Building the Work

I'm passionate about leadership work - building leaders who can build successful, emotionally intelligent teams that thrive on learning, highlighting skills, and adapting to the teams needs rather than one's own.

What I'm talking about in this post is a little different and an area I'm very passionate about. It's one of the most critical steps many organizations fail to do and it causes a lot of frustration. And that's building the work.

We fail to build the work and wonder why the employee isn’t working out. Tasks are struggling to be performed correctly and the employee is saying "I've never been shown how to do the job." While you’re sitting there thinking — how does that sentence even make sense?

You’ve walked through it. Someone on the team has helped. Training has been “covered.”

And yet… they’re still not getting it. Now everyone’s frustrated.

You’re pulling your hair out. They’re confused (and probably pulling theirs out too).The team is feeling the impact.

And the thought creeps in:

“This job isn’t that hard.”

Or maybe it’s bigger than that - maybe turnover is high for new team members who just never seem to work out and we don't get it.

You can’t seem to find anyone who can be successful in that role since the long-standing employee left. No one gets it. No one sticks. And it starts to feel like a people problem.

I’ve seen it. I’ve heard it. I’ve lived it.

Man… have I lived it and if I had to guess, you've experienced the job without any helpful instructions on how to do the tasks or you're a leader struggling with the employee who doesn't get it.

The Real Issue

We don’t build the work. Yes, I’m talking about SOPs. Manuals. Job aids. Reference guides.

The things almost no one wants to sit down and create.

It's tedious and time-consuming and much faster to just show them how vs. giving them a guide to how.

I get it, it's easy to push off and hard to find the time to create. You're busy, putting in more than your fair share of 40 hour weeks - this is the last thing you have time for, right?

Yet — they’re the exact things that would stop the madness, empower employees, and take weight off your shoulder.

Yes, most organizations have policies and procedures - the handbook, the boiler plate language in the job description about accuracy and timeliness. But that’s not the same thing as how the work actually gets done. Policies tell you what to follow. SOPs show you how to execute.

Nothing gets at me more than when a leader is so frustrated and is ready to write someone up, place them on a PIP, or even worse just cut the chord and the answer to my always present core questions:

1. During their training did you complete competencies for their responsibilities?

2. Do they have established SOP(s), manual, or reference guides for how to do the work?

   1. And PS, I am NOT talking about the little help tool in your system for generic assistance.

3. Have you had coaching or training conversations that have been documented in follow up in any measure?

If your answer is "No" to these questions, the employee didn't fail. The hard truth is you failed as their leader to set them up for success.

Now, yes, some employees just aren't going to get it and there is absolutely a time to cut losses and move on but for goodness sakes, can we at least make sure we've tried to empower their success?! I'd venture to say 99% of the time people aren't showing up to do a bad job, they want to succeed and it's our job as leaders to do our level best to get them there. That's not a burden of leadership, that's the greatest privilege of leadership.

Where Leaders Miss

Leaders expect:

• Accuracy

• Timeliness

• Quality

  
  

But employees are often expected to figure out the how on their own or from a team member who learned from another co-workers, who was trained by another co-worker, and it's basically learning through a visual game of telephone. Work can become inconsistent, inefficient, and more costly.

Raise your hand if you've ever heard something to the effect of: I was taught this way, but it's faster and better to do it this way.

*face palm*

When things are busy, complex, or they start to change, there’s nothing to go back to.

No structure. No reference. No consistency. As leaders, we often miss the importance of building the work and we get frustrated when things don't go right.

I’ve even seen leaders write someone up for not following a process. A process that was shared in an email BEFORE they even worked there. It was never updated into an SOP, guide, or any formal resource for instruction. It's almost comical isn't it? That’s not a performance issue. That’s a systems issue.

We hurt our teams when we expect them to know things they were never set up to access, understand, or repeat consistently.

Training Isn’t Enough

Showing someone how to do something is critical. But it’s not sufficient. Because people don’t just need to learn the work. They need to retain it, reference it, and repeat it.

That only happens when the work is built.

What “Building the Work” Actually Looks Like

There is no special format and it doesn't have to be as complicated as our brains want to make it. A clear document with:

• Step-by-step instructions for key tasks

• Screenshots or examples where needed

• Clear expectations of what “done right” looks like

• Updated processes when systems or policies change

If only one person knows how to do something — the work isn’t built.

It’s dependent and dependency creates fragility.

Yes, it takes some time but maybe not as much as you think. The next time you're training someone on how to do something, take the pauses to write down the process, grab screenshots, and step by step the process. Let the learner know that this session may take some extra time because you want to be sure they have an instructional document to reference after you show them. Processes that don't require "live action" to build out - meaning you can mimic the scenario or can write out a process before having to be with someone, do it in advance.

It doesn't have to be perfect, it just needs to be built. And don't be afraid to ask if it makes sense as written or if the team has suggestions for better clarity.

If your bandwidth is really limited, you can ask team members to help with the process of building these resources too - extra points if you encourage them to think about more lean, efficient ways to do the process.

A Shift for Leaders

Before assuming it’s a people issue, ask:

• Have we clearly documented how this work is done?

• Would a new hire be able to reference this independently?

• Are our processes current — or are we relying on memory and emails?

Because when multiple people “can’t get it,” it’s rarely a coincident. It's usually a signal.

And One More Thing

This isn’t just for your teams. If you want to grow in your career — build the work for you too.

Seriously, document what you do. Create clarity where there isn’t any. Leave something behind that makes the next person successful and provides resources for their success.

Often times when people are promoted there is this (sometimes really long) period of time they're doing their old role plus the new one. Do yourself a favor, create those resources for the tasks you do as well. Nothing slows a team down faster than someone stepping into a role and having to rebuild everything from scratch or spend hours training and showing the person in your previous role how to do everything.

Final Thought

We spend a lot of time trying to fix people. But sometimes, the fix isn’t the person but the structure around them.

Build the work.

It will save time. Reduce frustration. Improve performance. And create consistency that doesn’t rely on memory or guesswork.

Should you get stuck, need examples, or someone to build the work while you move through it - reach out.

☕ Lead on my friends, and don’t leave your team guessing.