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Submitted by pk13 on
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Hello all,

 

I have a member of my team who has been asked twice to do something and has failed to action the request . He is a hard worker but I dont appreciate ignoring my request twice.

 

How should I go about in dealing with the situation?

 

p.s  I am fairly new here so I would also like to know  if there is a email for manager tools we can use to email in our questions   or the forum is the only place we can raise any questions and hope for an answer?

 

Thank you

pucciot's picture
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Perhaps this is merely an error in communication.

The simplest thing to do is :

Ask this Direct Report for a Status Report on this request.

No emotion.

Just a plain, 

"Bob, could I please have a status report on this task I asked you complete ?"

"I am setting a deadline for Friday by 3 pm for you to report to me that you have it completed."

** Always assign a Deadline to report completion with every task request **

I have a hard time with this --- and I suspect you may have fallen into the same bad habit I do.

 

It sounds like this :

"John, Please report to me that you have completed Task A before 3 pm on Friday."

Notice I didn't say Complete the Task by Friday.  The Request is to _report_ completion.

__ It is an important subtle difference __

You are asking them to Report to you - that they have completed the task by a deadline.

* If they miss the deadline - Request a Status Update.

* Bring up the missed deadline at your next One-on-One

* Once they have made a pattern of missing these deadline - then you will need to provide feedback

 

Make sure that you are comunicating clearly before you jump to any conclusions.

 

You might find this podcast helpful.

https://www.manager-tools.com/2015/11/im-working-not

 

Good Luck

TJPuccio