Workload and Accountability
How a leader can support workload sharing and ownership of tasks
Burnt out staff can lead to high turnover, an increase in stress leaves and general morale downslides. How can you encourage staff to take on added responsibilities when faced with resource shortages?
7. Do team members willingly take on added work or responsibilities?
When the going gets tough, what happens? Do they pitch in and offer their help to another team member who is drowning in their workload or do they stay to themselves? If you find this is true, it could be because everyone is trying to keep afloat with across the board heavy workloads or because communication and cooperation has broken down to the point where staff refuse to look beyond their own job description. A workshop on teambuilding could help build back the understanding that they are in this together as a whole and the sum of the parts is more effective. Emphasize sharing of resources whether it means creating a database of information or a shared folder of documents. Ask the team for their ideas to help spread the workload evenly and encourage helping hands. Create an <a href=” http://trainingpd.suite101.com/article.cfm/PerformanceManagement4”>incentive program</a> to encourage teamwork and cooperation.
8. Do your team members own their work?
If team members are constantly passing the buck and not taking ownership and responsibility for their part of the pie, then accountability becomes a serious problem. Encourage accountability by creating project team leaders who are responsible for keeping on top of the project process but not micromanaging by interfering with decision making or taking on tasks that have been assigned to a prime person. Their role is simply to record the progress made on the different segments of the project and encourage accountability and ownership of those segments. They also can lead weekly meetings to encourage communication and free flow problem solving.
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