End State Delegation

***We have 73 folks in our Sagan Passport Community, within 30 days of launch.

Small business owners, investors, searchers, resellers, private equity, franchisors.

Check it out.

It’s “Costco for Global Talent” - helping you hire globally at an unbeatable price (with a ton of support).

Friends, Romans, Entrepreneurs - lend me your ears.

Today I’m going to talk about “End State” delegation as it applies to using global talent at higher and higher levels.

Tell me if this sounds like you:

• “I just have my Philippines based VA do tasks for me, but she needs a lot of hand holding”

• “As soon as my global talent hits a roadblock, they get stuck and have to bug me”

• “ I feel like if I don’t micromanage my global talent, the job doesn’t get done right”.

Other than the occasional bad employee (which does happen from time to time) the way to overcome all of these issues is simple - end state delegation.

Here’s how it works, and it is stupid simple.

• You tell your team the “End State” (and ideally the purpose) but they figure out how to get there.

• You entrust the team with the autonomy to determine the most effective path to achieve the end state.

• By focusing on the end state rather than prescribing a specific process, your team feels a sense of autonomy and ownership, that let’s them overcome challenges on the way to the end state.

Let’s use a silly example:

Bad Delegation: 

“Can you call my dentist Mr. Bob today, to get an appointment tomorrow at 3PM?”

Simple enough, how could someone mess this up?

Here are some speed bumps:

1) They don’t get to it today, should they still do it?

2) Dentist doesn’t have a phone number on the website - just an email.

3) No time tomorrow at 3PM

4) What type of appointment do you need?

5) You have a block on your calendar every afternoon, does this apply?

End State Delegation:

“ I need my teeth cleaned. Can you contact Mr Bob and get me in as soon as possible, without moving any existing appointments?”

END STATE = LESS BUTT PAIN

Look at the five potential questions - all five have been addressed, simply by discussing the end state instead of the task to be performed!

Empowerment:

Here’s the other secret about end state delegation.

Your team LOVES it.

You tell them where you are going, and they figure out how to get there.

You aren’t bugging them on slack.

You aren’t in their underpants.

You give them the end state, and resources they need and THEY figure it out.

It feels fantastic when a leader gives you this kind of trust and empowerment, and it develops the hell out of people, quickly.

Frequent Mistake:

A frequent error in end state delegation is a lack of specificity.

Leaders sometimes outline the goal without providing enough context or detail.

To avoid this, you must define the end state CLEARLY and provide a overview of expectations, including the reasons behind the task, its importance, and the resources available (if any).

This clarity ensures that team members understand not only what needs to be achieved but also why it matters.

I’ve written about context before, and this is another example.

Rolling it Out:

Here’s a simple way to get rolling with this - and be held accountable as a leader.

I got this from @brianwiki (on twitter) who I cofounded TeamWiki with.

Tell your team “If I ever tell you to do something without an end state, ask me for it”.

Your team will help you get into this habit, because ultimately they are the beneficiaries of this type of leadership.

Simple say “End State?, if I tell you to do something without one”

I practice what I preach - “End State” is included in all of my Kanban forms with my team!

Yallah Habibi,

Jon

Passage of the Week

A rich and mighty Persian once walked in his garden with one of his servants. The servant cried that he had just encountered Death, who had threatened him.

He begged his master to give him his fastest horse so that he could make haste and flee to Tehran, which he could reach that same evening. The master consented and the servant galloped off on the horse.

On returning to his house the master himself met Death, and questioned him, “Why did you terrify and threaten my servant?” “I did not threaten him; I only showed surprise in still finding him here when I planned to meet him tonight in Teheran,” said Death.