I'll share a couple things that have worked for me on this front:
1. I like to use the visual of a plate of food when communicating with a boss, or when my employees are communicating with me. "You have a plate. It can't get any bigger or smaller, so you can only add so much food to it. Once it's full, if you want to add something else, you have to take something off".
2. When you bring your "plate" to your boss, your goal shouldn't be to use this as an excuse to note take on more work. Your goal should be to have a conversation with them about what can come off the plate if you're going to add something else. "Here's what's on my plate. We discussed me adding X to my plate. What should we take off in order to create space for X?" Or you can have a conversation like "Here are all the things on my plate. I'd love to get your feedback if you think there are things I'm spending too much time on that I can cut back."
I do this often. Generally I put my things in a spreadsheet and I try to assign a percentage of the weekly schedule. Then I create a colored cake trying to discover with my boss what I can subtract and what I should leave
Super important advice here.
I'll share a couple things that have worked for me on this front:
1. I like to use the visual of a plate of food when communicating with a boss, or when my employees are communicating with me. "You have a plate. It can't get any bigger or smaller, so you can only add so much food to it. Once it's full, if you want to add something else, you have to take something off".
2. When you bring your "plate" to your boss, your goal shouldn't be to use this as an excuse to note take on more work. Your goal should be to have a conversation with them about what can come off the plate if you're going to add something else. "Here's what's on my plate. We discussed me adding X to my plate. What should we take off in order to create space for X?" Or you can have a conversation like "Here are all the things on my plate. I'd love to get your feedback if you think there are things I'm spending too much time on that I can cut back."
This is amazing advice, David! Love the plate analogy and going to use this for conversations that I have with my team. Thank you so much for this!
I do this often. Generally I put my things in a spreadsheet and I try to assign a percentage of the weekly schedule. Then I create a colored cake trying to discover with my boss what I can subtract and what I should leave
I do the same with my teammates
Really cool!
Outstanding! Sharing!!
Aw thank you so much!!