Let Them Do the Work

Management by exception is used when you assign a job clearly and in its entirety to another person. You and the other person discuss and agree on what is to be accomplished, how it will be measured, and when it is to be achieved. You arrange a schedule to review progress at pre-arranged intervals, if necessary. You then leave the person alone to do the job, except when there is a variance from the agreed-on standards or if something unexpected goes wrong.

The staff member is to report only deviations from the plan. As long as everything is going smoothly, and the job is on schedule, no reporting is necessary. If you do not hear from the person, you are safe to assume that everything is going according to plan.

For example, ...

Get Motivation (The Brian Tracy Success Library) now with the O’Reilly learning platform.

O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.