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How Leaders Can Start Improving Instruction Giving

By Ruth Graham


As a leader, one has to know how to properly give instructions to his subordinates otherwise they will not be able to deliver the desired output. Often times when the output is not up to standard or simply not good at all, the fault lies within the instructions that were given to the subordinates. As a leader, one must reflect on himself and start improving instruction giving to make it clear.

Now, one thing that one has to take note of is that the art of communication plays an extremely important role in instructing. One has to know how to delegate by serving as an example who knows how to make things understandable. Making instructions understandable and easy to do is the way to avoid miscommunications.

The first thing to do is to stop assuming that people can understand jargon, especially if they have not been trained yet. A lot of managers often complain that their employees do not follow instructions and end up with bad results. This is usually because these employees do not understand what their managers are talking about but are too afraid to ask. So the first step is to avoid jargon as much as possible and teach the definition of jargon if they are needed.

Second, one has to focus on training and orientation. As early as the start, leaders or bosses already have to start training the subordinates of what is to be expected of them so that they will understand instructions in the future. As stated above, do not assume that subordinates know what to do even before being oriented or trained.

When one gives instructions, it is advised that one do it step by step so that his subordinates can follow it. Making it step by step prevents confusion on what exactly should be done. Another thing to take note of is to always be patient when explaining the instructions as to not miss anything.

It is also good if one can make a copy of the task and the instructions so that there will be no pinpointing if the task is not done. For small tasks, one does not need to shoot emails or anything, but for the bigger ones, emailing the nature of the task and instructions is an SOP. This ensures that the boss will know who takes responsibility.

Lastly, encourage a culture of openness so that the subordinates will not be afraid to ask any questions. One of the failures of most leaders is that they make their subordinates scared to ask questions. In fact, questions should be encouraged so that the subordinates will have a clearer understanding of the task on hand and will yield better results.

If one wants to be a leader, then he cannot just think about telling people to do this and that. Instead, he has to think about communicating his ideas in a way that will make it understandable and easy to do to his subordinates. If his subordinates are able to translate his ideas into actual actions, then he has given them the right instructions and has succeeded as a leader.




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