Do Me A Favour!

There's one phrase that can do serious damage to your authority at work. You sidle up to one of your team and say:

Can you do me a favour?

Why is that such a problem?

You're the boss and as such you have a right, by virtue of their employment, to ask your team to do things for you.

I'm talking about legitimate, work related things, within the context of the job you've employed them to do - not popping out to the shops for a Twix bar. And yet if you ask people to do you a favour, what you're really saying is:

I'm sorry, this isn't very important, but I can't get anyone else to do it, so I'm going to waste your time and off-load a meaningless task that will interrupt your day and delay the other things you're working on, just for my own gratification.

In one short phrase you are undermining yourself, your colleague and the thing you want done. It might be an important task, but you've made it sound worthless. And the rub is that your team member knows he can't really refuse because you're the boss. So it builds resentment too. People keep their heads down when you're roaming the floor.

So let's try this again. You're the boss and you need a report completed by the end of the day, so it can be included in the monthly performance stats. Now choose the better approach:

Can you do me a favour and get that report to me by this evening?

Or

The report you're working on is very important in giving a complete picture of this month's performance. In order to be ready to submit tomorrow, please make sure I get your input by the end of the day. Do you have any concerns about that?

If you chose the second one, then you're being firm, clear and decisive, and you're giving him an opportunity to express any issues he may have so you can sort them out ahead of time. He knows you're asking him to do something important and is clear what the delivery conditions are. He may feel a sense of pride, because he's working on something for the boss that's important.

It's a common misconception that "do me a favour" is being kind and empathetic, not placing too much demand on those who are already overworked. Slipping in an extra task with as little fuss as possible. But it's quite the reverse; if something important needs to be done, it should be called out as such - if it's not important, you've no right to delegate it in the first place.

From today remove "do me a favour" from your lexicon. You'll find people respond better.

Next Butt