(August 26, 2024 Newsletter)
My heart breaks every time a client tells me that they’re drowning because they’ve reached the limit of how much they’re willing to delegate to their team.
Why it matters: When someone describes the experience of drowning in their workload, burnout is right over the horizon. Burned out people leaders can’t do the strategic and creative work needed of them, and can’t support their teams fully.
It’s even worse when the burned-out manager ends up in a vicious cycle with their team. Clients often gripe, “Why am I working so much harder than my team?” Once the default becomes “I’ll just do it,” their team members take their feet off the gas.
Reasons why managers take on excess work:
Misusing the Golden Rule: They hate being given more work when they’re stretched thin. Now that they’re in charge, they don’t want to push their team beyond their limits out of fear of overworking or losing their best employees.
No time to explain: There’s too much going on give instructions or teach. They think it’s just easier to just do it.
Outdated definition of “valuable”: They want to prove to their own boss that they’re super capable, but they’re using old definitions from when they were responsible for getting the work done (instead of supervising others to do it).
Let’s seek out some solutions
Leverage technology: Are there tasks that your team members do regularly that could be automated or shortened using AI or other tools? The resistance I often hear is that someone has to research the tools, learn how to use them, and maybe get approval to pay for them. The only step that should be your job is finding budget (if necessary). The research and implementation are investments by your team members in their long-term sanity.
Create redundancies within your team: Are your team members too specialized? More people knowing how to play more roles can make it possible to redivide the workload when some employees are overtaxed and others have some slack to give.
Reassess capacity more often: You might THINK you know how full everyone’s plate is, but think again. How often are you checking in and redistributing work? You might need to increase the frequency from quarterly to monthly, weekly, or daily.
Educate internally: When teams are in support functions and get work assigned by other departments, there may be basics that can be taught so that the requests come in at a higher level. Your role will be working across those departments to reset expectations, get buy-in, and create and reinforce learning opportunities. Again, it’s a short-term investment for long-term gain.
Tap external partners: To my clients in nonprofit organizations, what else could you be asking your volunteers to do? I’ve seen beautiful examples of shifting the paradigm on the lay-pro relationship to get lay leaders to pitch in more. The same is true for vender relationships in corporate settings. Expect more from them and they will deliver.
Bottom line: Don’t resign yourself to taking on excess work. With some creativity, you can balance the load without getting buried.
Final thought: Engage your team in finding solutions. They’ll likely have great ideas on how to keep everyone motivated and balanced.
The Coaching Corner
Listen out for metaphors – and then stick with them
When a team member uses a metaphor, follow their train of thought and play out it out. In the moment, the person is describing something in terms that make sense to them, so continuing to use their analogy does a few things:
Makes it clear that you’re listening closely and are taking them seriously
Makes it easy for them to continue unpacking the issue on their mind and solve it themselves
It’s a classic use of the “yes and” principle from the world of improv.
Recommendations
The fundamentals of negotiation, as taught to us by a cute kid on Instagram.
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