Conquer job overload.

Is there a manager who hasn't moaned, "I can't handle another project!" Not since the early '90s. Has anyone heard recently that his or her workload was being reduced because of downsizing? Not likely! Where will it all end? Will American managers, like their Japanese counterparts, shrug when they hear of a colleague who dropped dead at his or her desk from overwork? What's the solution? How can you handle job overload?

Think intensively about what you're doing. One of the least recognized facts is that jobs expand, even when managers are actively bent on reducing workloads. They absolutely expand when harassed managers are not paying attention. Prioritizing tasks--on paper--can help eliminate tasks that clog your day and are enemies of productivity, things that someone else could--and should--be doing. Until you see, in writing, how you spend your time how can you change?

Since most managers deny that any significant parts of their job are time wasters, take yourself out of the picture, and imagine you're looking at someone else's job. Better still, list all your tasks but have a peer categorize them. It's the same principle as cleaning out someone else's closets--an effective, if painful, remedy for clutter.

Begin by going through your calendar for the past two weeks--don't try to find a typical period. (If you're overworked, part of the problem is that there is no typical period.) Group tasks under one of the following four headings:

1. Essential and expected

2. Essential but not expected

3. Not essential but expected

4. Not essential and not expected but done anyway

After you've made your lists, go back and see if you can't fatten numbers three and four. Our experience in coaching dozens of middle and senior managers suggests that the second, third, and fourth categories can take up as much as 75 percent of a manager's time. For instance, how many meetings are essential by any standard? How often are you there to "show the flag" rather than lead--or follow? Most meetings are just expected.

We've found that even identifying expectations is tough. Remember The Abilene Paradox? (The Abilene Paradox and Other Meditations on Management by Jerry B. Harvey). It was much discussed a few years ago because it described a manager's problem so vividly. In the article, a group of people agreed to make a hot, dusty trip to eat in a particular restaurant. No one wanted to do it but no one objected, assuming the rest were enthused. There's a parallel with the overworked manager, who feels obligated to complete non-essential tasks because he or she thinks they're expected.

Here's a good example: Consider the task of proofreading/fact-checking important reports. Managers really get caught in a swamp here because they think it's essential. Not only is it nonessential, it shouldn't even be expected. Robert Townsend, in Up the Organization, describes how he was trapped into fact-checking and proofreading by his corporate legal department. When he looked over documents he'd find mistakes and he'd tell the attorneys. While reviewing documents late one night, it occurred to him that this was all wrong. He wasn't a lawyer. It wasn't his job to find errors. The next day he told the attorneys that, henceforth, he wouldn't fact-check documents. He'd merely sign whatever they gave him. It was their responsibility to make sure what he signed was perfect, and he would hold them to that standard.

You're guilty of felonious misuse of your time and the organization's money if you're allowing people to delegate up--increasing your work load. Your assistant, secretary, and/or subordinates should be able to craft a letter, memo, or report that sounds so much like you that your boss will believe you wrote every word. Conduct a class in writing in your style for all of them and then hold them to producing quality "you-like" documents. If you ever find erroneous information, a grammar error, or a typo, the walls should reverberate with your wrath.

Depending on your values and the political climate in your organization, the time spent managing other peoples' expectations can fall into any of the first three categories. But even if you consider stroking essential and expected, you may be devoting too much time to it. If there are layoff or reorganization rumors--hardly a surprise--nothing you say or do will encourage people to remain. They will stay or go, depending on their internal mental furniture--not based on anything you say. Peers must be cajoled and relationships managed, but is more necessarily better? Will weekly staff lunches be more effective than bi-monthly lunches? This is the greatest danger for extroverts: spending too much time on people issues with too little effect.

There must be some managers who practice delegation but we meet only the ones who are enthusiastically micromanaging everyone and everything. They are doing things they never should do personally and at great cost to the organization. Learning to delegate will become more important as we move into the 21st Century. Because 1975 to 1978 were exceedingly low birth years, a labor shortage is imminent. Turnover is already beginning to escalate; organizations are beginning to talk about bonusing managers based on retention, not productivity.

A bored 20- or 30-something who's convinced he or she is only paying dues instead of making a contribution is someone who's polishing his or her resume. This is the one best reason to delegate more and to consider every delegation a learning opportunity for a subordinate. You will enrich his or her experience and skill base--both very important to 20- and 30-somethings. It may not make him or her stay longer, but it's a better strategy than stroking, and it will lighten your load.

If you ruthlessly eliminate tasks, while strengthening your hold on what's essential and expected, you should see improvement. A Vice President for Patient Services got a promotion this way. He told his boss, the CEO, what he'd done. The boss asked for help analyzing his own workload. From there, they proceeded to redesign the entire function. Our man is now a Senior Vice President with three areas reporting to him.

Layoffs and restructurings may have been expedient and reasonable, but were they logical within the culture of your organization? As long as you're intensively studying your own job, why not consider whether your responsibilities make sense? Some probably don't. You inherited some essential tasks because a peer left or was laid off--management by proximity rather than management by design. The best--and only--reason your boss will allow you to shed some responsibilities is that it makes financial and organizational sense. Proceed from that premise. Then ask yourself who might gain from your cast-offs. If you start this process, you'll see a domino effect.

Look for anomalies in how services are delivered to both internal and external customers. There can be big payoffs here. Are you saddled with too many niche players and nary a generalist? Rethink and redeploy.

When will you have time to do this sort of job restructuring when you're being eaten alive by deadlines? One physician told me he knew he'd never do it at the office, so he took three days vacation and went to a hotel. He had meals sent up. In two days, he made so much progress he went back to work on day three and began implementing his ideas. His wife, initially opposed to his using vacation that way, now thinks he's a genius. He's home by 7:00 p.m. more than half the time, and he has a 45-minute commute.

Marilyn Moats Kennedy is Managing Partner, Career Strategies, Inc., Wilmette, Illinois, and a long-time member of the ACPE faculty. She may be reached at 1150 Wilmette Avenue, Wilmette, Illinois 60091, 847/251-1661, or by fax at 847/251-5191.