When "That's not my job" is the right answer.

Let me set the scene, I have always tried to have weekly one to one catch ups with my direct reports, it helps me to keep my need to control everything, under control, and makes sure they get the support that they need.

In this particular catch up we were reviewing actions, and not for the first time, the agreed upon actions had not been completed.

These weren’t actions I had given out, these were actions they had chosen to complete as part of their role, they wanted to do them.

There followed the uncomfortable conversation “Bob, you have told me for 3 weeks now that you are going to complete this action, why aren’t you doing it?”

And the response, one heard in every meeting room around the world….

“I had booked out Wednesday afternoon, but XX came to me and needed me to help them with {Insert task}, so I just didn’t get time.”

And here is the problem, and the birth of the 3-box model.

Imagine you are carrying 3 boxes, one is labelled performing, one is labelled underperforming, and one is labelled overperforming.

Now into your performing box place all the things you need to do, to be “doing your job”. When they are all in there your box is full. There is no more room.

Once all your performing tasks are done (and I mean all of them, not just the ones in your comfort zone), then you can add some tasks into your overperforming box, maybe you cover for your boss when they are on leave or complete some additional projects. Go ahead and put those additional, above and beyond, tasks into your over-performing box.

Here we have the perfect set up, your performing box is full and your over performing box is definitely taking you on your journey towards promotion. Life feels great.

Oh, here comes Sally……

“Hey Bob, could you just do this for me? {hands you a task out of her performing box}, I need to get this done by the end of the week.”

Bob, not wanting to be responsible for stopping Sally from doing her job, wanting to help, not trusting Sally to do it right, feeling like “he always does everything round here”, takes Sally’s task and pop’s it into his box.

But remember his performing box is full, to make space for Sally’s task he has to move something from his own performing or overperforming box, down into underperforming.

Now imagine Sally does this a few times each week, and Peter needs Bob’s help too, and maybe Josie.

Suddenly your need to help everyone else keep their performing box full, has resulted in a number of your tasks slipping into underperforming.

Sally, Peter and Josie? They are all happily walking around with their performing box full to the brim, confident in the fact that you are going to get their job done.

You on the other hand, head into your next catch up with your boss, with a full underperforming box and a lot of explaining to do.

And this only gets worse if you have a team to support, as you then slip into the “if I do it, I know it’s done right”, “it’s quicker just to do it myself”, “Anne isn’t very good on excel, so I will just….”

Before you know it, your performing box is so full with other peoples tasks, that there is no room for your own.

Now, by no means am I saying that we shouldn’t help other colleagues, sometimes helping Josie is your job, or Peter’s priority may actually be more important than some of your tasks, and maybe Sally is spending every night at the hospital with a sick relative.

What I am talking about is the day-to-day culture we have built that everyone else’s work is more important than our own. That we do others work first, and if we get time, we will get to ours.

When we fall into this way of working, others will fall into the pattern of letting us. Not because they are maliciously taking advantage, but because our brains are constantly learning the most efficient way to get s**t done, and if the most efficient way is to get Bob to do it, then that is exactly what will happen.

Slowly over time, your resentment grows, and your performance drops.

If you are regularly finding that jobs you know you should be doing, or even want to do, are always on the “haven’t got time pile” then it’s time to check, who else’s work are you carrying around?