Leaders: Are You Delegating To Someone Who’s Undermining You?
In most cases, when an organization hires my company – Cooke Media Group, in Burbank, California – they name someone internally as the “point person” who we deal with on a day-to-day basis. In some cases, this point person has approval authority and, at the very least, dictates the working relationship. In most cases, the person is experienced, responsible, and qualified. But from time to time, that point person can make life miserable. Here’s why:
In the last 20 years, here are some of the “point people” who have evaluated and critiqued our work for clients:
– A housewife (she was a friend of the pastor and had worked in marketing 10 years ago).
– The CEO’s assistant, right out of college (because he had taken a film class).
– The ministry’s youth director (after all, teens like videos, right?).
– The CEO’s cousin (because she had a “good design sense”).
– A church member who’d recently finished an anger management course (because he wanted to be a filmmaker one day).
In most cases, it’s an employee who simply doesn’t care. They have other work to do or believe this project isn’t a priority, so they put it in their “someday” box. They take forever to return phone calls, review the work, or communicate with anyone, making it look like we’re not meeting deadlines.
In worse cases, it was about insecurity. The last thing the point person wanted was to have an outsider tell him or her what to do.
I could go on, but you get the point. Time after time, these people were approving and changing work done by far more experienced and qualified designers, video producers, writers, and other creatives.
In each case, it was a disaster.
Leaders – You’ve probably gone to a lot of effort to find the right outside designers, video producers, branding consultants, social media strategists, writers, and others to help tell your story. Plus, you’re probably paying them a lot of money for their talent. So don’t undermine that effort by assigning an unqualified employee to be your point person on the project.
I’ve written before with suggestions on how to pick that person, and you can find that post here.
Fortunately, our team’s work is almost always directly with senior leadership, so the ability to report directly eliminates an enormous amount of frustration or confusion. In other cases, my recommendation is that the leader who initiates the project be involved in the beginning to set the vision & at checkpoints along the way.
If you’re a creative freelancer or vendor, how about you? Has your work ever been undermined because of the person assigned to approve it?
Phil Cooke, PhD. has been called “one of the most innovative communicators of our generation.” As a media producer, writer, speaker, and consultant, his client list includes major film studios and TV networks as well as major Christian organizations like Voice of the Martyrs, The Museum of the Bible, The Salvation Army, and others. He’s also coached and consulted with many of the most influential churches and nonprofit organizations in the world, helping them use media to tell their story. You can hear his podcast here.
