How to know when your team is doing too much (and other capacity issues)
Getting the balance of team workload right is a challenge that all leaders and managers face -> here's how to get started
We’ve all worked with people who clearly have too much on their plate.
We’ve had team members who just can’t say no.
And, we’ve had team members that say '“everything’s fine” but under the surface they’re paddling like crazy.
We all experience weeks like this but having members of your team that are consistently over capacity and taking on too much can lead to stress, disengagement and burn out.
It also prevents the opportunity for your team to engage in deep work and can result in a decline in quality of work and an impact on the wider team’s morale.
As a leader or manager, working with your team to manage their capacity is a must.
Let's get into it 👇
This post covers:
Identifying when there’s a problem
Talking to your team about workload
Six ways to identify and solve capacity issues
Recommended resources
TL;DR
🎭 Focus on accountability and outcomes rather than a task list
🦢 Make sure to check in on your team members that seem to be managing well
📉 Time tracking shouldn’t be scary, it should be a helpful tool
📝 Use capacity reviews as an opportunity rethink what you can STOP doing
🦄 Capacity isn’t just impacted by workload - skills, experience and stress levels can all contribute
Identifying when there’s a problem
Sometimes your team will come to you directly with the problem. Other times they won’t - and that isn’t always something that you can control. Sometimes they don’t recognise that there is a problem. Sometimes they think they should be able to solve it themselves. And sometimes they secretly thrive off the feeling of being needed.
Signs that you need to dig deeper with a team member:
Missing deadlines that they would usually hit
Work quality that isn’t to their normal standard
Arriving late to meetings or calls
Changes in team engagement or social activities
Working more hours than usual or at weekends
Making simple errors and mistakes
Comments from customers or other team members
A “gut feeling” - sometimes we just know
Talking to your team about workload
After you’ve identified that there’s an issue, your next step is to talk to your team member about it. Whether they’ve come to you, or you’ve approach them, qualifying the capacity issue is the first step.
Coming to the conversation from an open and supportive angle will help your team member to speak freely and for you to get to the bottom of what is causing the issue.
Capacity isn’t a simple equation of hours in the week = hours of output. There are many other factors that can impact it, such as:
Skills
Abilities
Knowledge
Mental load
Wellbeing
External factors
Clarity
Because there are so many factors that can impact capacity, it’s important to work with your team member to understand the root cause of the issue.
Here’s some questions that you can ask:
Can you walk me through your current workload and priorities?
Can you share with me what you think the issue is?
Are there specific tasks that are taking longer than expected?
Do you feel you have all the resources and support that you need?
Do you have clarity on the project requirements and deadlines?
Is there anything outside of work preventing you from completing what you want?
Are there any other obstacles that are affecting your ability to meet deadlines?
Is there anything that you are doing that you don’t believe is adding value?
Six ways to identify and solve capacity issues
There are tools that we can use with our teams to understand where their time is being spent and to support them with managing their workload.
Remember: As the leader you are setting the tone so if you are always at capacity and rushing from task to task then that’s what your team will mirror - it’s not a bad idea to use these tools on your own workload first :)
Here’s a few tools that have worked well for me and my teams:
1. Time tracking
Time tracking shouldn’t be scary, it should be a helpful tool to help your team member understand where they are spending their time. How many times have you got to the end of the week and thought “what have I even done this week???!”.
Time tracking can help with both identifying why your team member may be over capacity but, it can also be used for your team members to reflect on where they are spending their time on an ongoing basis to stay on top of their capacity.
I’d recommend using time tracking over a few weeks rather than sampling one week as it’s natural for workloads to fluctuate. Once you have enough data, you can sit down with your team member to review the results together.
There’s lots of time-tracking apps available including Toggl and Clockify.
2. Diary review
The diary review is similar to time tracking, but the data should be readily available and there’s no additional tech required. On top of identifying where time is spent, you can get a visual view of how your team member structures their day.
Explore with them which days work well and which don’t. It might be that focus work is better for them in the morning and meetings suit better in the afternoon. By picking up on these patterns, your team member can try and configure their days in a way thats supports their best work.
3. A ‘stop doing list’
Over time, it can be easy for your team to have a list of jobs that they are doing just because they’ve always done them or work that they’ve picked up that doesn’t contribute to the outcomes of their role.
Asking your team member to complete a ‘stop doing list’ helps them to categorise their activities into ones that are contributing to the end goal and ones that don’t. Once your team member has come up with their ‘stop doing list’ you should review together. The outcome will be:
STOP - Activities that can be stopped as it no longer adds value
PARK - Activities that can be completed at a later date
KEEP - Something that needs to continue happening which will either need to stay within the individual’s remit or it may be more appropriate to delegate it
If nothing can realistically come off the ‘stop doing list’ then this could be a sign that there is too much work for the team which you will need to consider scaling down the workload or scaling up capacity with a new hire or exploring tech. Depending on your role in the organisation, it would be beneficial to involve your boss or HR in the conversation at this point to understand your available routes forward.
I would encourage repeating this activity quarterly with your team. You could do this individually or review the results as a group. This encourages your team to focus on accountability and outcomes rather than ticking items off a task list.
4. Urgent and important matrix
The urgent and important matrix (formally known as the Eisenhower Matrix) can be a game-changer. Many people think of tasks as a list of things to get through without considering factors such as how urgent and important they are or if they need to be done at all (refer back to the ‘stop doing list’ 👆).
This tool helps to categorise activities by urgency and importance. The majority of your weekly focus should be on tasks that are important but not urgent.
Work with your team member to categorise the activities in the quadrants of the matrix that have been identified in the time tracking tool or from the diary review into the relevant quadrants and action appropriately:
Urgent and Important: These are your immediate priorities. Too many tasks in this quadrant suggest that your team member may be working too reactively.
Not Urgent but Important: Schedule these tasks. They are vital for long-term success and should make up the bulk or your work.
Urgent but Not Important: Delegate these tasks if possible. They need to be done, but not necessarily by you or your team.
Not Urgent and Not Important: Stop these tasks.
5. Training, mentoring and coaching
There’s a saying that goes something like “"It took me 10 years of practice to be able to do this in 10 minutes."
When it comes to capacity and the ability to complete the requirements of a role sometimes it is simply the case that the person hasn’t yet had enough practice.
Providing training, mentoring or coaching can help your team member tackle capacity issues that are driven by a lack of skills or knowledge. It can also support with increasing confidence and the ability to say no when a task isn’t in their remit.
6. Identify and automate
This is at the bottom of the list as I don’t believe that technology is the answer to a lot of workload problems.
However, there will be things that can be automated or simplified. Set your team member a challenge to identify the repetitive and monotonous tasks and explore how automation or AI can help.
Recommended resources
Article: "What is an appropriate workload for my team?" by In The Making
Video: The Eisenhower matrix: How to manage your tasks by Eisenhower
Book: Eat That Frog! 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time by Brian Tracy
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