Nicole was exasperated, “I try to delegate, but I always seem to end up with the project back in my lap.”
I was curious, “Tell me what kinds of things do you try to delegate?”
“Some small stuff, but I really try to delegate projects or phases of projects. These are significant responsibilities, not just petty stuff I am trying to dump off.”
“Nicole, when you delegate a project, how does the conversation sound?”
“I don’t know, I get with the person and hand them the file, or whatever and give them a deadline. I always give them the deadline.”
“So, where do you think the breakdown is?”
“Even though they know the deadline, I don’t think they start fast enough. Or they need help, but don’t even know they need help because they didn’t start the project early enough to find out. Then it ends up on my desk, half finished or half assed, one of the two.”
I pressed for a different approach. “Nicole, what one thing should you change to get a different result?”
“Maybe I should frontload an extra meeting within 24 hours of the delegation to make sure they started the project and to find out what problems they have.”
“Indeed.” -TF
Tour de France Update
Turns out many readers are depending on this blog to get their Tour updates.
Tuesday’s race saw the leaders content to hold their own while small skirmishes broke out for standings in the lower part of the top ten. Cadel Evans led a breakaway group that succeeded to the end. That moved him into 7th place overall. The closest person to Lance Armstrong (DSC) is Ivan Basso (CSC) marking 2 minutes 45 seconds behind. After almost 67 hours of racing, two minutes doesn’t seem like much, but it is likely to be impenetrable. Lance just has to stay healthy and not fall off of his bike.
Once out of the mountains, the flat stages will see attacks off of the front, but if any of the leaders have that in mind, Lance will be right there to cover. There is still one time trial to go. We might see Lance go all out as he begins to make his exit from the Tour.
Standings after Stage 16
1 001 ARMSTRONG, Lance USA DSC 66:52:03.000 00:00:00.000
2 021 BASSO, Ivan ITA CSC 66:54:49.000 00:02:46.000
3 057 RASMUSSEN, Mickael DEN RAB 66:55:12.000 00:03:09.000
4 011 ULLRICH, Jan GER TMO 66:58:01.000 00:05:58.000
5 031 MANCEBO, Francisco ESP IBA 66:58:34.000 00:06:31.000
6 164 LEIPHEIMER, Levi USA GST 66:59:38.000 00:07:35.000
7 044 EVANS, Cadel AUS DVL 67:01:32.000 00:09:29.000
8 066 LANDIS, Floyd USA PHO 67:01:36.000 00:09:33.000
9 019 VINOKOUROV, Alexandre KAZ TMO 67:01:41.000 00:09:38.000
10 101 MOREAU, Christophe FRA C.A 67:03:50.000 00:11:47.000