Assigning Tasks – A Power User’s Perspective

Tony Elliot is the Vice President of Media and Information Technology at Velocity Retail Group, and an experienced CommandHound user. Velocity is a full-service real estate company, focused in meeting the real estate needs of retail clients nationwide.

Tony Elliott at Velocity Retail Group Uses CommandHound to Drive Accountability
Below is an excerpt of some of Tony Elliott’s advice to other power users in his organization.

Power User Advice

CommandHound is a great place to organize all of your tasks in ways that help you improve your workflows.  Some people prefer one list or Tower with all of their Control Points while others prefer to separate their Control Points into multiple contextual Towers.  Regardless of your mindset, here are some tips to help you improve the probability of success when assigning things to others:

1. Discuss and define the task or milestone prior to assigning it.

Remember, for someone to keep their promise to complete a task or milestone, they first have to make one.  Simply assigning a Control Point to someone, does not constitute a promise that it will get done on time as expected.
A promise requires both parties to agree upon the specific request, task or milestone and the specific due date.   If you have a list of future Control Points that you need to assign but don’t have the details or timing down yet, don’t assign them.  Keep them assigned to yourself until you are ready to define the request with someone.  

2. Use the Notes field in the Control Point definition form to capture the essence of the request.

The Notes field in the Control Point definition form is a great way to communicate back and forth with relevant information about the request, task or milestone. 
CommandHound Uses Notes to Enhance Team Communication to Get Things Done 
This should help to cut down on email traffic and drive-by conversations as well as to keep the relevant information in the proper context of the Control Point.

3. View and adjust your Control Points as needed throughout the day.

As the requestor, you should be able to see where things are in the escalation model.  As the assignee, you too should be able to see where things are in the escalation model.  When Control Points go from green to yellow, its a good time for both parties to come together on a strategy to reprioritize the task or to renew the due date.

Accountability Software

CommandHound has been designed from the ground up to drive accountability in the workplace to drive business performance. CommandHound achieves this objective by assigning, tracking, escalating and reporting on critical activities or milestones.
CommandHound Tracks Milestone Completion Performance By Individual and/or Team 
To close the loop, CommandHound tracks completion performance by individual and/or team so it can be tied to performance review or incentive programs as needed.

Next Steps

Would you like to learn more about how CommandHound can help you turn your business into a high-performance organization (HPO) by driving accountability?