Who's In Your Corner?

It was a bit of a pickle for this professor to handle.  I once had a student who thought her roommate was following up with me to request the exam guide for an upcoming test.  Well, the roommate didn't follow through, and the student ended up doing poorly on the test.  The question was whether it was the roommate's fault for not keeping the student abreast of the progress, or the student's fault for not taking ownership of her own communication with me.

I bet I can guess your answer.

It was equally intriguing last year when Penelope Trunk of the Brazen Careerist let Gen-Y-er Ryan Healy take the steering wheel of her blog to defend why helicopter parents should be allowed to negotiate their children's salaries.  After you read the post, make sure you scroll down and read the comments as well.  The bottom line was that poor Ryan got steamrolled by many commenters.

Lesson Learned?  Helicopter Parent and Human Resources don't mix.

So, who is in your corner?  Who is your "go to" person to stick up for you when you need assistance?  Who is your defender?  Your champion?  Your "fall back" position?

The answer is:  whomever you feel comfortable selecting for that role.

BUT

Accountability for results still resides with you.  So choose wisely or don't rely on others too heavily.  (And, by the way, outsourcing and subcontracting don't always save you in this decision either.)  My friend, Bob Prosen, always admonishes the number one rule of delegation:  "Never delegate to a moron."  At the end of the day, people ultimately will look to you as the leader.  Are you ready to face them?

Comments

[CJWille]

The only time I truly delegated a personal matter was for infertility, and gave it to my OB-GYN to own. He committed to a successful pregnancy, and I have a set of twins to show for it. Clearly, he wasn't a moron. I have not been nearly as successful with project delegation.

[Mike Wagner]

It is one thing to plead the cause of another - we can all easily identify times when we need an advocate.

I guess I'll have to check out Ryan's guest post to find out why we would ever need more than that from our parents.

Keep creating...new ways to get it done,
Mike

[Pete Jones]

Is that the same as "My dog ate my homework?"

[Timothy Johnson]

@Crysta - I'd say you overachieved on your delegation

@Mike - advocates are OK; co-dependents are not

@Pete - it's the Gen-Y version of it, yes