The Puzzle
I recently stumbled upon a Harvard Business Review article from 2016 called called Collaborative Overload and it really struck a chord with me. From a leadership perspective, there is a lot to unpack in this article. I wanted to use two items from this article as a jumping off point for a deeper leadership discussion. First is the understanding that our personal resources (the time and energy of ourselves and our team) are finite and our most valuable resource. Secondly, is that effective collaboration is critical for the success of an organization, but it is a challenge for us to identify and reward associates that fulfill that need. So, let’s unpack this in a little more detail.
They throw out some stats in the article, but we have all experienced this. In any organization, within any team, we always have a very small percentage of the people doing a majority of the critical work. We have our “go-to” people that we count on for every project, for every client presentation or for any meaningful initiative. They are our “comfort zone”, they are the ones we can count on in a pinch, they are the ones that we trust, and they are our “superstars”. We look to them as the future of our organization, until we bury them in extra work and they begin to breakdown, fall behind or quit. So, what can we do as leaders to address this?
Expand our Bench Strength- We are doing a disservice to the organization and to our teams if we aren’t looking to get more people involved. As leaders, we are tasked with the development of our associates. We should be looking to grow the next generation of leaders for our organization and we do that by getting more of the team involved in these initiatives. You have to expand your circle and build that trust with a larger segment of the team
Draw the Line- This one is always easier said than done. Most of us live in an environment where EVERYTHING is a priority and saying no doesn’t feel like a viable option. Trust me, I feel that pressure every day; but we have to be realistic on what we can effectively handle when our normal workload is growing and the need for project help is swelling. While we might not be able to say “no”, we can attempt to set realistic expectations with the project team on when we can complete the task. It is better to be upfront than overcommit yourself or your team
The second point I wanted to get us thinking about was rewarding effective collaboration. It is definitely related to the first part. There is a quote in the article I mentioned from a former Goldman Sachs and GE Chief Learning Officer that said “leaders are hoping for A (collaboration) while rewarding B (individual achievement). They must instead learn how to spot and reward people who do both.” I think this can be tricky. Identifying “B” is easy (you can measure active case load, number of accounts managed, etc.), but assessing “A” is much harder to see and measure. So, how can we get there?
Honest Assessments- My favorite term in the article is “amplify the success of their colleagues”. Do our “super stars” actually do that? All too often we have top performers that have negative attitudes and actual hurt the team. I have seen so many people throughout my career that have been promoted to leadership positions or invited to participate in big initiatives because they were great performers. That is what we measured and that is what we rewarded, but if those people are not collaborative (the article said only about half are, and I can believe it). We need to stop that cycle. The only way to do that is to truly assess our teams. I am not sure how we measure it, but I think we need to be focusing our efforts on those people that amplify the success of the team. For the good performer/non-contributors, we must be willing to let them go. In fact, we need to get them out for the sake of the continued success of our team and the growth of the organization as a whole. They are short team help for sure, but they can often be long term trouble
The Reward- This is a tough one. When we talk about “rewarding” our associates, we are typically talking about promotions or monetary incentives. Both of those are often in short supply for many organizations, so we have to get creative. The best thing that many of us can offer as a reward today is the experience. These transformative projects can offer your team the chance to make a name for themselves. That can lead to riches down the road, but in the near term it can create a more engaged and knowledgeable team member. We also have to be comfortable that we are giving them skills that could help them land a new job outside of your department or even your organization. We have to be comfortable with the philosophy that a shorter time with a great employee is better than a longer time with a bad one. In some ways, if you think about it, an associate’s willingness to get involved in these projects without a promise of decreased caseloads or guaranteed promotions could be a real indicator of those associates that we should consider our “super stars”
There is definitely a lot to think about in my post this time. We have a lot to do and we have a lot of great people, it is just a matter of us putting the puzzle pieces together in a way that allows us to success grow the business while simultaneously growing our associates.