"I'm leading by example."

That's what I heard a manager say as he excused himself for doing the work his team should be doing.

But he wasn't leading at all. And this manager's manager was pretty frustrated. Because that meant she had to do a lot of the work the manager couldn't get done - the managerial stuff.

If you're a manager doing the work of your team and think you're leading by example, what example are you trying to set?

Because what your team is seeing are three things:

Managers jobs are the same as theirs, plus a lot of extra stuff.

If they can't get their work done it's okay, because you'll do it for them.

The stuff that's really important to them, you're not delivering.

That really important stuff; it's three more things:

Setting proper expectations for THEIR performance.

Getting THEM the and equipment they need to do THEIR jobs right.

Helping THEM do the things THEY do best EVERY day. If you think you can do it all, you can't.

If you believe you are, you're not. People want managers to lead them, not do their work for them. Trust me on this. If caught in this false notion of "leading by example" by doing the work of your team, you and I should to talk.

That's not to say you never help them or completely avoid any involvement in the work of your team. That's letting the pendulum swing too far in the other direction. Here are some examples to illustrate what I mean.

The Manager Who Couldn't Manage

Not long ago I was consulting in an organization that had a manager who thought she was showing a good example by doing the same work as the team; sharing their workload and taking a lot of the load off of them. Two problems with this: 1) her boss couldn't count on her for any of the managerial tasks that needed to be done. 2) her team came to expect that she would do a lot of their work and so they counted on her doing it week in and week out.

The Other Manager Who Couldn't Manage

On the other end of the spectrum was a manager I worked with as a peer in an organization. He not only never rolled up his sleeves to help, I think his sleeves were pad locked in place. His intentions may have been good, but his actions served to undermine his authority. No one on his team looked to him as a leader. It's not that he wasn't working on good things, he was just lousy and showing his team the things he was doing to make their jobs easier.

The Great Manager

This manager fell somewhere near the middle of the spectrum, but more toward the side of not doing the work of his team. He rolled up those sleeves when necessary and necessary meant that sometimes it was a crisis, and sometimes he did it just to show he could and would do the work. But for the most part, he was busy doing the analysis of the teams performance, coaching the team, driving process improvements, breaking down barriers for his team. He set realistic expectations for his team and held them to those expectations. He made sure they had the tools they needed to be successful. He made sure each member of his team was able to draw upon their individual talents.

So, I'm not saying you avoid doing the work of the team and completely distance yourself from any involvement in what they are engaged in doing. But you can't do their work and lead them too. It's just not possible. The concept of the player/coach is invalid. It never works as well as the dedicated coach model. Never.