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Communicating Instructions

One of the essential functions most supervisors and managers need to perform is giving instructions. That sounds easy enough—you just tell them what you want them to do, right? In reality, we know it’s often not so easy.

Managers are often distracted and pulled in multiple directions when giving instructions; some managers don’t have very good communication skills; and virtually all managers have heavy workloads. This sometimes leads to employee instructions that are quick, haphazard, or incomplete. The results of poorly communicated or poorly understood instructions can be costly. This newsletter will present ideas for how to give instructions that are understandable so the person willingly complies and achieves the results you expected.

Does This Sound Familiar?

You are rushed or distracted, and you quickly tell somebody what you need from them. They nod and agree to do it. You check back with them later and discover that what they have done is not at all what you wanted. They misunderstood your instructions. Now the work has to be corrected or reworked, resulting in lost time, lost productivity, and expense. Even though you may try to blame your employee when this happens, most of the responsibility for instructions lies with the leader.

When giving instructions you could ask your employee, “Do you understand?” In fact, you probably often do ask them this when you give instructions. But this question is not enough! The employee may say they understand, even when they don’t, in order to try to please you or to avoid embarrassment. Or they may fully believe they understand, but they have interpreted your instructions differently than you meant them.

Double Checking

You can significantly reduce these errors of interpretation by using a simple communication technique: double-check by asking your employee questions when you give instructions. Ask a question that will prompt them to say back to you, in their own words, what they understood. This gives you the opportunity to clarify in case they misunderstood.

Let’s use as an example instructing an employee to move three different items in a warehouse to three new locations as part of a warehouse reorganization. To be certain the employee has understood and will remember it all, ask them to tell you what you just said. “I want to be sure I’m saying things in an understandable way. What do you need to move and where are you going to put them?” Another approach that might work for you would be to ask them to tell you the instructions they would give to somebody else if they now had to tell another person to do this task.

The leader does not want to come across like he/she thinks the employee is stupid. “Okay, tell me what I just said to you,” might insult them. This is when you can take some of the burden of the communication on yourself. Try wording it something like this:

“I know I may not always be clear about what I want. Sometimes I get in too much of a hurry. So I want to begin checking back with people when I give them a job to be sure I’ve said it right and that we are on the same page. Tell me what you think I want you to do.”

Then let your employee tell you each step as she understood it. If she has not heard what you meant, restate what you need. If she has missed a step, remind her of the missing step. When you are satisfied that you are both on the same page, have confidence that she can and will do as you have asked, and praise her when they do.

After you have done this with her a few times, most employees will learn to say it back to you without being prompted. Adding this extra feedback step every time you give instructions may add an additional 30 to 60 seconds each time; in cases where the situation is complex it may be slightly more.

It’s an extra minute you definitely need to take. This is a small price to pay for something that could save you hours of rework and costly mistakes. Simple misunderstandings can be greatly reduced by double-checking.

Try It Yourself!

The next time you have to give someone instructions or directions:

• Ask them to tell you what they think they need to do, based on the instructions you gave.

• Clearly describe what the end result needs to be, giving them some leeway for their method of doing the job. You don’t want to micromanage them.

• If the task is unfamiliar to the employee, show them and check in with them later to monitor their progress.

• Ask them later what they learned to reinforce the learning.

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