How to Avoid the Trap of Doing Your Team’s Work

There are several ways you can fall into the trap of doing your team’s work. There is just one way out: start trusting your team to perform.

If you are wondering how to stop doing your team’s work for them, you have fallen into of one of the most common traps a manager can make. All of them are understandable and make sense in the moment. In this article, I’ll explain how this happens and how to get out of this trap.

Why Managers Often Do Their Team’s Work

There are three common reasons that, as a manager, you end up doing your team’s work for them.

1. You Don’t Want to Give the Employee Negative Feedback

It is likely that you gave an employee a chance or two to do something, and it didn’t go well. At that point, you may not want to give the employee negative feedback. However, you might not have time to train them, or may not be sure what training they need. Regardless, you probably feel pressure to get that work done, so you just do the work yourself. This is a really common choice. Unfortunately, it leaves the employee in the Avoidance Zone, and performance is likely to suffer.

2. You Want to Get the Work Done Efficiently

At first, doing your team’s work can seem like the most efficient way to get some work done. This is especially true if you doubt their ability to do it and don’t have time to train them to do it right. It may also feel protective, as if you are helping the employee avoid mistakes and negative feedback. In the beginning, it may seem like a win-win, but not for long.

Eventually, after you make this choice a few times, you’re left doing a lot of work. Simultaneously, your team members are underutilized. The imbalance can get to the point where you start to burn out or feel resentful. This is a short term strategy. In the long term, it’s far more efficient to train your team and delegate.

3. You Don’t Trust the Team to Do it Right

Strangely enough, whether you believe your team can do the work, or whether you believe they can’t, you are right. Usually, teams rise to managers’ expectations and do their best to learn what they need to be successful.

When a manager doesn’t trust the team, the manager withholds learning opportunities and respect from the team. This creates a cycle of mistrust, which often ends up with even more distractions on the team. As trust erodes between the manager and employee, usually conflict (overt or covert) arises. Again, this creates more distractions, and even less work gets done. As a result, the team feels the manager’s lack of respect and disengages. In the end, the manager can end up doing the work for a whole team full of low performers. This is a lose-lose situation.

Regardless of which reason explains how you got into this trap, the result is the same. As the team stops learning, they also stop engaging. Why should they work hard if you do all the work? Pretty soon, you end up with too much on your plate and a team of low performers, which does not look good for you or them.

“There are no bad teams, only bad leaders” –former navy Seal Lief Babin.
Click here to learn why.

How to Stop Doing Your Team’s Work for Them

The first thing you have to do is recognize that your own behavior has led you here. That can be difficult but there is a positive side to it. Once you accept that, you can see that your own behavior can lead you out.

This is a good time for some self-reflection. If you want your team to perform better, you will have to step up to the leadership challenge of gaining their trust and training them to perform better.

Step 1: Take Ownership of Team Performance

Once you take ownership of team performance, you are going to have to earn your team’s trust back. This is not going to be easy. The only pathway is to start trusting them. So, you are going to have to change your attitude and challenge your assumptions about them. You have to believe in yourself to develop their skills and train them to become higher performing. Furthermore, you have to believe they are worthy of your efforts. This has to happen before any proof. (If you are not sure about this, again, see why Lief Babin says, “there are no bad teams, only bad leaders.”)

Step 2: Talk to Your Team to Refocus on Common Goals

To get your team back on track, you’ll need to have some tough conversations. To start, it’s a good idea to have an explicit discussion with team members about why you’ve had a change of heart and how you want to earn their trust. You can do this one-on-one, or in a team meeting, whichever you think is most comfortable for you and them.

Ask for a chance to earn back their trust. Invite them to embark on a learning journey with you, where everyone will refocus on common goals and getting better together. If you can get them on board with trying to get on a better footing, that’s a good place to start.

Step 3: Recognize Team Strengths and Lean into Them

Start by recognizing what they do well. If you aren’t sure, ask them what they feel their strengths are. Have a series of discussions to find bright spots on the team. Once you know what is working, get everyone to double down on what they do best. Build morale by celebrating wins, big and small.

Step 4: Share Knowledge and Prioritize Peer Learning

Utilize team meetings to share knowledge of what is going well. Peer learning will help build self-esteem on your team. Your team members may trust each other more than they trust you. When you prioritize peer learning in meetings and other settings, you help them feel good about their themselves, and you earn trust by showing you trust and respect them. By prioritizing their self-esteem, you help to motivate them.

Use both team meetings and one-on-ones to start training them on the work that is more of a stretch for them. For more on this topic, see How to Delegate Tasks and Responsibilities.