Conventional wisdom says you should dump all you don’t want to do onto your best people while the paycheck collectors keep on collecting. We’ve never been accused of being conventional and we know this is a sign of a manager who hasn’t received proper training or one that is just a little lazy. Avoid the temptation of weighing down your best person with all the tasks you’re not able to get around to or those you don’t want to do. In the end, this will demotivate your best people, enable the worst to continue with the status quo and it will limit your ability to manage a productive team.
Start today with the process of selecting the right person for the right task. The reality is you can’t be a superhero. You can’t do everything. You’re in charge of managing a team so take time to actually manage. Find out the strengths and talents of your employees and match those to the various tasks at hand. Do you have an employee or two that no task of significance or of productive value can be matched to? In that case, we shouldn’t have to tell you what needs to be done.
In the end, when you have a team whose talents compliment each other and are matched to productive tasks, your job as a manager becomes less stressful, more rewarding and a lot more fun. You’ll also see less turnover and higher morale on the team. So stop dumping and start selecting!
