How Teams Back Each Other Up Well
I recently got back from a two-week vacation. Two of us in the group were taking time away from work. One of us worked on half of the days, staying up until late in the night doing responsibilities that had been delegated to others but not done – either at all or satisfactorily. One of us didn’t work at all, and responsibilities were either deferred or covered effectively by teammates.
Which would you rather be?
I was the lucky one who didn’t work on vacation, and it was amazing! I got to truly relax, recharge, and come back eager to work. But evidently this outcome is far from assured, so let’s talk about how to make it more likely.
How can teams back each other up well? Four items come to mind:
Create transparent to-do lists and supporting resources for shared or delegated tasks
Bring the backup into the project or effort several weeks before any actions are needed
Have the backup practice any new tasks before availability diminishes
Clearly state expectations and authority – and when/how to contact the person who is out of office
Let’s walk through each of these.
Transparent Lists & Resources
The first step is scanning the horizon for what is certain or likely to come up during your time away. Some items will be obvious – meetings already scheduled, recurring items, and project milestones. For each of these, determine what can be deferred until you return and work with stakeholders to reschedule them or reset expectations. (Make sure to give yourself enough time to prepare, or finish your prep before you leave!)
The remaining items need to be covered by a backup, the person that will cover your responsibilities in your absence. You can identify a backup by function (“all accounting responsibilities will be covered by Dave”) or time period (“Julia will cover all of my responsibilities the first week, then Stephen will cover the second week”), whatever makes the most sense.
With specific items or functional areas clear, thoroughly list out the actions and supporting resources that you anticipate will be needed to cover for you. Both the list and the resources need to be easily shareable, so I’m partial to digital versions of both. This may be adding a new participant to a task from your planning tool, creating a spreadsheet, or a simple emailed list. Ideally it links to or attaches the materials your backup may need.
Let me share two personal examples, bragging on the FlexPoint team for a moment.
First, looking at our marketing calendar, I knew I would miss two content publications while I was out. We had already planned out the content, and our Planner board included the relevant activities, assigned to me. So, I created all the content (and got inputs from a teammate with plenty of time to schedule a blog post for publication), linked the Planner item to the content, and asked Michael if he would cover for me on these two items. With his yes, I added him to the two Planner items, made sure the due dates, inputs, and activities were clear, and we were set! (He had done similar activities before, so no additional knowledge transfer was needed.) Michael covered our content publications perfectly.
Second, we had purposely brought forward as many project activities to occur before my vacation as we could, but there were a few big rocks remaining: supporting deliverable review and leading an executive touchpoint. Thankfully my teammate Rachel and I had been working together on the project the entire time, so she covered all remaining items while I was out. This certainly required some creativity and problem-solving on her part, but she had the project plan, was fully ramped up on the activities, and got any information she needed from me before I left. Rachel didn’t miss a beat in leading project activities in my absence!
Several Weeks of Overlap
With covering responsibilities clear, it’s time to set the backup individual up for success. For those who are already involved in the relevant activities (like the examples I shared above), this doesn’t require much extra work. They know how to do the work; they just need to know what work they’re covering.
But if you’re asking someone will less familiarity to cover for you, make sure to bring them into the project or effort several weeks before any actions are needed. This may seem like overkill, but it takes several repetitions to become familiar with something new, connect the dots on how to do it, and then get comfortable and confident accomplishing it.
For instance, if you’re asking someone to cover payroll when you’re out, having them sit with you one time before you leave will not be sufficient. You may think the activities are clear, the sequencing is obvious, and troubleshooting is no big deal, but that’s because you’ve had this responsibility for some time. As a favor to yourself and the person covering for you, give them several weeks (or several repetitions, for less frequent tasks) of overlap before your time away.
(Speaking of favors: it can be really helpful for the backup to send a “read this first” note just before their team member returns from being away. This can summarize the key items that occurred in their absence — accomplishments, decisions, open actions — and give them a head start before reading through all of the details that are likely contained in emails and other pings.)
