There is a story that I once heard that goes like this:

 

“A new hotel employee was asked to clean the elevators and report back to the supervisor when the task was completed. When the employee failed to appear at the end of the day, the supervisor assumed that like many others he had simply not liked the job and left. However, after 4 days the supervisor bumped into the new employee and he was cleaning one of the elevators.

“You surely haven’t been cleaning these elevators for 4 days have you?” the supervisor asked him accusingly.

“Well yes sir, of course.” said the employee.  ”It is a big job and I haven’t finished yet. Don’t you realize there are over 40 of them, 2 on each floor and sometimes they are not even there.”

 

In the busyness of managing our business,we often sometimes overlook communicating the minor details. We make assumptions about understanding and prior experience, but still expect the result without communicating it. This analogy, even though it is a simple story, is a great example of how not ensuring understanding and clearly communicating the task to an employee can result in wasted time, frustration and job dissatisfaction.

Ensure that you clearly communicate tasks with your team through email them, audio or video, or any method that best suits your team.  Ensure that they understand exactly what you are asking them to do, and make certain that you have given them all the resources they need to do it effectively.