An important part of your job as a manager is making sure everyone on your team has the right amount of work. It’s tempting to give the workhorse more projects than others (especially if she’ll get them done the fastest) or to ease up on someone who is struggling, but you also need to be fair. How do you make sure that work on your team is evenly distributed? What do you do about the person who’s great at saying no and the one who can’t say no?
What the Experts Say
Delegating work to your team may sound like a straightforward task of management, but, in fact, it’s complicated. You are “juggling multiple interests” in the pursuit of optimal team performance, says Liane Davey, cofounder of 3COze Inc. and author of You First: Inspire Your Team to Grow Up, Get Along, and Get Stuff Done. “As a manager, you’re thinking about: What matters to our customers and shareholders? How do I get the best outcomes? How do I do it in a way that doesn’t burn out my people? How do I use my resources wisely? And how do I get more out of underperforming resources?” There are real risks involved in not distributing the workload in an equitable way, says Julie Morgenstern, productivity expert and author of Never Check E-Mail in the Morning. “If you overwork your high performers, you will lose them because they start to resent the fact that they’re doing more,” she says. Similarly, “if you’re taking away work from people who are slower,” they will lose interest. “People come to work driven to succeed, to grow, and to be acknowledged. When they aren’t given an opportunity to do that, it’s poison.” Whether you’re dividing up the workload for next year or next week, here are some strategies to help.
Have a plan
Divvying up assignments for your team members requires forethought and planning, according to Morgenstern. “You are managing the energy and brainpower of an entire group,” she says. It’s not something you can do “during the cracks of your workday in between your tasks. You must devote time to it.” Morgenstern suggests setting aside one or two hours at the end of each week for “delegation strategy and review.” She suggests you think about “What are we trying to achieve? Who are my players? Who does what well? And, who needs development and in what areas?” Those questions will help you figure out the best way to allocate assignments. Without a purposeful plan, Davey says that “managers too often do what’s easy in the short-term and ask the most talented person” to do the hard work. The problem is “then nobody else learns how to do [the tasks], and you’re not building the capacity of the team.”
Clarify roles
A key element to your delegation strategy is making sure “your team members are crystal clear on their roles,” says Morgenstern. “Each person is a player, and the surer [you and they are] of their roles and responsibilities, the easier it is for you to assign work, review work, and demand excellence.” She suggests making a list of all the work that needs to get done and then assigning tasks according to each worker’s specific function, position, and strengths. This exercise also helps you discover any gaps in talent—“You might have 10 outfielders and no one at first base,” says Morgenstern. “Put the tasks that do not fit under any specific role on a list and then figure out—with your team’s help—how to handle it.” You might need to temporarily allocate certain jobs to others. Or you might need to hire someone new. You need to “be deliberate” about how you assign work, adds Davey.
Set expectations
Continually stating the objectives you’re trying to achieve as well as emphasizing the level of effort and engagement you expect helps focus the team, says Morgenstern. “There needs to be a clearly articulated and repeated value that everyone ought to be equally contributing his or her talents, skills, and energy,” she says. Let it be known that “people should be pulling their weight” and willing to help each other, she says. One of the difficulties with making sure that a workload is fair and equitable is that employees don’t work all at the same pace; what may take Marian one hour, might take Jim all day. In other words, even when the workload is “even,” it might not look that way. “It’s important to make sure your employees understand you don’t equate hours with productivity,” according to Davey.
SOURCE: HBR
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