Pause for a second...
Think about the most dependable and knowledgeable person on your team. This may be your Executive Assistant or a long-time employee.
They know the business almost as well as you do.
They get it. And they get things DONE!
Knowing that you can count on them to tackle whatever you need when you're busy juggling a lot feels comforting, and you don't have to follow up behind them to see if the task was completed correctly or not. They are your right hand.
Now, imagine for a second that your go-to person submits a 2-week notice today.
Besides yourself, who on your team has insight into their role and can keep things going?
How would this impact your workload and that of your core team?
Do you have the time and resources to source, hire, and train someone to replace them?
If just reading that made you feel anxious, it's a clear sign that you need to establish better practices for relying on this team member.
As a leader, it's super important to not rely too much on specific team members. This can lead to burnout, an unfair distribution of work, and gaps if the employee decides to leave.
We can't build successful teams when our businesses are depending on specific contractors and employees to operate.
[insert name] shouldn't be the only one who knows how to do [insert job function] or where to find x, y, and z.
How do we fix this? Here are a few tips:
Create or regularly update processes and procedures that maybe only this team member knows. This way, the team can retain their valuable historical and process knowledge.
Make sure to encourage cross-training and skill sharing. It's always better to have multiple people on the team who can handle a task or project, especially if there is overlap in scope.
Develop a system to manage workload capacity. While I don't encourage micromanaging, it is important to have an understanding of overall capacity in order to assign work equally as much as possible.
Encourage the team to speak up! Having open communication about feeling overloaded will help you to solve any imbalances that may have developed.
Collaboration is KEY! An environment where team members work together, share ideas, and support each other's growth is a thriving one.
Not sure if the workload is divided fairly and evenly among your team members? Here's a simple way to find out: ask everyone to jot down their daily, weekly, monthly, and as-needed tasks associated with their role. This will help you assess each person's workflow. You can use our FREE template or reach out to us for our Workflow Week service and we'll take care of it for you!
3 Google Docs features you probably haven't tried yet.
Did you know that Google Docs has some amazing new features?
One of them is the ability to collapse and expand paragraphs in pageless documents. It's a game-changer for organizing and navigating through lengthy documents. Watch this quick office hours video to learn how to use it and others.
Comment and let me know if you try them!
Do you use time-tracking software? It's one of the most slept on tools for teams. I shared some insight this week on Instagram.
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