A colleague recently asked about this topic and the following was my (lightly edited) response:
My initial thoughts on this - chat with your colleagues to see what their motivations are. Some people are all about the team, some folks are all about the work itself. A lot of folks just want to be helpful and if an ask is clearly articulated they’ll roll up their sleeves and pitch in.
Another approach, which can complement those above, is to chat with whoever their manager is and request that they make the ask as well.
If it’s an informal arrangement (e.g. you’re the point-person, but not official manager, for a team) - I’d make it a team exercise: "We have this responsibility as a group, how should we approach this to be fair to everyone, make the best use of people’s talents, and spread any unpleasant tasks around so no one is just in a world of hurt all the time?"
The thing I try to remember (and I only occasionally do in my clearer moments) is that people want to do good work and be good teammates, but they sometimes lose sight of that unless explicit conversations are had.
It’s hella uncomfortable to start those conversations though. No doubt there.
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