The Bane of Follow-up

I’ve read so many different perspectives on what differentiates a leader from a manager. At the end of the day the transition to leadership is difficult for everyone though because you still have so many of the mundane responsibilities that a manager has, the most mundane being following up with things you’ve delegated. Following up is an art; I still struggle to balance it with my internal dialogue. When you delegate something to a team member, you think they have responsibly put it on their to-do list, assuming they are organized and on top of their inboxes at any given time. So you let some time go by under the presumption that he must have started working on it. After all, you’d hate to be one of “those” managers that emails a task, then immediately texts him to check his email and then calls him 10 minutes later if he hasn’t responded, or hits him up on GChat for the same thing.

I dislike it when people think they have claims to my time right then and there, because they think something is urgent, and so I would expect other people to dislike me treating them in that way as well. This is why you have to understand each of your team members’ personal organization methods, even going so far as helping each one design a system that works for him. No matter what tool you or your organization use to try to collaborate effectively, it’s each individual’s prioritization skills that will ultimately be used to decide what gets done from his list of things to do. You could make their to do lists simpler by using a common tool like Basecamp, but until they start putting their own items in there, the only thing that will be shown are the items you have assigned them. This doesn’t help though because each team members feels more passionately about tasks they have added themselves - they have effectively internalized the project and made that task their own at that point. Everyone isn’t always on top of their inboxes and organizational skills though and they end up using their inbox as a to do list no matter how much they hate themselves for doing so.

As a leader, you think your team is diligently working and so you don’t want to insult them by continuously following up with them. This is the manager’s biggest weakness: when he delegates something, effectively following up to see how it’s going until the due date has come. A manager waits until the due date, then says, “Hey, we needed this by today; where is it?” A leader on the other hand is continuously seeing how his team members are doing on various tasks while they are doing them. This way he can spot any problems along the way. It’s easier to perform a few small course corrections along the way rather than having to re-do all the work from square zero if it’s been done incorrectly.

In either case, manager or leader, following up with delegated tasks is a necessity. Once you’re a leader, it’s easy to forget the journey you underwent to get to that point though. Try to remember back to when you were being led; everyone has a boss and so we’re always being led, but you’re given a lot more leeway when you’re a leader yourself. Think back to when you weren’t a leader and just an average team member.

I remember it very vividly; I was in college at NC State in the new engineering building when I received a call following up with a long list of items that I had to turn in still. The person on the other end said, “If I hadn’t called you, you would have never called me about these things, would you have?”

I remember answering in my head after this tirade, “No, probably not…”

If you are happier when your team leader leaves you alone then that means he’s making you do that work; you don’t innately enjoy it. You don’t really want to be doing that task. It’s as simple as that.

It wasn’t until many, many years later that I came to realize what it feels like from the other side of this scenario. As a leader, you really do feel following up belittles your team. From their perspective, follow-up = prioritization. To a team member, until someone is following up with them for something, that means it’s not a priority to anyone so why should I work on it? When that becomes your organization’s culture and working methodology, your great leaders start feeling drained when they have to follow-up with things because it feels like you’re forcing others to do what you think is important, rather than everyone working as a unit to a common goal.

So how do you fix follow-up?

1. Leaders, understand your team’s limitations. They’re not all organized; they’re not all on top of their games at the same times you are. And you won’t be at the top of your game some other time when your team members are. It’s just a fact you have to learn to deal with. Different people are switched “on” at different times because they’re all trying to balance everything else in their lives. Help them balance their lives as much as possible, but you’re still going to have to learn to accept the fact that not everyone works in the same ways at the same times. Keeping that in mind, part of your role is helping them prioritize so they’re an important part of the team getting the things done that matter to the organization at that time. That means following up with them even if you think it’s insulting their intelligence. Find a subtler way to do it if it really bothers you that much.
2. Team members, understand what it’s like on the other side of the follow-up. Leaders shouldn’t have to exist to help you re-prioritize by following up. You should be the type of person that proactively asks for help re-tasking if you feel overloaded. If you get that email asking, “Hey, can you help finish this report up?”, you should send one back saying, “Sure, no problem. I’ve also got the year-end report, annual contracts review, and some emails to get through - what do you think needs to get done right away?” That’s the right way to get help prioritizing instead of waiting for follow-up calls to start. Leaders think you’re on the same page as them and when you’re not, you need to raise that concern so they can pull you on to that page from whichever one you’re on now.
3. Leaders, help your team members bridge that gap between you forcing them to do their tasks and them truly enjoying what they do. This requires one-on-one talks, or group discussions about why it is that you got involved with this organization. Why do you enjoy this? When you wake up in the morning, what thought gets you out of bed and into your computer chair? Is it one of fear of disappointing the boss? Is it one of fear of letting the team down? Or is it one of truly enjoying what you do and having a sense of purpose bigger than yourself? It may change on some days but most of your days should be that last one. If they’re not, you need to work with that team member to help him/her find a better role in the organization or let him/her go.

What tips do you have for helping improve the process behind follow-up or helping eliminate the need for follow-up that have worked for you?