Lawrence had been a manager for only a couple of months and was having trouble letting go of the supervisor responsibilities from his previous position. His resistance is captured by David in response to Monday’s post.

But how do you get out of the weeds? So much stuff hits my desk it takes me hours to sift through it all to determine what really needs to be done. By then, the day is over and I have not done anything. The next day, it starts all over.

Dig a little, beat back the alligators, dig a little more. Understand that this is not a time- management problem. You cannot organize your way to greatness.

This is the secret, the keys to the kingdom. Your only hope (and hope is a strategy) is to improve your delegation skills. Delegation and training. The only thing that will keep a manager out of the weeds is to build a team to support the position. When a company gets big enough, it is called infrastructure. Without that support, there is no hope.

As a manager, I look for two strata (levels) of support for the manager. Strata I does the work. Strata II (supervisor) makes sure the work gets done. Strata III (manager) creates the system and makes the system better. -TF