Do you take on too much?

One of the ways HR departments judge the engagement of their workforce is by measuring what’s called discretionary effort.  This is how people get involved above and beyond their regular performance expectation and go the extra mile. 

Discretionary effort is seen as evidence of a motivating and happy culture. It includes activity like making an off-the-cuff call to a customer to check they are happy or mentoring others. It’s especially valued with frontline employees and leads to higher sales, better customer satisfaction, repeat business and of course that holy grail, greater shareholder value.   

What was once merely picking up litter and making a few extra phones calls has morphed into people committing to much bigger initiatives.  Employee Resource Groups are an example of these.   These are groups of employees who share characteristics or life experiences and want to support each other.  Usually they are fantastic, enriching groups and participating in them is a wonderful opportunity to build fruitful connections and networks.  

There’s a but, though. 

I’ve lost count of the number of people I’ve met who are under water with their workload but are extensively involved in networking groups or similar discretionary activities. They get involved mostly because they enjoy them and flourish with the social connection, but sometimes because they feel they should be seen to participate.  High achieving people-pleasers are particularly vulnerable to this because they are the people everyone wants onboard - and they aren’t good at saying no.  They end up working all hours trying to squeeze everything in and keep everyone happy.  

It's not career-enhancing to be struggling on the areas your performance is measured on because of the time you spend on other activities.  I know someone who ran a vibrant women’s network in her bank, only to watch the promotion that should have gone to her, go to someone with less experience. They’d been more visibly effective in meeting the demands of the core job role.  Ouch. 

Keep your eyes on the prize.  

I’m certainly not saying don’t get involved, quite the opposite, just to be smart about it.  Be judicious with the trade-off of your time.  Pick one activity, go large and make a big deal of it.  Corporate life rewards visibility, not unsung heroes. Get buy-in from your senior stakeholders and plaster it over your LinkedIn profile so people can see what you stand for.     

Manage your time cleverly. You can’t invent more time so what must go? If you can, delegate or automate some of the less valuable tasks you do now, to create some space in your calendar.  Don't pick them up again. 

Remind yourself of what you are trying to achieve, your purpose.   This extra activity or side project might get you there more effectively than your day job, so map out what you want from it and make it happen.   Most of all, if you are going to do it, do it whole-heartedly and enjoy it.