Turn away from responsibility fatigue by creating a road map for change, says Kemetia Foley
I recently attended a brilliant conference for a volunteer organization. One track of the conference focused on the challenges of encouraging and training the next generation of volunteer leaders. This organization had enough volunteers at the ground/group level but struggled mightily to secure volunteers for higher-level leadership roles. The same dozen or so people kept showing up repeatedly in different leadership roles, but there were very few fresh faces.
These volunteer leaders began to feel the effects of responsibility fatigue[1] – the belief or feeling that if they did not do it, no one else would, and the organization might fall apart! They became tired of repeating information and resources. Many leaders became frustrated, burnt out, or chose to leave the organization completely. The departure of experienced volunteers left the more recent volunteers without access to institutional knowledge and little support.
The Curse of Experience
Does this sound familiar to you? I identify with this because there are days when a headful of annoyances and resentments sneaks into my life. I judge others around me and wonder why they are not doing what I am doing or what I think they should be doing, or not doing it the way it’s “supposed” to be done. I often forget how long it took me to learn these skills, garner these insights, and navigate organizational politics. Not only do I forget that these things come naturally to me because of years of experience, I can have unrealistic expectations that my less-experienced colleagues will “know” what to do. That is an equation for trouble and distrust.
It is an ugly form of self-righteousness, often meaning that the person judging decides they have to “clean things up” or take on one more project because who else will take it on?
Worse, I have worked alongside colleagues who believe their way is THE only way, and THEY are the stellar example that no one can follow. They are loath to give up any power, hoard information, and dismiss or sabotage Junior Assistants’ efforts to take on more.
Certainly, there are less experienced professionals or generational approaches to our work that contribute to challenges. What about those colleagues who are working in the administrative field “just to get their foot in the door,” and do not respect the field as a career option? Why bother investing time to engage them?
This scenario plays out in companies of all sizes, all types, including volunteer organizations.
Two Senior Executive Assistants and Eight Administrative Assistants
Envision a company with a total of 10 administrative and executive support staff, of which only two support the C-suite of four executives (CIO, CFO, COO, and CEO).
The organization’s board meeting happens quarterly, and these executive support staff must plan and execute the board meetings with limited assistance from the rest of their colleagues for assorted reasons. The pace and volume of work is intense for these two lead EAs. Burnout is already showing itself, and the culmination is on the horizon. The two leads just want to “get through this one.”
The two Senior Executive Assistants have a combined 45 years’ experience, have both been with the company for 12 years, and have been in the C-Suite for six of those years. When the company had the most recent change of CEO, both were moved up into their current positions and the former EAs left to go elsewhere, leaving behind a bare-bones electronic folder of procedures. They learned on the job and wisely created documentation as they went.
The company has grown tremendously and in the last year added three Junior Assistants. The two Senior Assistants feel they have no time to train the new colleagues and assume the other Assistants will bring them up to speed. They are oh-so-ready to retire but feel they cannot leave their CEO in the lurch and suspect none of the other Assistants are ready to move up. They frequently vent to one another about a lack of time to do things outside of work. They feel they have no time to learn new things or to train any others.
Over the course of the year, turnover in the administrative pool increases, and work is redistributed among the group. Nothing changes and the work takes on the feeling of a hamster wheel for the entire administrative team. The Senior EAs are frustrated with some of the mistakes being made, so they continue to absorb more work, inducing their own responsibility fatigue as the cycle repeats.
Building a deep bench of expertise in the administrative team could establish a strong operations foundation that can weather organizational changes.
Questions for the overworked and underappreciated administrators
- Are you truly required to take on that one more thing?
- Or are you a victim by choice, not delegating, not leading, not educating, not asking for materials or tools you need to do the work?
- Did you ever ask for assistance?
- More importantly, have you accepted offers of help?
- Did you decide it was easier to do it yourself because it takes too long to train someone else?
Leadership
Workplace tenure does not equal leadership. When my students want to list leadership on their resumes, I enquire: What does that look like? Provide me with a specific case example. One may be a shift leader, a committee leader, an administrative manager – but these titles do not necessarily confer leadership skills and acumen.
Leaders see the big picture, know how their role contributes to the organization’s mission. They support career goals and paths. They understand that letting go and delegating may lead to mistakes, some costly. Leaders have a clear measure of their own risk tolerance and of value to the work they do. Leaders adopt a work approach that allows time and opportunities to educate others. Lastly, leaders are confident in their capabilities and knowledge base.
The A-HA Moment
As sessions continued throughout the conference mentioned earlier in this article, I began to recognize that the differences between leaders by title and leadership by action was an intentional investment in the success of the organization they supported. There was a healthy, maturebuy-in for their own purpose. Their enthusiasm for involvement was palpable and contagious.
These conference leaders recognized that to move the organization forward, not only did they have to take on their own work, but they were also the ones they were waiting for! The ones who needed to educate and, more importantly, engage others in their work – not just for the sake of assisting with the workload, but to allow others to grow into higher level positions and pioneer a succession plan for their eventual departure from the role.
Battling Responsibility Fatigue Requires Commitment and Action
Creating more work for these Senior EAs may seem to defeat the purpose of combatting responsibility fatigue, but change is necessary here. Make time to create time. These EAs will know which stakeholders will support them and need to be aware of this new effort.
