“I guess I am feeling a little burned out,” said Cynthia. “There is just so much to do now that I am a manager. I feel stretched, way stretched.”
“How did the manager before you handle all of this workload?” I asked.
“Oh, that was different. I am still handling all my old job responsibilities plus handling my new responsibilities as manager.” Cynthia stopped. “So, I am working twice as hard. No wonder I feel burned out.”
“Who do you plan to give your old responsibilities to?”
“Well, I am trying,” Cynthia continued. “I just haven’t figured out how.”
“Wrong question,” I said.
“What?” Cynthia was startled.
“Wrong question. You will never make any headway figuring out how. You will only make headway when you figure out who. The solution is almost never a how, it’s almost always a who.”
“So, I should stop trying to figure out how I am going to get it all done and focus on who is going to do it?” Cynthia was surprised at her own question. She knew the answer. -TF
This is a great reminder. And it’s not just any “who”, it’s the right “who”. Good delegators use delegation not just to reduce their load but to develop the people on their team. The right “who” benefits from taking on the delegated task. Thanks for your blog!
A managers work is purely to manage. If you are doing the employees work. Your mind has not yet graduated into being a manager.
Convince the Top Management. If no body is available in the Office , make hiring a guy immediately top priority. If Permanent hiring takes a long time than consider temping. If none of the above applies than load the existing employees with additional duties , it will give them the job satisfaction of handling a more complete job. Anyways if you slog other employees will laugh on your back.
Ms. Cynthia with due respect Academics and Practicality are two different subjects. In business EI counts. Academic aspects and ethics are best left to PHd and post doctorate research scholars. A manager’s task is to get the job done, every time.
One way of looking at it is to organise/substitute/educate. Practically untill you get the right resource or untill the right resource is set to your tunes your managing job will not commence.