Cry 'Havoc,' and let slip the dogs of war
When you ask somebody to do something do they do it because of the position you hold or because you have asked them? Some people believe it doesn’t matter. I would argue otherwise.
I’ve seen recent examples of barked instructions to staff where the sheer impersonal delivery of instructions just beggars belief. For those afflicted by such unashamed bad manners I make two suggestions:
1) Deliver the request in a more measured tone. The reason I suggest this is that the constant barking of instructions gives little hint of the importance of the request as there is insufficient variation from previous requests with which to make a judgement.
2) Where time allows, explain why the request is being made. Everybody wants to know that what they do is useful and a simple explanation would go a long way to making the work feel more valuable.
What was the reason for my question in the first place? Curiously it is a self-serving one for the person making the request. Ultimately, you will always need other people to do things for you at short notice. Having given them the opportunity to understand both the urgency and importance of a request, you are much more likely to get them to help. What is more, they will be doing it for you, not your job title. Isn’t that a better outcome?
Note: I should apologise to Gary Stronach (pictured above) whose image I have used for this piece. I caught him in a rather stressed moment while he was coaching the Plymouth Raiders basketball team. He was a terrific coach, a nice guy and I’m sure he would probably agree with me that his sporting career peaked when he played basketball against me in an exhibition game. In that photograph, he does personify “barking” and that’s the only reason it is up there.
Nice post and useful tips.
I would suggest that barking an instruction at someone, outside of life-threatening situations, is a sure sign of almost complete inability to lead effectively. If you have true ‘positional authority’ then you don’t need to bark anyway, which is one reason why the more senior you go in the armed forces, the more orders become like softly-spoken suggestions. Without positional authority then personal influence is paramount – and that only lasts as long as the strength of your relationship lasts. Who’d ever put a dog in charge of something that really mattered?