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August 13, 2014

The Importance Of Inspecting What You Expect

The Importance Of Inspecting What Your Expect, By Barbie's Beauty Bits

I am writing this post today on a topic other than beauty.  Today it’s going to be on INSPECTING WHAT YOU EXPECT.  This philosophy is good for all businesses including bloggers.  Unfortunately yesterday,  I learned the hard way that my values and integrity of my company is not the same as those around me.  Seems like common sense, I know, but even that can get the best of you with a hectic schedule. Therefore, today I wanted to share some great tips on The Importance Of Inspecting What You Expect, with all of my fellow bloggers and other readers who may own a small business, so this doesn’t happen to you!

With a growing blog or other business, opportunities arise and as you get bigger. Hence requiring you to consider help with VA's, interns, etc.  This type of delectation is important so you can grow and become larger.  Bloggers, the same as small business owners, have usually built their business from the ground up. Because of this, ensuring your credibility is ever so valuable for the success. Like with any other companies, policies need to be set in place, and these policies should be communicated with your potential partnerships, interns and or employees.  With polices come training, you need to train these individual(s) on your polices and explain to them what you expect. More importantly, why you have these in place,  so they can get behind and support you.  You need the “buy in” so they understand the why and the importance of your policies.


SMART goals by barbies blogging bits


Don't be DUMB be SMART.  Meaning, you have to set SMART goals and objectives.  What are SMART goals?  I learned this from Forbes, but it's business 101 and if you can't do this, then the only one you can blame, is yourself.  SMART GOALS are goals that are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound.  While all are important, specific & time-bound are essential to succeed, if delegating.  You must always set specific days and times, PERIOD! Saying I need this ASAP, or I need you to do this, is not good enough.  You MUST set the parameters and share them. Otherwise, it will fail because of YOU! Remember others time frame is not the same as anyone else, plus people are not mind readers!

Inspecting: 

This is crucial, one to keep them on their toes but also because your employees and interns are a reflection of your company & brand.  What they do, approved or not,  is the perception others have you.  And remember others perception is their reality whether true or not. One thing I’ve heard over the years is people do what you inspect not what you expect; sadly this is true most of the time.  Bottom line if you are going to delegate you don’t want to make assumptions, all people involved, big or small need to see and understand your vision!

Something’s to keep in mind if you want to delegate responsibilities to others:
  1. Know their character:  No one cares as much about your business as you do, so when delegating tasks you want to make sure the person is competent and trustworthy.
  2. Communication:  This is key, everyone needs to be on the same page. 
  3. Remember time is money. So the excuse, I don’t have time I’ll just do it myself COSTS you money. Yes, in the beginning, it may take a bit of your time.  But once, someone else has the hang of it, the dividends will pay off.
  4. Checklist:
    1. Have you explained your expectations?
    2. Do they understand your values?
    3. Are there certain rules, ethics, laws that must be abided?
    4. Have your supplied them with what they need to succeed (time, materials, money, etc.)
    5. Do they know what to do if something goes wrong? 
    6. Repeat the above IF YOU WANT TO THRIVE & SUCCEED. Without these, you will fail.
In conclusion, you want to make sure that there is a clear window of communication. You need to be detailed in what you need during the entire process, with the how and why of the tasks.   Ensure that everyone clearly knows what you want.  The best way to do this is to have them repeat it back. Otherwise, someone may just say yes to say yes.  If they know what you’re hoping for, why it’s important you, what you inspect, then you’ll get the buy in and will succeed.

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62 comments

  1. These are great lessons to learn. Delegating is very hard for me because giving up control is difficult. I want to make sure everything gets done to my standards and that is sometimes not easy to give up to someone else.

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    1. I struggle with that too. It's really hard to get someone to see your vision.

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  2. Sometimes, I expect the worse, or to fail. When I succeed, I'm always happy about it.

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  3. I am a firm believer that when the time is right, one should consider delegation - in any field.

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  4. All great points. Sometimes things that seem so obvious to one person are totally not on the chart for another.

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  5. Great tips! I use these guidelines for hiring help on my site, and it works out very well.

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  6. Good advice and great plan for communication.

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    1. I agree with what you said. Good communication can be so difficult

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  7. Even if we know these things, we still need reminders. There are always new traps coming our way, we have to always stay vigilant! Thanks for the reminder.
    Mitch

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  8. These are great points. A lot of times, what we expect or what we think is acceptable is on a completely different wave length from someone else. People who work with you or for you should definitely be on the same page as you.

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  9. communication is key on many aspects of life. I don't like giving up control but you have to know how to trust those you've put in charge

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  10. I agree. As we grow it becomes necessary to ask for help in order to enjoy the time we have. I think it is important to enter into a contract with a trial period to make sure things are working for both parties. I'm sorry you were left holding the short end of the stick yesterday.

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  11. Great lessons for sure! I am for sure someone who always expects the worse! Need to work on it.

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  12. Great points! I am a control freak, so giving out tasks to others, is super hard for me!

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  13. Communication of expectations is huge. I find it hard to delegate certain things but the reality is that I just can't do everything myself.

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  14. Integrity is important! Thanks for sharing these tips.

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  15. Communication is one of the hardest things as humans sometimes. It is always better to set expectations

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  16. The only person I have ever delegated anything to on my blog is my mom. So I'm pretty good with that! We are like two peas in a pod, and I trust her with my life. ;) Great advice!

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  17. I have such a hard time delegating to others! I need to work on that more. I do agree, communication is definitely key!

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  18. Great point on the delegating!! It's easy to hand off, harder to find the right person to hand off to.

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  19. I have a very hard time delegating because I always want to make sure things are getting done and done correctly the first time.

