Do your job, not your team's
Self Improvement
Are you doing the easy work, instead of the right work?
Write down how much time you’re spending on different work activities this week. Now, classify the work: how much of it is work that someone on your team could have done?
If you find that more than 10-20% of your work is work that your team could have done, you’re probably on the wrong track. Start working on a plan to give the work back to your team, and think of another plan - using the tools in your management toolkit - to solve whatever problem you were trying to solve.
Instead of doing the work yourself, should you:
- coach a team member?
- delegate the work to someone else?
- organise training?
- find ways to better motivate someone?
- build a business case to fix a fundamental challenge?
- deal with a performance problem?
- hire someone to do the work?
- help your team improve their processes?
When to take this action
This action is from 'Do the right work, not the easy work' and should be used when you're not sure what to do, when you're a new manager, when you're stressed, when your team is under pressure
Need something else?
In your personal development time
Keep yourself on the straight and narrow
Bad habit of doing the wrong work? Worried you might slip?
In your one-to-ones
Help me, help you
Your team will surely know if you have the bad habit of doing their job for them. Ask them to help you stop, and tell them how.
In your one-to-ones
Stop yourself being sucked in
Team needs your help? Resist the urge to get your hands dirty.
With your boss
Create accountability
Ask your boss to hold you accountable. What behaviours or bad habits should they be calling you out on?