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I am overloaded and have more "big balls" coming from my boss soon. I run a small product development team that is responsible for our company's flagship product. Because they are the core team that builds our product, their work output is as important and valuable as mine.
The MT guidance is to delegate to force directs to get more efficient or drop unimportant tasks. But I need them to focus on growing the product so we can make our customers more successful and thus increase revenue. So even if they do find things they can drop, they should fill that time with more product development.
"Managerial Economics 101" doesn't seem to apply when my reports generate as much value as I do (or more). How can I handle new tasks coming from above when my team's work is as important as my own?
Thanks,
Josh
Re-prioritize first.
Josh,
You did not give a lot of detail and I cannot imagine the type of scenario you describe. If you have five primary responsibilities one of them , by definition, must be more important than the other four. In other words, you can have only one number one priority. Which priority would you be least worried about not completing? Answer those questions and you will know what to delegate and what to drop.
Apply the same methodology to your directs. It may be you are correct. In that case, you might need an increase in team size but I would first re-examine the existing duties. "Value" is a subjective term. Make sure what you think of as "value" is what the organization thinks as well.
Ed Zaun
DiSC Profile 7-3-1-2
Thanks, Ed. Your advice to
Thanks, Ed. Your advice to re-prioritize is helpful. I should do that for myself and for my team.
I think it is still likely that my team's efficiency gains should be applied to generating more of their primary value, rather than helping me do my job. But if that is the case and I have to drop too many things myself, maybe that's my cue to start looking for more resources.
Thanks,
Josh
Josh, Your post grabbed my
Josh,
Your post grabbed my attention as I'm in a direct care services field and a lot of my direct's directs do work that can't be dropped. Dropping their work would mean our customers go uncared for.
i have no perfect solution for you but I have found that helping your directs think about how to condense their work load can help them. If you ever find yourself thinking, "I could do this 10x faster" ask yourself why that is. What resources, processes, or skills do you have that they do not. Can you help them acquire them and in doing so, increase your team's efficiency
What is your DISC profile?
Josh,
Do you know your DISC profile? I would suspect you are high on S like I am. I have to work really hard to push my directs for more productivity. Protecting the team is a natural weakness for us S types. It is also a strength if used properly.
My directs would laugh at me if they read this by the way.
Inform YOUR boss
It sounds like leadership is planning more work than the team can deliver. The leadership above you may not be aware they are causing problems. I would suggest you present them with current constraints and the priorities you have already put in place. Discuss the impact that coming work will have: it will delay release, cause higher rate of defects, etc.
If you present your current efforts to prioritize and handle the work and the capacity problems, it forces them to act. Your managers should have a larger view of how the priorities should be arranged they can apply and then they can shift or axe things. But no amount of team optimization can cope with a work overload of equal priorities. Right now you are feeling the pain, but the problem is at a higher level and must be solved there.
If you start cutting work without involvement from your boss you will get blamed for any decision they disagree with (taking charge like that can work, but it's very risky). Bringing the problem to their attention in a way that prompts a decision can win you respect and also deal with the actual issue.
Thanks, all. This is
Thanks, all. This is helpful.
I am a high S/C (3157). I definitely struggle to push my directs to be more productive, but I think I'm getting better at it. I've seen a ~30% increase in output from 2012 to now. I've allocated most of that extra productivity to creating more features for our product.
The suggestion to work harder to coach some of my directs to help them grow and take more off my plate is a good one. My coaching to date has been intermittent.
I wouldn't say that leadership is asking for more than the team can deliver. Our customers definitely are. It's a good problem to have, but sometimes stressful. We're getting pretty good at making priority decisions with input from customers, leadership, and the team.
Josh