Tips From “A Message to Garcia”

As a small business owner, one of the hardest aspects of running a business is finding the time to do it yourself, or be willing to delegate the task to someone else.  The first course of action provides the benefit of knowing that the task was done specifically how you, the owner, wanted it done, in a timely fashion, and you do not have anyone to blame for failure except yourself.  Delegation, of course, means that you may benefit from someone else’s expertise, frees you for other important tasks, and allows your employees the chance to prove themselves.

Of course, the pitfalls for the first course of action, are that you do not have enough time to do everything, you must find some way to balance running your business with your life, and you may not be the best person to handle that specific task.  The downside to delegation is that you have to trust someone to take care of the task, they may not do it exactly how you would have or would have wanted it done, and they may not do it in a timely fashion.

“A Message to Garcia” is a short essay by Elbert Hubbard written in 1899.  No doubt many of you have already read and studied its message, being that of a short work.  But its message is still relevant today, more so than ever.  I recently ran across it and thought a brief summary of the work would be great as “A Message to Employees”.

“A Message to Garcia” is set during the conflict between Spain and the United States and takes place in Cuba.  Of course at that time, communication had to take place in person or via courier, if telegraph were unavailable.  The essay centers on an Army Lieutenant by the name of Andrew Rowan.  General Garcia was the commanding officer of insurgents located in Cuba.  He was located somewhere in the mountainous region of Cuba and would be difficult to find and communicate with.  A message had to be gotten to him so that his forces could be mustered.  How was a message to be gotten to Garcia?  President William McKinley and other commanding generals were unsure, until Lt. Rowan was suggested, stating that he was the person for the job, “if anyone can.”

Rowan was summoned, given the message, told the general location of Garcia, and was sent off on his way.  He was not told how to do the job, or how to find Garcia, nor did he ask.  He was simply delivered to Cuba on one side of the island, and three weeks later picked up on the other side of the island, having completed his task.

So I ask employees, “Are you the Rowan of your company?”

If you strive to be the Rowan of the company you work for, here are some general tips.

1.  Be available for assignments, any assignment, without hesitation.  The owner of the company or your direct supervisor may not want to ask you do something that may seem so menial, but if it is a project that they can get off of the “to-do” list, it may help them immensely.  If you are adaptable to whatever task is at hand, you will become indispensable to your company.

2.  Be reliable.  If your boss asks you to get something done in a timely manner, have it done by that deadline.  Often other deadlines must be met down the line, so do not be the weak link.

3.  Ask for guidance on the task, but figure out how to get it done on your own.  This is a fine line to walk, but the more you can do on your own, the more burden you relieve from your superior.  The more burden you relieve, the more grateful your superior will be.

4.  Take action.  So often people get bogged down in the details that they become apoplectic and unable to even start a project.  Often times procrastination prevents even the first step from being taken, which is most often the hardest step to take.  As I write this, I have had to stave off turning on the television, checking my email, researching other issues not relevant to this article at hand, getting up to grab lunch, and a hundred other minuscule thoughts that crossed my mind to prevent me from writing this article.

5.  Be diligent.  After taking the first step, be diligent in taking the next several steps.  Eventually you will come out on the other side.  See the preceding paragraph for an explanation.  Whether it takes an hour or three weeks, staying on task, will eventually get it done.  And it will show your employer that you do not need constant hand-holding or someone looking over your shoulder to make sure that you are getting your work done.

I hope this is helpful.  Since “A Message to Garcia” is short, it is well worth the read.  It is considered public domain and a copy of the complete text can be found at www.HowardLawGroup.com on the “Small Biz Tips” page.

Douglas C. Howard is an attorney based in Frankfort, Kentucky that assists small businesses with their legal needs and has taught “Entrepreneurship 101″ for the Thornhill Community Education Center and posts tweets and other updates on www.Twitter.com under his Twitter name, LegalPreneur.

From www.Wikipedia.org:  Elbert Hubbard was an author and philosophers who edited and published two magazines, The Philistine and The Fra. The Philistine was bound in brown butcher paper and full of satire and whimsy. (Hubbard himself quipped that the cover was butcher paper because “There is meat inside.”)  Owing to his prolific publications, Hubbard was a renowned figure in his day.