Delivering educational opportunities consistently is key. Offering chances for three weeks straight and then not again for four months will not work. There must be a commitment to the process and agreement on priorities and benchmarks. Ad hoc opportunities will arise.
A six-month plan may look like this:
- Educational lunch: 1st Wednesday of the month
- Shadow Senior EA: 3rd and 4th Thursdays
- Software training: 2nd Friday of every other month
| January | • All hands administrative team meeting 1st Wednesday • Discuss the project to build a deep administrative bench and the reasoning behind it. • Open the discussion to all. • Offer a secondary time to continue discussion in January if possible. |
| February | • Establish a sign-up schedule of upcoming chances to shadow the Senior EAs. • Loop in the executives as to the purpose and address any concerns. • Provide a presentation that relays a “day in the life” of a Senior EA at your company. |
| March | • Do a full administrative team software skills self-assessment and poll for interest in learning additional software skills. • Create a lottery for a Junior Assistant to present a typical day to the rest of the team. |
| April | • All hands administrative team meeting for feedback on the project |
| May | • Begin building the cost-benefit analysis of establishing a deep administrative bench. |
| June | • Utilize the company’s annual review self-assessment tool. • Have all administrative professionals on the team complete it for themselves. • This builds time for additional support and educational opportunities well before the end-of-year review process. |
Building a deep bench of expertise in the administrative team provides a foundation for stability in operations and for the company’s sustainability.
Why should the Senior EAs have to do the planning for this? Many careers are killed by the phrase, “That is not my job.” That is correct. It is not in the job description. Perhaps the expectation is that the task of onboarding and educating belongs to Human Resources.
Friends, it does not matter.
These Senior EAs are demonstrating what leadership looks like. They identified this systemic problem: the need to sustain a professional and qualified administrative group to support executives and all facets of the organization, while providing opportunities for growth and redistributing the workload to a more manageable level. It is an opportunity to advocate, educate, and address workflow in a manner that benefits all. They may not know, but management is watching them, and their colleagues are observing the strategies being implemented.
Potential Challenges
Organizational culture
Obtain organizational buy-in via cost-benefit analysis. Organizations and the people employed by them generally fight change of any kind. Understand how coaching less experienced administrative professionals can become a cost benefit to your organization. Cost-benefit analysis is the love language embraced by companies. Use it.
Company turnover or FTE reductions
Note that companies may not prioritize hiring administrative staff (all levels). Be cognizant of internal and external stressors impacting your organization.
Training opportunities
There may be inconsistent executive and organizational support for training across the entire organizational structure. This requires gathering data, most likely HR. If you are unable to gain access to it, make the ask to the executive(s) you support. Highlighting inconsistencies in training dollars and the spending of professional development dollars can provide better and informed budgetary decision-making.
Onboarding structure and content
In the hiring process, the career path progression is traditionally highlighted for managerial levels and above. The executive and administrative support positions may be provided with a career path in larger companies anchored by more structure. Utilize the World Administrators Alliance Global Skills Matrix® (https://globalskillsmatrix.com/) as a tool to support the implementation of a career path for these positions.
Low morale across the company
Trying to implement any kind of change when there is little interest is like swimming against the tide. There are still ways to avoid the undertow.
The Sole Administrative Professional
Depending on the volume of business created in the organization in which there is one administrative professional, the focus turns to educating the executive(s) support, core responsibilities, and agreement upon which priorities require documenting. It is imperative that the Assistant create a digital procedures manual that can be accessed by the appropriate staff.
Having this manual in place shows the Assistant’s knowledge of the organization, and a level of investment in the company’s success. It also puts minds at ease when there is no administrative coverage or temporary staff worker covering the administrative professional’s time out of the office.
Choices and Self-Awareness
Most organizations must be healthy and strong for long tenured success. They hire (hopefully) the most qualified candidates, establish career paths for all levels, and encourage individuals to take the initiative to solve problems. They want to see their staff emerge as organizational leaders.
I suspect many professionals step back or away from becoming leaders either because they are not supported by the organization or due to a lack of understanding of what being a leader entails.
Experienced administrative professionals have a choice to make in the workplace. They can acknowledge, address, and implement systems to redistribute workload on their own, thereby creating a built-in ladder for succession, or they can choose to continue working under increasingly stressful work volume.
When I evaluate what needs to change, I need to see what I need to change first. We can’t wait for others. I want to galvanize members of the administrative profession to take leadership in hand and know you can do this. Know that you can educate the new professionals and encourage them to better know their company and their own role. Design those opportunities to change the workload distribution for yourself and for the professional that succeeds you.
To paraphrase author Stephen Covey: We judge ourselves by our intent while others judge us by our actions.
Turning away from responsibility fatigue by creating a road map for change does require tremendous effort and intention to implement, but I promise you, this new perspective of leadership will energize you and others around you.
[1] In 2024, I began using the term “responsibility fatigue” to reflect the feeling of not being able to take on ONE MORE THING. Responsibility fatigue is often accompanied by burnout. It is witnessed in the care of family members, particularly the “sandwich generation” – those that have children and are also caring for an elderly parent’s needs.
