That’s somebody else’s job

We will all have experienced it.

You want something done but the person you are speaking to is not “the right person”. Now the good outcome then is when that person says …”but let me get them for you” and the bad is of course is when they leave you to find out just who that someone else is yourself.

But there is another side to the “it’s someone else’s job” issue and I was reminded of this when I read this post from The Harvard Business Review  about leading when you don’t have formal authority. I had a boss once who was  ( in my humble opinion) hypersensitive about “stepping on someone’s toes” which meant that members of  their team were held back from being involved in projects that could have really benefitted from our input. I found it hard to see that happen and not step in but I still wanted to remain loyal to my boss so I would have a conversation at the coffee machine to get some more information to work on. Thankfully a couple of colleagues saw that as a good stategy too and before long we were invited into meetings and to collaborate on projects at the express wishes of the person whose job it was. And in turn we co-opted members of other teams to work  with us.

Generating interest in what you are doing by talking it up in an engaging, exciting way can work for everyone who becomes involved which can result in great outcomes for the business and the individuals involved. An important thing to remember though when this happens is to give timely and meaningful feedback to be included in any performance appraisal. It’s easy for work which is not done in the normal day to day job and has not been included in specific objectives to be overlooked.