“Helping is not doing other’s work for them”
- The primary goal when it comes to assigning additional work or responsibilities is to be equitable – fair to each direct report. The temptation, of course, is to overload good employees with more than their fair share of assignments, because you know they can be counted on, while your poor performers are skipped over.
- For “same jobs with same pay,” the additional work relevant to that job should be assigned to everyone in turn. If this is not done, the less skilled or demotivated employees will never develop initiative and the top performers will be over-burdened. This is not effective talent management.
- Now, of course, the manager needs to be prepared for resistance or excuses from employees. Assigning work to just those who don’t have excuses won’t develop “bench strength.” When cooperation is needed from everyone in the department, accepting excuses leads employees to believe that the manager is a pushover – and legitimacy in the managerial position is compromised.
