63· Pulling Your Weight - Team Dynamics and Recognition
Podcast show notes
Ever felt like you’re carrying the weight of your team while others coast by unnoticed? In this episode, I’m digging into the reality of unequal effort in teams, why it happens, and how it impacts dynamics, recognition, and morale.
From the “competent person trap” to unbalanced workloads and misaligned expectations, we’ll explore how these issues create frustration and disengagement.
You’ll get actionable tips to address imbalances, improve communication, and build a culture of accountability and recognition.
Whether you’re leading a team or navigating one, this episode is packed with insights to help you foster fairness and keep your team motivated and resilient.
Here are the highlights
(1:30) Team Dynamics and Workload Imbalances
(5:08) Misaligned Workloads and Resource Allocation
(9:09) Recognition and Gender Aspects
(11:57) Addressing Workload Imbalances
(15:13) Public Recognition and Team Development
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Ruth
Welcome to Frustrated and Exhausted, the podcast for women in leadership, where I help you fulfill your ambitions without sacrificing your sanity or your resilience.
Welcome to this week's Frustrated and Exhausted. Now, I think we've all probably been there where we're working in a team, whether that's a leadership team that we're part of, whether it's a delivery team that we're part of, a project team, you know we're all often part of multiple teams at the same time, but we've all been there I think where we feel like we are carrying more than our fair share of the workload while other people seem to just skim on by doing the bare minimum and not really being noticed. Or sometimes it can feel like you're the one that's putting in loads of effort, and nobody notices. Nobody sees it. I've certainly worked as part of teams where this has been the case and it can really cause a lot of angst in terms of the team dynamics within the team itself, but also in terms of somebody's relationship with an organisation. You know when you feel like you're not recognised and you're not valued it is unbelievably demotivating, let alone the impact on the individual relationships that you have.
So this week what we're going to be having a think about is why that unequal effort happens, how it impacts team dynamics and recognition and what you can do about it. And of course because this is Frustrated and Exhausted I'll also be kind of throwing in a little bit around the gender aspects of this too.
So why does unequal effort happen? Well, there are a few things around this to think about. I think one of the big ones, and see this quite often when teams have been stood up for a while, so you know when there's a lack of clear roles and expectations, you know sometimes new people come into a team, things get shuffled around a little bit, but there can be overlaps in responsibility, there can be misunderstanding and miscommunication around that and that can really impact on that sense of well, hang on, you know you're stepping on my toes or she's taking the credit for this and that can definitely cause some real issues.
There can also often be, you know every team's got its high performers. Nobody's kind of the same and we all come at things differently so it's quite unusual to be honest to get a team that is all performing at the same level. The problem with that is that there can be an over reliance. If you've got some real stars in your team there can be a real over reliance on them, and you know that's kind of often known as the competent person trap. You know you're seen as the person that's, that's performing, that's doing really well and so everybody loads stuff on you, and at a certain point you know, sometimes that can seem like an opportunity but at a certain point that can really feel like too much. And you know this is when, when you're thinking about high performance and resilience and burnout you know if you're leading teams and you're, you're kind of not consciously thinking about this, this is the kind of thing that can lead really high performers into burnout is when they become overloaded and they're over relied on to carry kind of other people and the team.
It also happens sometimes, quite honestly when there are leaders and managers who don't want to deal with the people who are underperforming, you just want to ignore it. So they do over rely on those people who are performing rather than actually tackle the underlying issue. That can lead to all sorts of problems. There can be disengagement then from the high performers, you know people feel overly put upon. Then you've also got the disengagement of the people who are not performing you know that you've not dealt with. And you know there's really a thing here, and again I see this time and time again when I work with teams that accountability is tricky and you know where you have a lack of accountability often that also of course correlates with that lack of clear roles and expectations around who's delivering what and when. And this sort of lack of clarity is often the sort of thing that we, we end up unpicking in team coaching and facilitation around this sort of stuff because it really leads to lots and lots of problems and lots of behavioral issues as well when people are are just starting to disengage and feel unmotivated because of this issue.
And the final thing kind of really around unequal effort with this, you know we've talked a bit about over reliance on high performers, lack of clear roles and expectations and, and that's disengagement and lack of accountability from team members. But of course you've also got sort of often misaligned workloads, so where you potentially have someone who's not a strong manager, you just throwing things out there and not really thinking through who's best suited for what, and not really looking at how that's balanced across the team. The other issue, of course is often lack of resource or resource allocation for different projects and programs and things. I mean that's a never ending battle sometimes, but you know then that's about really clarifying what are the most important things you need to be taken off the list and prioritise them there and often again, that doesn't get picked up. Everybody spends a lot of time moaning about lack of resource, but not actually coming back to go okay so what are we not going to do? What are the hard decisions we need to take? There could be a real reluctance to say no around that as well, and that again, impacts this unequal effort. You've got those high performers really going all out, busting their gut to try and make things happen and other people just coasting.
