This is that time of the year. The new year has just arrived. And the exercise starts to draw up team goals, resource allocations for critical projects and all of that. Faced with the same situation where each member claims they are fully occupied and have no free capacity to take on anything new, I spent time coaching a few of them on why it pays more to "signal" that they are free.
Deep down I think the problem is the environment we all grew up in. We always had to be "doing" something - it was a sin to be free and having nothing to do. This carried on to the workplace. Most of us do not feel comfortable to signal openly that "I am not doing much and can take more". I have been in environments where employees feel they will be judged as having lots of free time if they surf the internet, spend time in social media, write a blog, participate in co-curriculars and so on.
I think the problem is how a manager designs incentives for his team. I have decided to reward my immediate team members who takes the least time to delegate his/her assignments but still be responsible for it and thus free up time.
In the digital age, time to handsomely reward the smartest worker, not the hardest.
Deep down I think the problem is the environment we all grew up in. We always had to be "doing" something - it was a sin to be free and having nothing to do. This carried on to the workplace. Most of us do not feel comfortable to signal openly that "I am not doing much and can take more". I have been in environments where employees feel they will be judged as having lots of free time if they surf the internet, spend time in social media, write a blog, participate in co-curriculars and so on.
I think the problem is how a manager designs incentives for his team. I have decided to reward my immediate team members who takes the least time to delegate his/her assignments but still be responsible for it and thus free up time.
In the digital age, time to handsomely reward the smartest worker, not the hardest.
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