Your team member needs a clear understanding of what you want them to do. The less clear your briefing, the worse the outcome may possibly be. Using a simple and flexible model to help you structure your briefing will make this easier. One example is PILOTS which stands for:

Positioning – The first step is to introduce the task and why it is important. When people understand why they are doing something, why it is important and where it fits in with the organisation, they are more likely to be committed to doing a good job. They understand that other people are relying on them. 

Instructions –This is the outcome that you want them to achieve. It is results focused and will explain what a good job looks like. For a recurrent task with someone who is experienced at undertaking it, this might be quite brief but for someone new to the task it is vital.

Limits of authority – This is the scope of decision making you want to empower your team member with: “If this happens you can make a decision to resolve it, but if that happens I want you to speak with me.” An experienced person will have a much wider scope of decision making because they have been through similar situations before. Someone new to the role will need more support with these decisions.

Options – For someone new to the task or someone who is very experienced you might not give options. For the inexperienced person you would give step-by-step directions. The experienced person will know what to do. For those people in the middle, you might give some options or you might ask them how they think they could do it and help them refine their plan.

Time – Deadlines are very important but often forgotten. Missing unspoken deadlines is a common cause of frustration

Summarise – Close with a summary to confirm the task you want undertaking. Even better, ask your team member to summarise your instructions so that you can check their understanding.