my staff member has too many concepts and might’t prioritize
A reader writes:
Certainly one of my staff members is liable for determining how we will manufacture new designs and ensuring our previous designs are nonetheless sturdy. And he’s nice at it — he’s super-smart and retains on high of the newest know-how. He’s so nice at this, the truth is, that each month or so he’ll give you a posh undertaking to enhance our previous designs that may take a number of months to implement. He’ll insist it’s one thing we’d like. However my job is to steadiness the brand new work with the previous, and he chafes at these limits. He will get visibly pissed off that the staff can’t simply tackle these enhancements as he comes up with them whereas additionally persevering with with the previous ones and finishing new initiatives, and he hates that we now have a listing of his concepts which may by no means get labored on. In his thoughts, each enchancment is equally priceless. If I ask for the highest 10 out of 25, after a lot prodding he’ll say perhaps we will drop one or two, however all of the others are completely crucial.
Nevertheless, I’m not his direct supervisor. If I have been, I’d’ve sat down with him and stated, “Prioritization is a job requirement, we will work on it collectively, however the backside line is you’ll want to get higher at prioritizing or else.” However I don’t have an “or else.” The staff plans our workflow quarterly and weekly, which helps, however doesn’t put a lot of a dent in his lengthy record of concepts. Do you could have any ideas for a way I can push this staff member to prioritize?
I reply this query — and two others — over at Inc. immediately, the place I’m revisiting letters which have been buried within the archives right here from years in the past (and generally updating/increasing my solutions to them). You can learn it right here.
Different questions I’m answering there immediately embrace:
- My present worker requested me to be a reference of their job search
- My worker married a coworker
