Leading While Managing Your Own Workload
Let’s Explore The Middle Manager’s Balancing Act
Hi, it’s Carly, your usual Leadership by 16Personalities host. As a middle manager here at 16Personalities and in past positions throughout my career, I wanted to share some insights with you today on balancing leadership with your own work load. I hope you enjoy!
It’s 2 PM on Thursday. Your team needs feedback on three different projects, HR is waiting for those performance reviews, and somehow, you still need to finish that analysis the CEO requested by tomorrow morning.
Sound familiar? You’re not alone.
The middle manager’s dilemma is real: we’re expected to lead effectively while simultaneously producing high-quality work ourselves. We have to divide our attention between supporting our team’s needs and delivering on our own individual responsibilities, often with competing deadlines and priorities.
I myself am a middle manager who works remotely while leading a remote team, so I’ve experienced the unique challenges of balancing leadership with individual work in a virtual environment. While I’m admittedly still learning, I’ve collected some insights I wish someone had shared with me when I first stepped into this role. Whether you’re new to this balancing act or a seasoned pro, I hope that you might also find them useful.
Embrace the Dual Identity
First, let’s acknowledge the truth: this tension isn’t something to “solve” but rather a dynamic to manage. The sooner I accepted that my role inherently contains this duality, the better I became at navigating it.
I used to feel guilty when I delayed responding to my team’s messages on Slack in order to focus on my own deliverables. Now, I recognize that completing my own work effectively is part of being a good leader. Your remote team benefits when you model focused productivity rather than constant availability, especially in a virtual environment where “always online” can become an unhealthy expectation.
Time Management Strategies That Actually Work
Block your calendar strategically. If it’s possible with your work schedule, you can try breaking up your calendar into focused areas. For example, you might dedicate Mondays and Thursdays to team-focused activities: virtual one-on-ones, project reviews, and team meetings. Tuesdays and Wednesdays could be for your individual work, with minimal interruptions. Fridays are flexible, allowing you to catch up on either responsibility as needed. In a remote work environment, especially, this structure can help your team know when they can expect your focused attention.
Respect the difference between “maker” and “manager” schedules. I borrowed this concept from Paul Graham. Manager schedules work in hour-long blocks with frequent transitions. Maker schedules require longer, uninterrupted time blocks for focused work. As a middle manager, I need both – but my team is made up of makers.
So when scheduling meetings with team members who need to produce detailed work, I can try to protect long stretches of their calendars from interruptions. Instead of scheduling a meeting in the middle of their afternoon block of work (which effectively destroys their deep work time), I might ask them to meet at the end of that work block, when the deep work is already done.
And if I need focus time myself, I could communicate this in Slack – perhaps updating my status to “In deep work until 2PM” to create the virtual equivalent of a closed office door.
Delegate, But Make It Developmental
One of my biggest breakthroughs as a new remote manager came when I started seeing delegation not as “giving away work I should be doing” but as “creating growth opportunities for my team.”
When delegating, ask yourself these three questions:
Does this task provide learning value to someone on my team?
Will doing this work myself provide unique value that no one else can offer?
Is this an opportunity to build trust and autonomy within the team?
In a remote environment, delegation requires extra care. You need to provide clearer context and more explicit expectations. You might even use screen recordings to explain complex tasks or collaborative documents to track progress without micromanaging.
This mindset shift transformed delegation from something that felt like shirking responsibility into a strategic leadership tool. When you can give team members challenging assignments that stretch their capabilities – along with the right support structures – they can truly flourish and grow.
Quality vs. Perfectionism
As both a manager and individual contributor, you’ll likely face decisions about where to invest your limited time and energy. Not all work requires the same level of polish, and recognizing this can help you allocate your efforts more strategically:
‘Perfect’ work: Client deliverables, board presentations, critical analyses – these deserve your highest standards
‘Good enough’ work: Internal documentation, early drafts, routine reports – these can be solid without being flawless
‘Quick and dirty’ work: Many emails, status updates, preliminary research – these just need to get the point across
Learning to calibrate your efforts appropriately can free up mental energy for where it matters most. Your team will also observe how you manage this balance, and you’ll be teaching a valuable lesson about sustainable productivity through your example. When they see you making deliberate choices about where perfectionism is warranted versus where efficiency is more important, they’ll feel permission to do the same.
Remote Leadership Mindsets That Make It Possible
Beyond practical strategies, I’ve found that certain perspectives make this remote balancing act more manageable:
Embrace context switching as a skill. Rather than lamenting the need to shift between leader and contributor roles, I’ve trained myself to transition more efficiently. Between management tasks and deep focused work, I’ll often take two minutes to jump on my rebounder. This quick physical reset helps clear my mind and signals a shift in mental modes, making me more effective in both capacities.
Find joy in the variety. On my best days, I appreciate how this dual role keeps me connected to both the strategic and tactical elements of our work. When I’m deep in the details of a project, I gain insights that inform my leadership; when I’m guiding my team through Slack, I develop perspective that enhances my individual contributions.
Create intentional transitions. Without the natural transitions of an office environment, I’ve had to create my own. Sometimes I use the end of meetings as transition points, taking five minutes to document key takeaways before switching to individual work – or vice versa.
Forgive yourself for the inevitable imperfection. There will be days when the balance fails – when you’re so consumed by your individual work that your team’s Slack messages pile up, or when leadership demands mean your own deliverables suffer. Accept these moments as part of the journey rather than evidence of failure.
The Remote Middle Manager’s Secret
Perhaps the most liberating realization I’ve had in my relatively short time as a remote middle manager is this: the tension you feel is not a sign that you’re doing it wrong – it’s confirmation that you understand the complexity of your role. The middle manager who feels no strain between leadership and individual contribution likely isn’t giving sufficient attention to one or both responsibilities.
The remote environment adds its own layer of complexity, as the boundaries between work modes become even more blurred without the physical transitions of an office. Yet, it also offers unique opportunities for intentional structuring of your dual responsibilities.
So the next time you’re toggling between reviewing a team member’s work in one browser tab while your own deadline-driven project waits in another, remember: this balancing act isn’t just what you do – it’s who you are in this role. And even if you’re still relatively new to it, you’re probably doing it better than you think.
What strategies have you found effective for balancing leadership with individual work? Share your experiences in the comments below.