Occasionally a high priority project throws things out of balance. In that case, I aim for balance over time. An employee might need to spend 2 months on an unpleasant but important project. To balance things out, I’ll let them spend 2 months on a project of lower importance that grows their skills.
Senior people are expected to make a greater contribution to the company and team while junior people are allotted more time to work on growth.
There is a minimum level of performance below which investment stops and all effort shifts to immediate results, both at the individual and team levels.
It’s important to set your management’s expectations as to how your team will be spending their time and get their agreement to this plan. Later they will pressure you to drop the investments in team and people to deliver more results faster, and you will remind them that they agreed to the investment plan.