I sometimes find myself giving conflicting statements with people who I am closely associated with and at the end of the day, I am the one who has to swallow what I said. Giving clear instructions are essential at times. In fact, most high income earners or leaders are required to give clear instructions to their subordinates. I'm not being sexist, but I can say generally most of these are men. For example, Barrack Obama, Napolean, Bill Gates, Stever Jobs, etc.. have to make important decisions then give clear instructions. Napolean couldn't have said "I want to conquer Asia" and after his Generals have sent his troops out sailing the seven seas. He sacks his General because... "I thought I've told you I wanted Europe you buffoon!"
www.thebuffoon.net
Here is an interesting story that I can relate to.
On one fine day, David was asked to drive his mother to two different banks. The mother received an instruction from his father to withdraw money from St. George bank and to deposit the money into Bankwest for the purpose of telegraphic fund transfer (TT) to a foreign bank account. Bear in mind, David's father is a busy working man and has no time to do petty things like this and also stressed out from work. Now, David's mother has followed all instructions and upon arriving at Bankwest, received a call from dad and asked to find out the cost for TT at Bankwest, St George and Commonwealth Bank. However, Moms already know and told Dads that TT from St. George requires a lot of paperwork and documents and not the other two banks, furthermore, St. George does offer cheaper TT cost and better exchange rates compared to two other banks. However, David's dad being David's dad, insists on going back to St. George when these two banks are located quite far apart to try their luck. Unfortunately, bad luck. What moms said was true. So the trip to Bankwest was a wasted trip because at the end of the day, the cash was still with mom and was in nobody's bank account.
So which bank did David's mom eventually go to after this round about? Commonwealth. After a bit of yadah yadah from David's dad saying, "Why didn't you find out which bank offers the best rates?" When the clear instruction from the horse's mouth was to TT the funds from Bankwest.
Conflicting orders can cause an emotional wreck and thinking it through when making a decision could well save your life. Relating to David's story and from a more personal perspective if memory serves me right, conflicting myself can cause annoyance, and annoyance can lead to many things like dislike, disappointment, hate or even murder(exaggeration). I experienced this before and I'm sure most of you have too, I experience it more often when I have other things in mind to worry about and my mind is somewhere else when I was giving an order or statement. And when that happens, it usually turns out in conflict from what I had made before.
I think the best way to resolve this is to delegate some of the work and give the person the decision rights. That way, the person will have to make the appropriate decisions. Of course, clearly convey an objective. For example, if the objective is to conquer Europe and you are an evil dictator like Adolf Hitler, let your Generals do their job but consult you before they implement the strategy, or if for example in David's case, let his mom have the rights to decide which bank to use. If the dad's objective is "die-die"/want to save every cent, then of course David's mom would know what to do, she will have to fill up the forms and provide the necessary documents to St. George bank.
Sometimes it's best to give guidelines or boundaries for 'what if' scenarios, what if I ran out of credit for my mobile phone, should I buy RM30 or RM50 reload? or should I sign up for a post paid plan. Hmmm, this supermarket sells 10 cents more than my neighbourhood 7-11, what should I do? MY SUGGESTION! go back to school and learn how to draw a friggin flow chart!
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