How to deal with responsibility enough to manage people but not enough to delegate and make my work easier

Question

In my current company, I have been climbing non-stop for two years, to the point where I have now people I am responsible for.

From the get go, I had to work over time since the job demands a lot, and it cannot be left unfinished, since the clients depend on it. Since I did everything that was required, always excelled at my job, and over-performed, I climbed fast. But, as I said, there is always non stop work to do.

Now I have to keep doing my tasks, and manage others. If someone does not finish a planned course, or does more hours than they should for a project, I am the one that has to face the reprimand.

Also, I cannot delegate the task of gather who is doing what, or what have they refused to do. So I have to: do my job (somehow keep doing 30 hours worth of work in 10, for example), manage other's job, and report what others are doing, every 15 days (which I find a waste of time, is not productive, and prevents me from doing my job properly, since many do not comply with certain aspects of the job, or simply do not have enough time to do some task).

Anyone with experience on how to affront this "different" problems? Is there some kind of solution or angle I might be missing?

Answer 1

Anyone with experience on how to affront this "different" problems? Is there some kind of solution or angle I might be missing?

There's no silver bullet to solve this problem. The only way is to plan properly and execute the plan religiously.

If you have different responsibilities, make sure you divide your time to keep a check on each one of them on a regular basis. based on the priority and complexity, break down time allocation for different activities (Individual work, Management Work/Syncup, Reporting etc.) and stick to that timeline. Yes, initially you'll feel you're achieving less, but over time, once this process is streamlined, you'll see the amount of accomplishment will keep on growing.

One point to emphasize: they key is making the assignment regular. For example: if you need to prepare a report on a fortnightly basis, call for a standup meeting daily / alternate days, and take the stock of updates. This way, you can spot the problem early, and take corrective measures. Also, by the end of the period, you'll have a report ready without any extra effort.