The amount of information available to all of us, in every aspect of our lives, increases at ever faster rates. It is astonishing, valuable, and often increases the workload we carry.
My executive coaching clients regularly, and consistently, complain about the ever-increasing workload placed upon them and their staff. This never-ending demand contributes to burnout and for many people is the reason they chose to change employers. The problem is that in their next place of employment the workload is often even greater.
If you are anticipating your boss is going to help you or reduce the volume, think again. They are likely to be as flooded as you. The responsibility rests solely with you, the leader, to get a handle on your work and that of the people who report to you. Working more hours can be a short-term solution but not a sustainable one. The quality of your work will decrease significantly after 50 hours and becomes close to useless at 80. (Yes, I have clients who regularly try to work 80 hours a week.) Longer hours often steal from other important aspects of your life — family time, friendships, exercise, other interests, the community, to name a few.
How can you get hold of this out-of-control situation?
I suggest using the Four Ds.
What are the Four Ds and how do you apply them?
Delete, Delegate, Delay and Do
#1 Delete. Have you been in a situation where you were pressed for time and attention because of illness or had an emergency turn up? To handle the critical, you had to eliminate what suddenly became not essential. You deleted doing things and everyone lived.
The fact is, much of the work we do is not that important, or the depth to which we are asked to take it really doesn’t move the needle. Fear of making a mistake pushes us to pile on useless or overbearing “just in case” materials.
What would happen if you just deleted it? What if no one took it on? What is the risk? What is the cost? I often suggest coaching clients take their annual salary and divide it by 2080 (the number of hours in a 40-hour work week). That is your hourly rate. Most people are astonished because they would never pay someone that much money to do the task in front of them.
If you could limit the number of meetings you attend, how many would you delete if the choice was yours or if you felt comfortable not accepting the invite? My guess is 50%. And a good number of the remaining you would cut the time down the same amount.
Take a ruthless inventory. Look for work to delete. You will be surprised how much belongs in the recycle bin. Focus on the meaningful and important.
#2 Delegate. How often do you take on a project, memo, conversation because it’s, “Just easier to do it myself?” Or “My staff is already overworked; I can’t give them more to do.” Or “I am the only person who really knows how.” Are any of these excuses accurate? Really are you the “only one”? Is your staff really overworked or are they just complaining they are? How would you know they can’t do more or better? Didn’t you work long and hard in the early days of your career, why should it be different now?
Delegating to more junior people gives you more time and opportunityto use your high-level skills and thoughts, become more strategic and less tactical. Doing work, you know well can be boring and surely isn’t advancing your career.
Delegating exposes less experienced employees to new and higher-level work. It tests what people are capable of. It proves to you which of your staff members can handle what and with what level of professionalism. It demonstrates you are a leader not just one of the doers.
Delegating doesn’t mean dumping something you don’t like or want to do on someone else and then walking away. It is a time to teach, not preach; monitor, not micromanage; show trust, not skepticism.
#3 Delay. We are all accustomed to rapid delivery — be it the Amazon package, on-demand media, or grab and go meals. The truth is not everything needs to be now. That is especially true at work. Sure, they would like it immediately, but some things must give for priorities to be met.
Pushing for now often causes mistakes, errors whose fixing takes even more time. Many speedy results end up sitting on the receiver’s to do lists for days, months, even forever. Immediate can make us look at only the present. Delaying an answer, report, or project for a set period can help you see the real and fuller picture.
In my recent Competitive Edge Report on being too busy, I talked about how a highly competent ER doctor prevented her department from being “crazy busy” using triage. This did not mean only for patients but everything they were responsible for. If you were to triage your work, would some of it fall into the delay column? Probably.
Fair Warning — procrastinators can use delay too often. Know who they are and make sure their reason for delaying is truly what the work demands, not their emotions asking.
#4 Do. As a leader and manager, the work you do should have high-level impact, make a difference, inform others, and the program, as well as teach those who report to you how to handle the work. Yes, there are times when you are the right, maybe only, person to take on the battle or the problem, the question or next step. Yes, there are many of those times, but none should be taken on before you have assured yourself it should be done by no one (deleted), assigned to another (delegated) or held back (delayed). When you choose to do the work yourself, you should be the right person at the right time based on what is best for the work at hand and the organization.
Using the delete, delegate, delay, or do model takes practice. You will catch yourself slipping back to your old habits. Making it a part of your leadership style will enhance your team, create quality and timely work, and reduce your workload.
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