The best way to measure impact is to stop doing something. Leaders are often guilty of asking team members to complete various tasks without explicitly giving clear instructions. Unfortunately, by not being clear, a tremendous amount of wasted effort results. I have been guilty of this throughout aspects of my career. I’ve asked for some data without clearly stating the purpose and how long it might be needed. Eventually, I found out that some employees were regularly updating reports that I never intended to use again.
Typical Scenario
Your boss asks you or members of your team to complete a report for something that they need. It could be that the information requested came as a request from above them also. Once the report has been completed, the employee uploads it to a network drive for the boss to access. Impressed with the effort, quality, and turnaround, the boss says thanks to the team member and uses the report once.
Unfortunately, the employee assumes that the request might come up again, so they continue to maintain the report. Since the report is accessible to the leader already, they now can self-serve and access it when they want. As more requests continue, other reports start being maintained, leading to the employee to feel like there is a lot on their plate. They feel frustrated and burnt out with their workload. Sometimes, they might even need to put in additional hours to tackle other items they are asked to do. Little do they know that their boss only needed most of those reports for a unique situation that rarely, if ever, will occur again. Unaware of the frustration of the employee, the leader continues to throw assignments their way, hurting their engagement.
Ask: What’s on Your Plate?
Great leaders will know what’s on the plate of their team members, asking as part of regular 1 on 1 sessions. Upon finding out that the ability to take on new, more value-added work is being halted due to reports continuing to be maintained, a strong leader advises the employee to stop with their report maintenance. Furthermore, the act of facilitating Start, Stop, Continue Sessions can also bring opportunities to pivot responsibilities.
Math and Wasteful Reporting
I have heard of some employees working for over a year producing and maintaining reports and tasks that were not used by the leaders who initially requested them. Let’s do some basic math. Say that one report takes two hours a week to compile for an employee, and they have maintained it for an entire year. Unbeknownst to them, their manager never looks at, reviews, or uses said report. If they do, and considering other tasks thrown their way, they pick up two additional reports, that each takes about an hour each to complete individually, bringing them up to four hours per week.
- Four hours of reports per week x 52 weeks = 208 hours wasted.
- 5.2 weeks (10%) of yearly capacity gone that should be allocated to more beneficial tasks.
Lesson Learned to Avoid Wasteful Reporting
If you have found yourself in a situation like this, where your manager has asked you to complete something but never given you any feedback in some time about it, why not do one of two things.
- Ask for feedback as to whether the report serves its intended purpose. Do so within a couple of weeks of maintaining the report.
- Stop doing whatever was initially asked instead of blindly assuming you should continue forward. If you want to know whether something is valuable, don’t touch it for a bit. Provided someone comes asking for the report, then it was producing value and being used. If no one comes asking, assume you don’t need to do it anymore.
Avoid Wasteful Reporting at All Costs.
It’s all about working smarter, not harder. Don’t put more work on your plate by continuing tasks that might not be needed. Leaders, be more precise with your expectations and what you want, and specifically for how long.
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