I spend a lot of time building Organization Charts for firms that I work with. We designate roles and responsibilities and we train team members on how to work together for maximum efficiency (and fun!). Then a big project comes along and everyone is in a tailspin because the roles and responsibilities are being blurred. It happens. Sometimes we just have to get the work done! This means that team members will need to step into other roles or assistant team mates with their responsibilities. These situations are what being a team is all about. Let’s work together.
As a general rule, I ask firm operations managers and or owners not to dump work on whomever has capacity. Rather be selective and strategic is allocating work to team members even if this slows down our output.
Why? Because having worked with firms for the last several years, the biggest complaints I hear from managers or senior managers, from large to small firms, is that they are constantly being pulled down into the prep or triage stages of work and this affects how they see themselves as worthy as well as how they are using their best knowledge to elevate, train and move up the chain of command and learning. Don’t do it. Dont pull your managers down into prep. I know its tempting but rather cross work between preparation team or let’s discuss having a part time or contracted work force available to you when larger or time sensitive projects arise.
Do you have a project right now that is causing stress on your team? Let me help you resolve!