Team before self?

The Catch-Up

I recently caught up with an ex-colleague, who over the lunch session shared about how he had put his own personal individual KPIs aside in order for the team and project to meet targets. He took the hit for the team, and while senior management patted him on the shoulder and gave him the thumbs up for being the one to push things through on budget, in the same breath they said not hitting his personal KPIs would come back to haunt him. He “better do something about it”.

This guy was one of my direct reports. He was a great colleague; a real office buddy and we had become great friends. So when he shared the numerous ways how he had gone above and beyond and put the team and the firm first above his own personal appraisal, possibly to his own harm, I felt a punch in the gut.

The Dilemma

I was a little shaken because what he did was exactly how I used to operate. I operated that way and would consistently tell my team that they should go ahead, take the spotlight, get up in front, take the chargeable hours, don’t worry about me, I’ll work things out for myself. I was shaken because it struck me, “Did I coach and role-model wrongly, to the detriment of my team?” I thought I was imparting good values, but did it do them more harm than good?

Some of the ways this has played out in the consulting life of my peers and I:

1.     Fixed number of chargeable hours that need to be spread out across the project team members for the duration of the project. If there aren’t enough hours, who gets to charge and who “works for free”. Those with less utilization hours ultimately come under the scrutiny of the performance radar.

2.    A client has had a great working relationship with a project lead. While this project lead has moved on and is booked on other projects, for the benefit of the firm and longer-term client relationship, the project lead, on their own time, spends time on a project that has no chargeable hours for them, just to continue to nurture the client relationship. This project lead will undoubtedly be stretched, knowingly impacting their responsiveness on their primary project and duties.

3.    A project member quits or is removed from the team for various reasons. Someone has to double or triple-up to fill the gap, often for an unspecified and extended duration. This individual doesn’t get double or triple the hours, even though they are well stretched beyond a reasonable workload.

The scenarios are numerous, but the tough times are definitely what made them memorable. But just because they are memorable doesn’t automatically mean that it was always the right call to put the team and firm first.

Resolution?

So end of the day, as with most things, it’s about balance and a value judgement on where you want to fall on the spectrum. Do you want to be the person that says “I’m not doing this because you don’t have any chargeable hours or anything in return for my efforts”? Or “I’m not willing to compromise on my own ratings just to help you out”?

I can’t say that it is always right putting the team before yourself. But what I can share is that when you do, you build a different kind of reputation. You build loyalty from you team. You build a name for yourself, that you are a go-to person that can be depended on. You build good-will. You build good culture.

“Resolution” has a question mark after it because I’d love to hear your thoughts.