Feeling overloaded

• Do you also apologize whenever you delegate something?
• Do you say you: ''I am sorry to have to burden you with this, but...''?
• How motivated will people be if they feel you are burdening them?
• If the job is important enough to be done, how could you sell it to others as a worthwhile investment of their time?
• How well are you managing your team - ensuring they use their time strategically - investing it where they can add most value?
• Rather than just add one more task to their pile, how can you help them fit it in with their other priorities so they see how you, as their customer, rate it relative to everything else they must do?
• If you are delegating significant developmental jobs rather than menial tasks, are you selling them as such?
• If you can convince team members of the benefits to them of taking on a project, then they are more likely to find time to do it.
• How could you help your busy team members manage their time better and learn to work smarter? Is this not part of what it means for you to manage them effectively?
• You might reply: ''I empower my team to manage themselves.''
• But is this management or abdication? Management, like investment, means monitoring how our investments are working to reap the greatest return.
• Effective management means striking the right balance between empowerment and investment. You cannot invest this resource effectively unless you take some steps to ensure that it is fully focused on what's most important and using all resources at their disposal as efficiently as possible.