I think this sense of unequal effort can also sometimes be a sense, you know where you've got different personality types, different traits, different characteristics, different approaches to things, you know it can become quite complex because everybody's got different working styles. You know I've talked on previous episodes about quiet leadership, people being more introverted, people kind of being loud and out there and obviously people who are loud and out there are, for obvious reasons, more noticeable. So therefore their effort is probably more noticeable. They're probably telling you about all the things that they're doing and you know that obviously then means they're more likely to be recognised. It doesn't necessarily mean that the people who are not loud and out there aren't doing things but it can lead to the perception, and that is a real risk. So, again, this clarity around delivery and being able to measure that delivery is really, really important.
Sometimes of course unequal effort can be unintentional. There can be communication gaps and also differing perceptions around what is fair. What is a fair and balanced workload? So you can have people who objectively, potentially, you know whatever objectively means, you know are not doing the same amount but it can look as though they are from one or the other's perspective, and I think you know this can be a really tricky, tricky area to navigate.
So I've already mentioned why this unequal effort, or sense of unequal effort, can lead to resentment and sometimes burnout and disengagement when people are overburdened. There of course are a lot of ripple effects for this around team morale and relationships. It can really lead to sort of a lot of tension and frustration between individual colleagues. There can be a real loss of trust and collaboration. It can impact people's reputation around the organisation because especially, well, not even just in larger organisations but you know what it can be like? You know, there can be quite a lot of bitching going, goes on around this sort of stuff, where people talk between people's backs, word gets around, and the thing is it may not even be true. You know that thing I said about perception, perception that someone is working more or less or taking on more or less, sometimes it might be really obvious but if you're a leader or a manager and you're not dealing with that then that problem can really spiral. It also of course leads to a real decrease in overall productivity of the team. You know if, if people are being disengaged, you know you potentially got a couple of people already sort of disengaged and not really contributing the way that they could or should, and then you've got the people who are contributing but see this not being dealt with and it can just pull everybody down and make people disengage, you know why am I doing all this when they're still taking home their paycheck in the same way and not actually doing the hard graft that I am, and you can see the sort of impact that that can have over time.
There's a real recognition gap, I think, as well, you know if you don't actually recognise the people who are delivering, who are taking on the extra, who are really, really trying, who are still engaged and doing well, they are going to start feeling unappreciated and unseen and there was a survey I saw a while ago, 83, 83.6% of people agreed that lack of recognition impacted motivation to work. Now that's not a surprise and when they were talking about recognition they weren't just talking about pay. They weren't talking about pay in their pay packets. They were talking about what in transactional analysis theories of psychology, they describe as social strokes. Is that well done? It's just literally somebody taking some time to acknowledge their contribution, to acknowledge the skills and strengths that they're bringing, and to, to acknowledge the difference that, that makes, you know we all love a bit of praise. It makes us feel great. It makes us feel worthy in the group. It really helps us to keep going kind of when things are tough. So, you know, really kind of playing on that.
The other problem, and I'll come back here sort of to the gender issue a little bit, is that of course often, surprisingly regularly, other people receive undue credit for people's work. Now, this impacts women quite a lot. Again this is a massive generalisation. Obviously there are instances where this isn't the case at all, but there are plenty of instances and again it goes back to those stats about women being interrupted more, ideas being picked up by male colleagues and then being seen to actually be the person who had the idea in the first place. You know there's loads of research around that that I've shared in other episodes, and this again can really impact women in their careers and it contributes to this sense of their frustration. It happens to men too and it especially happens to men who are maybe more introverted and quieter. Doesn't mean they're doing less. Doesn't mean that they are less effective. It means that that effectiveness is not always visible, or that other people will hop on the bandwagon but potentially because they're louder and more visible they end up getting the credit for it, and that is just one of the most teeth grindingly frustrating things I can remember from my, my days working in organisations, and you know I know I've heard lots of clients and friends say the similar things, you know we've probably all got an experience a bit like that. So you know that sense of being recognised really, really matters. So if you're leading a team and you're going out there this week, say well done to the people who are really bringing it and just spend a few minutes doing that because it has a huge, disproportionately huge impact.
Okay, so how then do we address this stuff? So for individuals there's a few key points I think, obviously kind of communicating with team members and managers around workload imbalances. You know if you're feeling overloaded and things keep coming to you, you know maybe just challenging that a little bit. Really setting some boundaries around that. You know learning to say no is probably one of the most important things we can do. You know, if you're already overloaded it's really key to, to flag that and to say actually I can't take this on until I've delivered this, this or this, you know depending on what your role is. And I think, and especially for women, I think this really matters, or for anyone who's maybe not the majority in their organisation, tracking your contributions, tracking your achievements, really evidencing that so that you can highlight what you're delivering, what you're doing, how you're contributing really, really matters, especially if you're about to go into a pay negotiation or something, if we're at the hard end of kind of reward stuff, you know actually being able to evidence things because that will pick away those unconscious biases. You know it's sort of really easy if somebody's not coming with actually I've done….., this year, it can be quite easy for people to brush you off and say oh well yes but Jonny over there did…... Well that's not the point actually, this is what was expected of me, this is what I've done, this is where I've really succeeded you know and being able to really evidence stuff, so really tracking kind of what's going on in terms of your workload and what you're bringing I think is important and very much so if we're thinking about potentially there's a possibility of some unconscious or conscious bias going on around reward and recognition.
