Colleagues think I'm disorganised - help me!

[Weffiepops]

So I've worked at a firm for 2.5 yrs and I'm at senior management level. I'm tasked with bringing in new contracts and feel very skilled at this role. I've done far better than my predecessor and have brought more than double the contracts that they brought in. To the point where we have had to employ 5 more staff. the senior management team love me and think I'm doing an incredible job but further down the chain I've heard from a friendly colleague that lots of staff think I'm really unorganised and I'm just rushing around from pillar to post. I must confess I do feel disorganised as I've been so absorbed in agreeing one deal after another and probably don't have all of my paperwork perfect before I move on to the next deal. How can I salvage my reputation with the workers? Does anyone have any tips for getting organised? Am I a dick for not doing a thorough job? My predecessor was very thorough but didn't bring much in, I sense that she was preferred as a boss compared to me due to how orderly she always was. Help!

Can you delegate that stuff? Or ask for an assistant?

You need to try and find a balance.
You have proved yourself capable of bringing in the contracts, that's great. Now you possibly need to scale that back a little and concentrate more on the detail of the contracts and ensure they are complete before moving onto the next one.
There is nothing more frustrating than half done paperwork and when you get to something that you know should be done, but hasn't, it can cause huge resentment, particularly if it is your job to ensure it is done.
If you aren't good with the paperwork side of things, can one of the new staff help or can you appoint an admin person, specifically for crossing the Ts and dotting the Is on your contracts?

Delegate!

Thanks, yes I'm useless at delegating and I know the past 2 people in post delegated far more than I did so I think delegation is key. Thank you!!

I agree, you need an assistant.

Yes delegate delegate delegate. It might be helpful for the individual you delegate to to be more involved and shadow you, even if they are just doing the admin, for example. That way they know more about what is going on and you will find they will start to do bits and pieces themselves without you having to tell them which frees up more of your time.

It might also be worth sitting down and writing down a procedure and agreeing it with those you delegate to. You might find when you get the procedure down it will highlight how much you don't need to do so you can concentrate on the bigger stuff.

So if the paperwork isn't your skill but bringing in deals is your skill then you need raise that you need the support to do that part of the role or promote one of the five to do that?

I have staff who work under me and they would rather due jobs ahead of time even if they are not the fun jobs then get dropped it last minute trying to rush round.

Also ask the staff that are complaining - what would they do differently?

Thanks for the tips, it's all really useful!

Bosses that don’t delegate are a nightmare - it’s disenfranchising for their staff. And yet they often feel like they’re saving their staff work and it’s a good thing.
So I think you might need to

• write down each day/week

all the tasks that need doing on the deal (by you or anyone else)

• find a mechanism where you share that whole list with a person or a team, ie don’t just share the list of items you intend to delegate
• allow the people you’re sharing with to have opinions on which ones they or colleagues could do.

(Because if you’re rubbish at delegating and don’t have much practice at it, and you just resolve to ‘delegate more’, there will probably still be things that get missed that you didn’t delegate, or people will be asked to do a task without enough context, etc)

Delegation is key. Do those who are moaning report into you? If so, are you actually available to manage them? Or are they just being left to their own devices whilst you rush around? Some of your team might be happy with scheduled, short meetings; others might want or need you to be more hands on, either permanently or just because something has cropped up (work or personal) and they're looking for a bit of extra support.
Does you not completing tasks make their jobs harder? It must be frustrating to see you getting lots of praise and glory from the powers that be when they know you're not doing as well as it might seem.

Get a trainee or more junior member of staff to go to everything with you, t notes and to sit in silence.

Then ask him/her to draft your follow up emails (especially internal ones) and send them to you for review, with the intended recipient address in the body of the email. You can review it and send it back to the trainee to for onward transmission in their name or forward from your own email address if it comes from you.

Obviously doesn’t work for all correspondence but it can work for a lot and it is an amazing opportunity for the junior staff member to learn from senior staff.

I do agree with delegating, and sharing lists can be helpful, but I wouldn’t say that you want colleagues to “have opinions on which which things they or they colleagues could do”.

That way lies too many cooks, a faux flat structure, and you’ll possibly get push back on things that you want to be done, but nobody wants to do.

Also whatever system is in place, I’d say that you do need to remind staff that occasionally when it’s project based/ client facing work/ contracts- there will be times that new business comes in in a flurry and it WILL be hectic- other times will be slower. It’s just life.

I understand you though, my personal workload is massive, at a rapidly growing company and until Christmas half my team were relatively inexperienced so I’ve been in much the same position re running around... have a few new staff though now who are much more experienced and I’m finding it easier to delegate

Sit down with your team and ask people their advice/opinions on what you could (and should) delegate to them.

You might find you have taken work away from them and they're feeling a bit pissed off about it because it all worked well before and now it's chaotic because you don't delegate and the work doesn't get done properly.

I had a manager who didn't delegate properly and I left because of it. Bloody nightmare. Even when she did delegate you'd look at what was submitted and she'd have changed it all! It was really demotivating.