{"id":4680,"date":"2021-08-19T10:00:55","date_gmt":"2021-08-19T17:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/?p=4680"},"modified":"2021-08-06T15:32:08","modified_gmt":"2021-08-06T22:32:08","slug":"do-you-tell-someone-why-along-with-what","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/?p=4680","title":{"rendered":"Do you tell someone \u201cWHY\u201d along with \u201cWHAT?\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

How to get more performance from your directives<\/strong><\/p>\n

Empowering your direct reports with the reasons for your orders gives them incentive to act, motivation to accept authority, and purpose behind action.\u00a0 I try to teach this with the simple phrase that is the headline of this insight.<\/p>\n

Wouldn\u2019t you want to know \u201cwhy\u201d if you thought an order illogical?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Think of the last time someone above you in your business or personal life gave you an\"\" order to do something that seemed either illogical or of low priority – to you.\u00a0 If you accepted the authority of the person giving you the order, you just performed the task, probably either wondering if that person was nuts or whether you just didn\u2019t understand the reason for the task.<\/p>\n

How would you respond with more information? <\/strong><\/p>\n

What if that person had told you why it was important to be done, in clear terms that related to that person\u2019s priorities?\u00a0 Wouldn\u2019t you be more prepared to perform the task knowing the context?<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s an example you will recognize from your life<\/strong><\/p>\n

[Email readers, continue here…]\u00a0<\/em><\/span> I recently spoke with an old friend who is in sales.\u00a0 He lamented the fact that his boss recently layered several more sales reports on him to complete each week, reducing his selling efficiency.\u00a0 How many times have we heard this complaint, especially from sales people?\u00a0 I suggested that he go back to his boss and \"\"explain that it would be more than just helpful to know why these new reports are needed, that even though the salesman has no need to know, it would certainly make doing the work less of a chore.\u00a0 And by the way, I offered, if the boss could not explain why, there might be an opening to advance the argument that the trade in time between completing the new report and reduced sales call time might be worth a revisit of the order.<\/p>\n

Would this weed out the unnecessary or ill-thought requests?<\/strong><\/p>\n

How many tasks, reports, and rules hang around the necks of people throughout a more mature organization, which remain as \u201cwhat\u201d without anyone remembering \u201cwhy?\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 It is probably as effective a tool for the manager as for the recipient of the order, to explain why<\/em> when telling what<\/em> to do.<\/p>\n

Your employees or even your family members will appreciate the small extra effort, better understand the reason behind the request, and perform the act with more enthusiasm.\u00a0 What\u2019s not to like about that?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How to get more performance from your directives Empowering your direct reports with the reasons for your orders gives them incentive to act, motivation to accept authority, and purpose behind action.\u00a0 I try to teach this with the simple phrase … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4680","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-depending-upon-others","category-surrounding-yourself-with-talent"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4680","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4680"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4680\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}