Early Practice
And it’s not enough to have your backup read about, listen to, or watch you accomplish the tasks you’re asking them to cover: they need to practice! I recommend a flow somewhat like this, probably over multiple sessions:
You do the task, and your backup watches. They ask any questions that come to mind.
You do the task, and your backup helps. You ask questions to see how well they’re understanding.
Your backup does the task, and you help them. Then you talk through how it went, what questions they have, and any corrections or refinements you see. (Just remember: your backup probably doesn’t need to approach the task in the exact same way as you do, as long as they get a satisfactory outcome. So, choose your redirects wisely.)
Your backup does the task, and you watch. Then you talk about how it went. By this point, we hope your backup is comfortable and confident in what they’re covering for you.
Coming back to the payroll example: if it’s run every two weeks, you’ll need to identify your backup and start practicing with them two months before your time away! This gives them time to come up to speed, watch you manage exceptions, and practice troubleshooting together before they’re officially covering for you.
Clear Expectations, Authority, & Contact Instructions
Before you leave for time away, make sure that coverage expectations are clear (and accepted), your delegate(s) know what is and isn’t in their authority, and when and how they can contact you.
Depending on importance and/or stakes of the responsibility, it may make sense to keep final authority to yourself, while delegating most of the activities. If this is the case, you can clearly tell your backup what to do (and what not to do!). With an activity requiring a handoff, it will likely be helpful to set a target timeframe for when they need to be done with their activities, and when you will do yours.
Payroll is an important enough responsibility that you may not fully delegate it, even while you’re away. You might say, “process all the salaried and hourly workers, add attendance bonuses, and stop before pressing submit. I’ll review, and then give you the thumbs up to submit or provide specific corrections.” If payroll is due by Wednesday at 2:00pm, you can ask your delegate to process everything by Tuesday at 5:00pm, review Tuesday evening, and then have time to make any corrections individually or together on Wednesday.
If you’re leaving an overall function to be covered, it helps to specify authority levels. This may be, “I trust you to do or direct any tasks that cost less than $2000. If it exceeds that threshold and is urgent, go to Priya for approval.” (This is after you’ve asked Priya, of course!) “If it exceeds that threshold and isn’t urgent, please wait until I return.” Having clear objectives set for the team will be a gift to your delegates (on an everyday basis and especially while you’re out), as they have general direction and guardrails already in place.
On my recent vacation, I chose to leave my phone on because it was the first time a friend had stayed with my dog (I didn’t fully follow these steps personally!). So, Michael, Rachel, and I agreed that they would cover everything they could and reach out to me by text or phone call if they needed anything urgently from me. (Michael even reminded me to turn off notifications for instant message and email!)
At other times, I’ve been completely unavailable while I’ve been out. In those cases, the to-do list, training, and expectations needed to be crystal clear before I left, as there was no way to redirect in real time.
A compromise could be, “I’ll get online each morning at 7:00am. If you need anything, please email (or message) with a high importance indication, and I’ll prioritize addressing it the next time I check in.”
Troubleshooting Exceptions
But what if you truly don’t have a suitable backup to cover for you? This can happen for a few reasons:
Skill & experience: there may not be anyone on the team with the foundational skills and experiences to set them up for success in covering your responsibilities
Preference: the items you’re leaving behind may not be on anyone’s “want to do” list
Availability: the team’s plate may be overflowing already
In the case of foundational skill or preference mismatches, this is an opportunity for greater cross-training across the team. This should be a two-way street – other team members presumably want to take time off, too! – so I hope there can be a win-win setup for covering for each other.
If that doesn’t work well, or you run up against resistance, it may be time to seek out temporary help. You likely have local temporary placement agencies that can be of assistance. It may require working with specialized firms – such as accounting or receptionist or production – to get the best results.
While it can be tempting to hire a temporary resources only for the time away, I recommend investing in some overlap to walk through the delegated list and resources, practice the delegated responsibilities, and discuss expectations.
Closing
Time away is a great opportunity – for you to recharge and for your teammates to step up. It may even prompt you to increase cross-training or strengthen appreciation across the team for responsibilities you each carry.
I hope these suggestions will help you excel in taking time away from work!
