Thanks Becky R. for working with MadeOn to take on some of the packaging responsibilities. This is freeing us up to spend more time to work with our customers and our partners. I dare say that you are faster at that task than me, but just as attentive to quality. Freedom is being able to job out our non-critical tasks!

When I delegate tasks, I "black-box" what I'm handing off. That means I don't hand-off tasks and then keep key pieces to myself that make it difficult for the other person to be efficient. I also clearly define what constitutes success for the particular task. That definition of success is what will come out of the black-box. 

If I'm keeping information to myself that is pertinent to the task, that may mean I don't have enough confidence yet that the specific task can be successfully accomplished by the other person. That necessary inside info is what should go into the black-box.

Maybe the person is a new contact I've never interacted with before or maybe I'm not sure that they truly have enough time. If that's the case then it's a signal to me that I need to make the black-box smaller. If the task is finished successfully then my confidence builds and I'm able to hand-off a bigger black-box task the next time around.

But if I don't black-box I can never build my trust relationship up enough to truly hand-off tasks completely.

When you really don't need your reader to do anything, leave him off the hook in your email like this:

Dear Joe,

(No Action Requested From You)

I got your reports and they are exactly what we needed.

See you tomorrow at the customer's site for the presentation.

Cordially,

Jonathan.