Managers Shouldn't Try to Do it All: 4 Methods to Foster Comparative Advantage

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As they say, there are only so many hours in a day. Many people think they can increase their productivity by just working harder. But that, in due course, is a losing game. They tire, their overall output fails, and they risk burning themselves out and choosing to exit. This article is Leaders Shouldn't Try to Do It All. The subtitle is many important tasks can be done by other people. Focus on what you can do a lot better than anyone else.

It's by A.G. Lafley and Roger Martin from the print edition 2025 January-February Harvard Business Review. All right. So in this article, they're going to talk about. Strategies that will help leaders who feel overwhelmed, feel like there's not another way to do something. We're going to look at a powerful theory here that really guides how we can manage our time a little bit better. And this is, interestingly enough, coming from the theory of comparative advantage.

The theory of comparative advantage. The remedy for overwhelmed leaders comes from a very unlikely source, according to this article, the 19th century political economist David Ricardo. Business leaders most commonly allocate their time by lining up potential tasks according to the absolute importance to the organization strategy and then kind of take them on one by one until they run out of time and they leave everything else to either someone else or to tomorrow.

Instead, according to this article, they should be guided by Ricardo's 1817 theory of comparative advantage. Now, don't lose me yet. This is really interesting. Still seen as the seminal theory in international trade, it asserts that a nation should export those goods or services for which it has comparative advantage over its trading partners. So, for instance, in the classic example, Portugal exports wine to England because sunny weather gives it a comparative advantage in growing grapes.

But it doesn't export wine to Italy because it has no comparative advantage over Italy in that respect. Meanwhile, England exports wool to Portugal because its weather is perfect for raising sheep. And so similarly, the similar logic holds. Leaders should spend their scarce time on activities simply, or I'm sorry, leaders shouldn't spend their scarce time on activities simply because they are very important.

They should do only the things that nobody else in the organization can do nearly as well, if at all. And they should spend as much of their time as possible on them. That's the definition the authors say is leading to win. The authors then go on to talk a little bit about four companies that they've worked with this particular theory in mind to help them turn things around.

They cite an example from Procter & Gamble. They cite an example from the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto. They talk a little bit about a company called Figs, which makes designer scrubs and medical apparel that are customized for people, for doctors and nurses.

And then they talk about the Lego Group, which is the most respected toy company in the world and how this concept helped their leaders really turn an overwhelming management situation into a thriving management situation.

They suggest a four-step process in making choices. The first two steps involve getting tasks off their calendars. The second two is putting tasks on their calendars. The first choice is to remove all tasks for which you lack any absolute advantage. So if there are other people in the organization can do this task as well or maybe even better than you, completely remove it.

So not delegation here. This is complete reassignment. If someone else in your organization can do this task as well or better than you, then completely remove it from your calendar and let them do it. Okay, number two, delegate tasks for which you have little comparative advantage.

So having reassigned tasks for which they have, or which you have no advantage at all over other people, we should consider shedding those for which we have only a modest advantage in favor of those for which their advantage is very distinctive. Okay, so this is what I love. This concept is addition by subtraction. So this is true. This is true delegation here. So leaders feel more empowered and trusted and end up performing better.

A lot of times when we delegate tasks to them appropriately, they get more engaged, they get more motivated, more motivational energy, and you get more time. So number two, delegate those tasks for which you have very little comparative advantage. So if the first two suggestions here are to take things off your plate, then the next two are putting things on your plate. And number three is take on tasks for which you have a strong comparative advantage.

So the payoff for all the hard and sometimes difficult, controversial choices to remove tasks from your calendar is actually the freedom to add tasks for which you have significant comparative advantage and that can make a really big difference in your organization's performance. The challenge is to aggressively reinvest that time that you gain to do the tasks differently in order to improve your own comparative advantage.

And number four and final, make sure you have enough time for the tasks that only you can do. Only you can do. Sometimes the leader is literally the only member of the organization who can accomplish certain tasks. And if those tasks are in and you know what they are, then you need to really invest a lot of time in making sure you're investing in them so that the competitive advantage of them really shines through. Leaders like you and me will never have enough time on our hands.

All the good ones will always be exceedingly busy and more demands on their time are continually lurking. But there's no need for them to feel overwhelmed.

Those who use the principle of comparative advantage to move some tasks off their calendars so that they can take the time to truly focus on critical ones will give their organizations the best chance of achieving competitive advantage and will prosper themselves as leaders. And until next time we meet in the manager lab, do good work.