Five experts weigh in on the pressures of managing more people with less support—and what you can do about it.
You’re managing more people than ever with far less support. Responsibilities keep multiplying, but the resources haven’t. And even though you’re supposed to be thinking strategically and focusing on the big picture, you’re often stuck in the daily firefight.
Every overwhelmed leader feels trapped in their own special version of management hell. And yet many of the experts who coach and study overloaded managers say they see the same patterns emerge again and again: Leaders who can’t say no; can’t keep the inbox and calendar from eating them alive; or who burn out trying to do everything themselves. We reached out to five of these experts to find out what actually works. Here’s what they told us. 1. Think small groups, not individuals. You might not be able to change how your organization is set up, but you can change how your team operates, says Ron Carucci, co-founder and managing partner at Navalent, a consulting firm, and the author of the book, To Be Honest: Lead with the Power of Truth, Justice, and Purpose. If you manage more than 10 people, Carucci suggests organizing your employees into small groups of three or four, grouping people together by project or by specialty. For example, you could cluster your client-facing people or data analysts together. Then, redesign how you interact with the team to be more efficient. “Instead of individual meetings, run small group sessions with these teams and facilitate their communication,” he says. “Encourage dialogue among them so they can solve problems and make decisions together. Your goal is to build self-sufficiency so they can work without needing you to weigh in on everything.” Save one-on-ones for quarterly check-ins focused on the person, not the work. Ask: How are you doing? What’s on your mind? “Use the time for career coaching and development.” 2. Say no—even to good ideas. Your team is smart and competent, which means they’re constantly coming up with new projects, improvements, and initiatives. Trouble is, as the leader, you have more good ideas coming at you than bandwidth to execute. “It’s the role of leaders to say no to good ideas,” says Nelson Repenning, faculty director of the MIT Leadership Center, and coauthor of the book, There’s Got to Be a Better Way: How to Deliver Results and Get Rid of the Stuff That Gets in the Way of Real Work. “There’s good evidence that most teams take on too much and that overload is self-inflicted.” The challenge with knowledge work, he adds, is that you can’t see the backlog piling up like you would in a factory. You keep saying yes to “just one more thing” because each idea seems manageable on its own. But they accumulate invisibly until you’re buried. The solution is to ruthlessly prioritize what deserves your attention, then keep all your commitments in one place: a calendar, Post-it notes, a simple list, whatever works. “Otherwise you get in a spot where ‘It’s such a good idea, I’m going to squeeze it in,’” he says. Get your team in the habit of finishing their top priority before jumping on to the next. 3. Start work on the same page. Managers who are stretched thin often create more work for themselves by skipping the upfront conversation that prevents confusion later, notes Edward Salas, a professor of psychology at Rice University’s business school. This often leads to the endless Slack threads and email chains you want to avoid. . Whether you’re kicking off something big or just the week of work ahead, Salas recommends running a pre-brief first. “In the military, it’s called mission rehearsal,” he says. “It gives teams role clarity, a shared understanding of the tasks and resources available, and a chance to plan for what might come up later.” Ask: Who owns which assignment? What does “done” look like? What’s our backup if things go sideways? “When you have a shared mental model, your team can act like a workload sponge, absorbing stress because everyone’s aligned and set up with contingencies from the start,” Salas says. 4. Prioritize problem-solving in meetings. Most leaders use email and face-to-face meetings backwards, says MIT’s Repenning. They use face-to-face meetings for routine project updates that don’t require much discussion, and Slack or email for problem-solving, which can be drawn out, overly complex, and inefficient. An inbox clogged with clarifying questions is a sign that you’re not using your face-to-face time correctly, Repenning explains. It means the work is generating uncertainty faster than you can process it in person. Repenning recommends flipping that approach. “Well-structured huddles of 15 or 30 minutes a day can eliminate hundreds of Slacks and emails.” 5. Set boundaries around which meetings you attend. Then again, you’re probably burning too much time in meetings. “Spending eight hours a day sitting in conference rooms or on Zoom, then doing your actual work at night isn’t sustainable,” says Beth Humberd, associate professor of management at UMass Lowell’s Manning School of Business. “Stop going to everything. Trust your gut on what’s worth your time and which meetings truly need you versus those where you just need the summary.” It can be helpful to see your boundary-setting as a development opportunity for your team. Send others in your place: you’re protecting your time while building their leadership skills. “You’ll test boundaries and sometimes get it wrong—skip a meeting, then realize, ‘Shoot, next time I need to be there,’” she adds. “There’s some trial and error involved.” 6. Be real with your team. The busier you get, the more your team needs explicit instructions on how to work with you, says Humberd. Some might be reluctant to bother you when they see you’re swamped. They sit quietly in their cubicles wondering if they should check in on that assignment or remind you about the conversation you promised. As a result, projects stalls and your already full plate gets fuller. That’s why “you need to be the manager who says upfront, ‘I’m managing more people and still learning. I need your help. Bug me if I don’t respond. Follow up with me if I said we’d connect and we haven’t,’” she says. “Be transparent and real.” The other piece is teaching your people to filter what they bring to you. Ask them to come prepared and prioritize what they bring to your attention. “It’s okay to say, ‘I hear you, I have 20 direct reports, I’m doing my best here. Map out the three most important things you need from me.’ Put some responsibility on employees to help manage the relationship.” 7. Tend to your state of mind and body. Work stress affects more than just your to-do list. If you’re not looking after your mental and physical health, it’s likely spilling over into your work, your decisions, and your interactions with colleagues. Carucci advises looking at how you’re “metabolizing” the stressors coming at you. “Pay attention to the input you’re absorbing and the narrative running in your head,” he says. “When you show up dysregulated—bitter, feeling put upon, or overwhelmed—you become your own worst enemy.” Make meditation and exercise a priority. “You wouldn’t run your car on empty for days, so why treat your body any differently?” 8. Know when to push back, and when to walk away. Deep breathing can help, but you also need to look deep within yourself—and your organization—and make some hard decisions. If your company is cutting costs by giving you more people to manage and piling on extra work, “it might be time to ask how long you want to stay,” says Leonard Schlesinger, the Baker Foundation professor at Harvard Business School. That’s because many organizations do not fully understand what middle managers do, so they keep adding responsibilities, assuming it won’t matter. “The result is a portfolio of managers who are overworked, under enormous stress, and unable to provide the guidance and support their teams need,” he says. Before you quit, Schlesinger recommends connecting with peers in the same situation and looking for ways to get management’s attention. Work together to identify where changes in workload or decision-making could help, both individually and as a group. “And if, after all that effort, the problem still can’t be solved, then this becomes your reality—at least until you find another.” More Resources Why Senior Leaders Should Stop Having So Many One-on-Ones Stop Solving Your Team’s Problems for Them Making the Case for the Resources Your Team Needs When You’re Overloaded—and Delegating Isn’t an Option Managers Are Burned Out. Here’s How to Help Them Recharge. Feeling Overwhelmed? Here’s How to Get Through the Workday.
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