Too much work, not enough headcount? (do this)

Here's a 5-step fix

Gooood morning team, a very happy Tuesday to you all.

I asked on my Instagram story a few weeks ago: “If you’re not feeling good about work this week, DM me the problem to halve it”

And I got 100s of DMs, hearts pouring into work worries, anxieties and complex situations. But this one caught my eye…

So whilst this issue is complex (and crappy) it’s actually super common.

In this case, team members are leaving and bringing in more people simply isn’t an option.

I was in a similar predicament back in 2021, we desperately needed more developers to build our app, but it was near impossible to hire devs and we just couldn’t afford to bring more on, so we had huge gaps in expectation vs capacity and the existing team we’re struggling.

As their leader, I knew that even though I couldn’t add more people, I still needed to do something.

That’s when I built out my 5-Step Role Refresh. To reduce wasted resource as much as humanly possible.

But first, we need to be a little honest right now, I need to tell you something you won’t want to hear. Your team probably isn’t under-resourced. They’re under-organised.

So before you go back to your senior leadership asking for headcount you’re unlikely to get, try this first. It won’t cost you anything except honesty, and that’s exactly why most managers avoid it.

Step 1: The Role Report

You cannot fix what you cannot see.

Every person on your team needs to write up an accurate Roles & Responsibilities document of exactly what they do day to day. Not their job description. Not what they were hired to do. What they actually do.

If someone is taking out the bins, cleaning the windows, restocking the coffee… That goes on the list. All meetings included.

Most managers are shocked by what comes back and that’s the point.

Step 2: Traffic Light It

Now you take every task on every role report and you colour it.

Green: It plays to their strengths and adds genuine value to the business.

Amber: They’re OK at it, it gets done, but it wouldn’t be a tragedy if it disappeared.

Red: It’s a waste of their time and your money. It needs to go.

Step 3: Do, Ditch, Delegate

Now you act on what the traffic light is telling you.

Do the greens. Protect that work. Make space for more of it.

Ditch the reds. Automate or remove.

Delegate the ambers. Either to someone better suited, or out of the business entirely.

This step is where most managers go a littttle soft. They convince themselves the red tasks are actually necessary. They’re usually not. Be ruthless.

Step 4: Lay Down Boundaries

Without this step you’ll be back to square one within a fortnight.

As the manager, your job is to be the filter. Your seniors will keep pushing work down. That’s what they do. Your job is to push back. Not by moaning about capacity, but by being clear about what the team can and cannot absorb in a given week.

You set the boundary. You hold it. Nobody else will do it for you.

Step 5: Fiercely stick to the system

The last step isn’t a task. It’s a commitment.

No more pointless meetings that could have been an email. No more hours lost in inboxes. No more tasks that exist because they’ve always existed. You hold your team accountable to the new way of working and you hold yourself to it too.

This only works if you staight up refuse to let it slide back to normal.

Most workload problems aren’t a headcount problem, they’re a clarity problem. It’s just that nobody has stopped to ask whether the work actually needs doing, or whether the right people are doing it.

The Role Refresh won’t solve everything. But it will show you exactly where the waste is. And once you can see it, you have no excuse not to act on it.

Final thoughts

Good luck, be ruthless, it is in processes like these that your truly strengthened leadership will shine through.

Peace,

H

P.S. For the last 4 months, I have been building something very sneakily behind the scenes. This is a new direction for us as a business and for me entirely. You’ll find out more next week.

P.P.S. Want to go deeper? My book, Your Boss Era, is the whole playbook. 16 rules, frameworks and systems that turn good managers into the kind of leader people actually want to work for.

People are already running book clubs with it which I LOVE to see. Buy 20+ copies for your team, reply to this email with the receipt, and I’ll show up live for a 20-minute Q&A with your team.