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  20. I love having great tips like this. I know I need to delegate, but don't have the time. lol

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  21. Sorry that you had a bad experience. But thank you for sharing your great tips. Great things to keep in mind.

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  22. I always have too high expectations. Thanks for the reality check

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  23. Isn't this the truth. This is great advice. Thanks for the reminder!!!

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  24. Such important lessons! I've had to delegate certain things but I really vet who I've delegated to and thought carefully about what to let out of my control.

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  25. Those are great tips. I don't like to delegate, just because I prefer to do things myself.

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  26. What a great post. I just last week did not make myself clear to a client and it could have cost me. Now, I know to tell them exactly what I want.

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  27. These are all really good points, communication is very important. I'm not great at delegating what needs to be done, I've always been bad at explaining things in my head. Great post, thanks for sharing.

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  28. I especially love the tip about telling them your expectations. A lot of people say things and don't really explain what they really want so the other person is left to assume and we all know what happens when we assume.

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  29. Great tips! I know I need to delegate more but it's often easier just to do things myself and not have to take the time to teach anyone how to do them.

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  30. Great tips! I have been considering hiring help!

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  31. I often have trouble delegating responsibilities to others because I know it won't get done to my standards. I guess those of us with Type A personalities always have this problem.

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  32. I have a contibutor and she is a great writer but challenged when it comes to photo taking. I have to bite my tongue to hit "publish".

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  33. Communication is so important!! I have issues with it myself, so I love it when people remind me that I need to be a little more clear sometimes.

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  34. I am like most that are commenting here and do not like to delegate because I have certain standards and want to make sure things meet those standards. My father owned his own business and raised through him I learned that nobody is going to do it the way you do - ever! Maybe one day I will relax a little more.

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  35. I do this on a daily basis and truly believe the old saying there is no dumb questions. While I do think personally some are pretty common sense as you said, others may not have the same standards. I even use this in parenting. I ALWAYS make my kids repeat what I said to them when it is an important matter. Always.

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  36. Great lessons to learn. Integrity s so important!

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  37. I've toyed with the idea of hiring a VA and these are some great tips. It's scary putting something that you have slaved hours over in the hands of someone else. It sounds like you got a bad deal sorry.

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  38. I have a super hard time with delegating! But you are right, communication is super important. But I still have a hard time trusting that others will do things how I want them done.

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  39. this is why I believe so much in feedback!
    everyone is a reflection of the company

    on delegating....I sin of not doing it

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  40. Communication is important in almost anything, it helps a lot.

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  41. Great points. I agree that communication if expectations is vitally important.

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  42. What a great post, with some fantastic tips - I sometimes don't explain things well and the expect to much. x

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  43. Great points! Communication is really important, no matter the type of relationship, for sure!

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  44. asking fr help is one of my hardest things to do. I'm so use to doing it all myself that asking is hard.

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  45. Nice tips and lessons. I will have to keep this list in mind for future.

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  46. Awesome points. I think that communication is so important in anything in life. Amber N

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  47. Great pointers! I have a hard time delegating anything. I am such a perfectionist- I feel that I would always be inspecting!

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  48. Great post, with many great points and tips. I am a firm believer in communication...I think this is the key to any successful relationship.

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  49. Initially, I sucked at delegating work to others since I like things to be perfect. However, I have gotten better at delegating now, especially with my caseload & whatnot :)

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  50. I don't have any employees but my husband is in charge of quite a few so we have discussions all the time regarding his job. I was just telling him yesterday that he needed to let some things go and quit micromanaging. Allow some of his employees to show him what they can do.

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  51. thanks for the tips and reminder :) We all should communicate well.

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  52. This is great advice for us beauty gurus and ones just starting out!

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  53. l'm glad it was helpful. One thing I can't stress enough is that everyone understands laws and ethics and why you can & can't do something. This is where I had someone do something they were not supposed without me knowing, until it was too late. Although they were told what they should and shouldn't do, I obviously didn't explain the reasons why clear enough, and they thought I was just being anal instead of it's the LAW!

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  54. Delegation is a big part of managing people and a situation! If you don't allow yourself to let go, trouble will soon come. Its when the people working for you don't follow the rules, when you have an issue. You're right about knowing the person's character. You have to know what they can handle and how they will portray what you need them to do.

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  55. Thanks for sharing great tips! I'm really bad at delegating things and prefer to do them myself. Should try to change it though.

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  56. Great advice. Delegating is always hard, as we always feel no one can do it better than we can.

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  57. I've never been good at delegating I have more of a bossy nature (ask the hubby) lol It is true, communication is key for any businesses. Thanks for sharing these great tips with us.

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  58. I definitely think you need to be clear with your expectations from the beginning. Everyone has to be on board with the company goals.

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  59. Great post! It's ways best to sort of know what to expect in any given situation. I like being my own boss and I am great at delegating when I need to.

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  60. I had a horrible experience with a VA. I thought I did my work in interviewing the person, but not well enough. The VA had multiple clients with a few in the same genre as me. I was ok with this, and she shared them with me. What she didn’t share was her clients in the UK and she would ended up using the same images for them and myself. She didn’t do it to be deceitful, she just wasn’t thinking. Long story short I had a crazy blogger claim I stole her creative, when in actuality, we both used the same VA. It goes to show you people jump to conclusions. While what the VA did upset me, I knew the other blogger was innocent and reached out to her trying to explain the situation. She however, refused to believe me and blasted horrible posts on social media about me. What dumbfounded me the most, was when I had brought to her attention that we used the same VA(the VA even told her), she dismissed it and still kept posting false acquisitions and making derogatory statements, like sure we use the same VA…how convenient. She was CRAZY! I ended up taking the girl to court as she wouldn’t stop. The point to this, is you need to make sure you cover all grounds, I didn’t ask the right questions, now I know.

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