My plate is too full

August 3, 2022 9:00 AM

“There is too much on my plate” — while this phrase is most often heard at Thanksgiving or summer barbeques, it is a reality lived daily by accounting firm leaders across the country. Many leaders view their firm growth as inhibited due to their full plates. Other firm leaders look at the full plate and see it eating away at their opportunities to innovate or serve clients in new ways. Does it have to be this way?

Ironically enough, too much on the plate is a common reason for not being able to get things off the plate — how is time found to clear some off? The good news is that it does not have to be this way — and there are solutions that can be successfully implemented amid the busyness. Those answers come in terms of a plan, and some structure.

Before we dive into that, what is even meant by a “full plate?” When is the plate too full? How do I know if my plate is full versus my just being tired? This question does not have a black-and-white answer. There is no numeric approach to help keep everyone’s plate from being too full. The reality is that this is a unique combination of three factors. First, capacity against desired working hours. Notice this is “desired working hours,” not simply 40 hours. The desire to work more or less than 40 will impact the reflection of too much on the plate. Secondly, we factor in the mental exertion of the work. The harder one must think, process and decide before acting, the greater the weight when it comes to measuring how much work is on the plate. Frequency of the task is related here, but is tangential as the mental exertion is more critical than consideration of frequency. The third factor of the full plate is the return on investment — what are you getting back? Are you motivated by this? While there is a financial component here, there are likely other returns such as intrinsic satisfaction, client impact, or passion alignment. While we could take great lengths to break these details down, the purpose here is not to do that, but to rather acknowledge that having a full plate is not always a simple measurement, and as you as an individual are trying to determine if too much is on your plate, you must consider and weigh these three factors to arrive at the conclusion.

There is no badge that comes with an overflowing plate, and there is no shame in admitting you have reached that place. Go out and tackle this! Assuming you truly do have an overflowing plate, there is an approach to help create space in the right places. The four steps below do not magically make this easy or simple but having a plan of attack which contains structure and communication elements will help drive towards the successful results you, and the firm, desire.

Step 1: Define your ideal plate

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The day before Thanksgiving or that big barbeque, ask someone who is going what they will eat, and they will describe their plate. They know what will be on their plate, and how much of each item. Hey, they may even be careful to tell you which foods won’t be touching each other and what order they will eat the food in!

Just as one enjoys visualization of their food, the same can be done for work responsibilities. What type of work is desired? How much of the plate does it take up? Are the items on the plate few in number but large in size, or are they many in number and small in size? What work is done that results naturally in alignment with the return you are looking for, both financially and non-financially? Know what your ideal plate should look like. Document it, memorialize it — you should be able to see exactly what you are chasing after.

Step 2: Document and share what is coming off your plate — and include why

A mental decision is not enough; there is no accountability. When challenges arise to what you peel off your plate, if no one knows it but yourself there are two additional hurdles you create for yourself: First, people question your actions, and you must repeatedly explain what is happening, and second, you lose accountability, making it easy to bury the change because no one else was expecting it to happen. Documenting will also help provide a personal sanity check before you share with others, as well as a mode for consistent sharing — not waffling based on your audience.

Step 3: Isolate what is coming off and find the right landing place

This does not have to happen all at once, in fact, it will likely fail if you try that approach. Start with something that is “easy.” When I say “easy,” that is more about being clean than it is mentally simple. Look for that item, which is self-contained, and can go to an individual. That item ideally has at least some existing documentation or procedures documented around it. Learn through that experience what needs to happen for the next item — which may not be as clean of a handoff. This will help inform the level of documentation, where more contextual conversation is needed, or perhaps where there is value in delegating a task in sections.

A couple of reminders here: Just because the work is going to someone else, doesn’t mean that it must be done the way you did it originally. Allow this transition to trigger new ideas, without getting emotionally tied to how the work was done; you must remember the goal is the “what,” not the “how.” It is also important to keep in mind that the landing place doesn’t have to be another human — this could be where technology plays a large role in absorbing some or all of a task to clear part of your plate.

Step 4: Communicate progress and results

As with other changes in the firm, communication cannot stop at the announcement of the beginning. Plan to give status updates. If there are multiple team members who will be receiving new work as a result of this, they want to be informed on not just the progress, but the results as well. You will also encourage those on the receiving end of the work to share the results too, helping reinforce ownership of the task and value to the team. As beneficial as it is to the team, this will also help build in accountability for you in following through, especially if you set a cadenced update with your team where there is an expectation.