Trust, Care, and Word Choice

If you're an organization leader like me, at some point you've probably uttered the phrase:

I don't care.

to one of your reports.

And you didn't mean that in a callous way. In fact, in context, it went something like:

... I don't care about the implementation details of the project...

Recently it hit me that this lazy shorthand was sending the wrong message.

Because the message I was trying to send wasn't:

I don't care about any of the technical details about the project or process.

I care a ton. I just have a lot of other things on my plate. And, more importantly:

I trust you.

And that's what I'm actually saying.

I trust you to handle the implementation details of the project or process.

I trust your skills, and your judgment. Otherwise I wouldn't be handing this off to you.

I'm working on being more explicit about that trust.

But if I ever slip up, know that I do care. But I trust you to take care of it.