That's Not Billable
As leaders, we need to keep our projects moving forward and get them out the door on-time and on-budget. That’s what we are paid to do.
But we also need to make sure we are doing the non-billable stuff. We need to be coaching, mentoring, and training our people. We need to be working on strategic initiatives. We may be interviewing potential new hires.
If people in your team or work group doing that, then make sure that you are acknowledging and rewarding that above-and-beyond effort. If possible, have a code for some of these activities for utilization hours or timesheets, so that building the company’s success into the future isn’t seen as something that gets in the way of getting work done. Note what people do for their performance reviews, and channel their efforts toward gaps or future gaps that may need to be filled through promotions. Your people can be respected and rewarded for “training their replacements” as they build their own leadership skills and experience and prepare for their own promotions.
(image generated by Midjourney)