So for teams then I think with this unequal effort and recognition piece you're really thinking about establishing clear roles, responsibilities and accountability structures. This stuff should be basic. We all kind of logically know it but somehow in the complexity of team dynamics and the busyness of all the days, it can get lost, and it's really important to come back to and quite often when I'm working with teams, that's one of the first things that that we do is we really go back to basics because a lot of it will have slipped over time and not necessarily been noticed. So it's really worth kind of going back to that and having another look.
I mean the other thing is obviously you want to be able to have a bit of an open dialog amongst your team around that. That in reality is really going to depend on levels of trust in the team, levels of trust in the leader of whatever the team is, and you know that that's just a question mark, that's going to depend on your environment. If it doesn't seem possible to do that then it's the kind of thing that team development days can can be really great for is having somebody external come in and facilitate those conversations and start to rebuild that trust so that people can be open. They can feel heard. They can feel a bit safer to say these things when there's someone external in the room and it is amazing the difference that that can make.
You know if you're leading or managing a team, you know, really thinking about that fairness thing and people's perceptions of fairness, looking across the team at who's doing what and if there are issues, you know, be a bit brave and go and deal with them. Have those tricky conversations with the people who are not pulling their weight. You know if they're non performers or under performers then you need that's your job. That's where you get paid the bucks for, you need to be going and dealing with that. Nobody likes those conversations but they are absolutely essential because if your team see that, that things are just being slipped, that there is nothing that is going to increase frustration more and demotivate people. Everyone is different and everyone has different capacity and I think we all kind of probably understand that but when it becomes more extreme and it's not being dealt with then that can be a huge, huge challenge.
Public recognition really matters. It matters both in terms of your team being recognised and individuals being recognised. So you recognising their contribution, but then ensuring that your team is recognised for its contribution in the wider organisation or you know, whatever you're operating with them. You know if you're a smaller business that's in terms of stuff in the local press or trade bodies or whatever it might be that recognition piece is not only important from a marketing standpoint, it's also really important in terms of your team's sense of being valued. And if you are someone who is more introverted that can feel deeply uncomfortable, but it is really, really important. It matters. It matters for motivation. And even if you have a team who are sort of maybe less loud, it matters almost even more because you have to be their voice. And I think there's something about encouraging people to recognise each other within a team. You know when they've helped each other out, or you know encouraging that culture of appreciation and transparency so that open conversations can be had if something's not quite working, if there's a sense of burgeoning resentment. Here's a big word for this morning, where it's, it's just beginning to bubble up and you sense something's not quite right, actually saying, okay, let's talk about this. It might be between a couple of people and you kind of navigating that with them but really doing that makes a huge, huge difference.
So in today's episode I've talked a bit about unequal effort and how that can stem from unclear expectations, personality differences and lack of accountability. We have talked about team dynamics and how it can really impact negatively those relationships and sort of lead potentially to burn out and frustration, especially if recognition itself isn't distributed fairly, bad enough if people are carrying much more than others and the workload is imbalanced, but if the recognition is also imbalanced then that's also obviously a really big issue.
I think setting yourselves up for clear communication, you know it takes some investment. It takes investment in the relationships. You know when you kind of look at diagrams of the dynamics in teams and you can do this believe it or not if you haven't seen any already, and the interactions and the increasing complexity as these teams become bigger, or they become matrixed, or whatever it is, it can be really difficult to keep things clear between people and avoiding resent and frustration and annoyances, and I think focusing on that clarity and keeping that at the forefront, boundaries, clear communication, those roles and responsibilities, keeping those things as clear as humanly possible can go a long way to re establishing trust between teams if it's been lost.
And there's something finally just about reinforcing the importance of individual responsibility and accountability for performance, but also a collective responsibility to address dynamics, address things if they're not quite going right, and for that high performance, you know everyone is responsible.
So if you recognise some or all of this, you know I'd really challenge you this week to have maybe a slightly uncomfortable conversation about this. I'd also challenge you to go out there and recognise contributions. Look for the quieter people. What are you seeing from them? You know you might not hear it, but you might see it if you look for it in terms of their contribution and really recognising that and rewarding it. If you're leading a team like that then make sure you are cheerleading them publicly within the organisation and externally.
I hope that's been helpful. If you or your team are struggling with any of this and you think I might be able to help then please don't hesitate to get in touch. You can find me on LinkedIn. You can email me. All my contacts are in the show notes so feel free to get in touch, and I look forward to speaking to you again next week. Take care.
Thanks for listening to this episode of Frustrated and Exhausted. Hit the follow button for future episodes. You can also follow me on Instagram at Resonate Leadership and LinkedIn at Ruth Alexandra Wood, I'd absolutely love to hear from you. Frustrated and Exhausted is brought to you by Resonate Leadership and the wonderful team at the Podcast Boutique. I'm your host Ruth Wood. Take care and speak to you soon.
