the the first Navajo, but he was also an exciting, star in the making type of player.
So I created a website for him, really only a two page biography...and the site took off immediately. Everyone who saw him on TV wanted to read about him. And my google ads on the site took off as well. (But not the Amazon ads, darn it!!!! Never the Amazon ads!)
Then, at the end of September the injured player he'd been subbing for came back, and Jacoby went back to the bench. And the hits - and Google clicks - dropped off dramatically when he was on the bench during the ACLS, while their regular center fielder, stuck it up on offense.
But, finally yesterday, he got the start in center field because their regular center fielder couldn't hit anything at hte plate. And Jacoby got a hit, scored a run, and made some good plays in the field.
And the hits - and clicks - to the website started ramping up again, and tonight, with him also making two "highlight" reel type catches in the field as well as delivering a timely hit, they're going through the roof.
Also, he is bound to be on the sports news tomorrow - along with his teammates of course - because of those two plays in the field.
So all this free publicity is playing right into my hands - just as I planned and expected it to do.
And, even better, the World Series starts on Wednesday and he will be starting in center field again. I expect his defense to be stellar, which will catch people's eyes again, and if he can only do well at the plate..
Even if people aren't baseball fans, they usually tune in to the World Serious. And with Jacoby's background, people are going to be bound to want to read about him.
So I am expecting much, much more traffic to my site, and I'm just so proud of myself for seeing this opportunity and capitalizing on it, and I am sooo happy that the Red Sox got into the World Series, because they were down 1 - 3 and I came *that* close to losing all my free publicity!
Whew.
Okay, sorry for the gush, but I am just really looking forward to seeing what happens in the next few days.
Of course it will tail off after the World Series ends, but next year will be Jacoby's first official season as a Rookie, so then it should ramp up again...
Now I've got to find a rookie football player whom people might like to read about, on a football team that [i:3c74rhpr]should [/i:3c74rhpr]get to the Superbowl... for example the Colts, and see if lightning will strike twice!
Re: Question: Do you listen to music while you work?
- I don't usually listen to music while working. However, if I'm doing something like preparing orders then I'll listen to BBC World Service, or a video or audio while packing parcels... Evan's videos often come in handy for that!
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