Leadership Tips for Prioritizing Your Team and Your Work

One of the most challenging parts of moving from individual contributor to university fundraising leader is learning how to balance your team’s priorities and needs with your own projects and responsibilities. After all, as a leader, your team is your work—and you also have deadlines and deliverables that require your focus. Here’s how to lead both with intention.

When I first made this transition many years ago, I believed that always being available for my team was the best way to show team members I valued them. But I found myself getting further behind on my own work. So I would spend evenings at home catching up on my projects. I ended up feeling burned out and pulled in many directions. As I grappled with my own uncertainties about how to “do it all,” I also worried that senior management would determine I wasn’t ready to be a leader after all.

Though many managers feel uncertain about how to simultaneously support their team’s priorities and complete their own work, it’s not something that’s talked about openly. Here’s what I tell the senior advancement leaders I coach, and what I hope supports you, too: The purpose of a team is to achieve more than any one individual can—including you.

Whether you’re navigating your first 90 days as a development director or transitioning into a more senior advancement role, learning to lead yourself and your team at the same time is essential for sustainable success.

Here's how to get started:

Communicate consistently with your team

Start by developing a comprehensive understanding of what your team is working on and what they need from you. You can do this through one-on-one meetings with individual team members and collectively through team and project meetings.

Help your team thrive by sharing your vision, setting expectations, and reinforcing your ongoing support. When people feel informed and connected, they’re better positioned to manage projects and meet deadlines.

You may find that you need to support your team in how they’re balancing their own workloads. Prioritizing consistent, clear communication may take more effort in the short term, but it will ultimately be beneficial in the long term for higher education advancement team building. And you can use these open lines of communication to share updates about your own work to foster transparency and trust.

Focus on what you do best

Think about the things that only you can do as a leader and what will best serve the team—this is your best and highest use of time. Your job as a leader is to support your team in achieving their goals.

This doesn’t, however, mean being always available to your team’s requests. Supporting your advancement team can also look like strategic planning, developing new organizational initiatives, and creating career development plans and pathways. You may find that it’s helpful to proactively block set time(s) on your calendar to work on your own projects. On some days, you may end up with only a 30- or 60-minute block available.

It’s valuable for leaders to learn how to make progress on bigger projects by working in smaller time increments. Even if the time occasionally gets filled with other time-sensitive meetings, you’re signaling the importance of your own contributions, rather than trying to fit them in as afterthoughts.

Delegate to develop your team

As you grow in your role, you must recognize that you can’t—nor should you—do everything you did as an individual contributor. This can be especially hard when you’ve built your fundraising career by being the go-to person who gets things done. Recognize your job is different now, and so are the expectations.

When you think through how to support your team and manage your workload, consider who else on your team can take on specific tasks and projects. Delegation is one of the most effective strategies in building your advancement team. It builds capacity, strengthens trust, and offers your team new growth opportunities.

When assigning projects, share how these tasks contribute to larger goals. Delegation done well reduces your workload—and it strengthens the future leadership pipeline on your team.

Prioritize your own learning, growth, and care

Your team counts on you and looks to you as a role model, so you must make time for your own learning and personal development. This can include journaling for a few minutes at the end of the workday or workweek, setting aside time to read articles or an industry publication, or attending an annual conference to build your support network. All of these things will help you be a more effective, strategic fundraising leader.

Great leaders also focus on their own rest, energy, and wellbeing. When you’re feeling unsure about whether you can afford to take this time, remember that this is an investment in yourself and your team.

Ultimately, your job as a leader is to guide, motivate, and support your team in achieving their goals—together. To do this well, you need to develop your ability to prioritize and lead yourself from a position of strength. This learning is an ongoing process. There will likely be moments in the future when your workload feels less aligned. But you can always refer to these tips to help get back on track and remember to rely on the great team you’ve built to support you, too.

A version of this article was originally published on Fast Company: https://www.fastcompany.com/91160565/how-to-balance-your-priorities-at-work