Why Your Team Isn’t Getting Shit Done

This week’s blog is for leaders and managers. In my experience, the #1 complaint among new leaders is: “Why is my team not getting their work done?”

Sound familiar?

Before I get into why they’re not getting it done, I want to explain what I mean by new leader, particular in this context. In my observation, when someone goes from being a direct report to being a leader of a team, often that promotion happens because that person has demonstrated how freaking good they are at their job.

They are the most efficient worker. They produce the most results. And they have really mastered getting things done. So their company promotes them in hopes that they can pass along this expertise and mastery to the rest of the team.

I find that when a person is brought into that role of leadership, and they start managing a team that produces the results that they used to be responsible for, an interesting culture is created.

I am about to be blunt... When leaders are promoted, they adopt this mentality: “Great, it’s no longer my job to get this shit done. It’s these fuckers’ jobs to get shit done. And it’s my job to get them to do it.”

Know anyone like this?

I would go so far as to assert that this experience is incredibly common. Many new leaders – whether it’s those who have moved up in their company or the solopreneur hiring their first VA or marketing team – go through some version of this. They experience the sense that their hands are clean of the shit work. It’s not their job anymore. It’s just their job to make sure other people do it.

I started by saying that this week’s blog is about why teams aren’t getting their work done. Well, the punchline is that teams rarely want to get their work done if you lead them from a place of, “please get this shit done for me.”

The “please get this shit done so that I don’t have to” mentality is disempowering. Leaders create that mindset from a place of feeling fed up, exhausted, and frankly even a little entitled.

“Hey, I already walked this road and I am over it. Now it’s your turn to pick up the slack.”

That’s righteous. It’s righteous to assume that now that you are the leader, you should never have to be on the field with your players.

Take an honest look for a moment. Is this you? Is this the attitude you currently have around your team, or even the one that you slip into now and again?

If it is, I have one suggestion for you. If you start practicing it right now it will support your team in getting their work done and moving things forward.

It stems from a slight difference in language. Rather than:

How do I get my team to start doing their shit so that I don’t have to do it myself?

Shift to:

What are all of the things that need to get done and how are we going to get them done?

You will notice two differences in these mentalities. First, now you are a part of your team. You have moved from “you vs. me speak” into “we speak.” By relating to yourself as a member of your team, you will immediately break up any power dynamic or hierarchy that you are currently holding in that righteous mindset you have. Giving that up will make a huge difference.

Second, work becomes less about fairness. You will move away from that toxic mindset of “it’s fair that you do this so I don’t have to do it again.”

By making this shift, you will bring the focus back to your commitment and what you have set out to accomplish. It’s no longer about working from a place of exhaustion or being fed up. Your new route is remembering what you want to achieve.

And that’s how you’ll help your team – which includes you – get shit done.