Keeping track of work being undertaken by Direct Reports, but not Delegated by me

hi

Been a lurker for a while, but finally have a problem I'd like to post for some thoughts.

I've taken over a new role, and it's necessary for me to keep tracks on aspects of what my direct reports are doing on behalf of other areas of the business.

My thought process go something like...

They aren't @Delegated actions, as I haven't asked them to do them
They aren't @Waiting For actions as I'm not waiting for anything specific
They aren't Projects that I own, therefore not on my Project list.


Has anyone else come up with any solutions to this one? One thought I had was another list, but can't get past the unwieldy 'things my team are doing for other people' title..

Thanks for any help with this!

Do you have regular meetings set up with each of your direct reports? Maybe consider keeping an agenda for each of them, and keep track of these kinds of projects there...

I think I would view it as a checklist, something to look over to give yourself reminders about things you might have to do.

i have a separate area for my project checklists and 20K checklists. If youre keeping an eye on a whole general area (hows Bob doing at finance, working with comms, working with HR, etc) that would probably be a 20Kft issue, an area of responsibility. If its much more specific (hows Bob doing on that report about X for the finance department) I would keep it with the project stuff.

The only difference between the two is that I make sure I see the projects every week in the review - the 20Kft stuff depending on my workload I may only see once every few weeks, or at my monthly review.

When you come to it in your weekly or monthly review you just ask yourself "is this ok?" - that way if you feel you're not up to date enough on how Bob's doing you can create a project or next action to find out - set a meeting, email him, get some performance data, etc.

As for the name of each list - if this was me Id have a tab in onenote called "team responsibilities" and each list within it would just be the person's name, or maybe "Bobs responsibilities". If you're in some other software you could use categories, or if youre using paper, just a new tab divider.

Hi,

decided in the end to go with a seperate list, which I've entitled "Team Activity". It's not stuff I want them to complete, or that I need to complete, I just need to be aware of it's existence.

Thanks

It's important to have regular and constant communication with your direct reports, if possible set up a conference online to keep track of everything being done and what's left to be done. Set it as "Team Work Discussions" and take note of the developments. I hope this makes sense to you. ;)