Dear Bob ... I'm a manager in a small company (publicly held), reporting to the CEO. I have three managers reporting to me; each has some direct reports - two, four and seven. My issue is that while all of the three are good at parts of their jobs, none is good enough at all of their jobs. We aren't profitable enough for me to add more staff, so the result is that I end up having to redo a lot of the work each o Dear Bob …I’m a manager in a small company (publicly held), reporting to the CEO. I have three managers reporting to me; each has some direct reports – two, four and seven.My issue is that while all of the three are good at parts of their jobs, none is good enough at all of their jobs. We aren’t profitable enough for me to add more staff, so the result is that I end up having to redo a lot of the work each of them does. Before you ask: Yes, I do a lot of coaching to try to improve their skills. It’s helped some, but not enough.Any suggestions?– Doing too much Dear Doing …This sounds like one of those challenges that doesn’t have a single answer. Several thoughts occur to me that might help:1. The single biggest step you can take is to lower your standards. While it’s always important to establish standards of excellence, and to make sure those reporting to you understand what it means to deliver excellent results, that doesn’t mean you have to redo everything until it meets those standards. Sometimes good enough is good enough. If your improvements aren’t going to increase revenue, decrease costs or mitigate risk in the short or long term, you’re better off flagging the work as substandard while letting it pass than you are investing your precious time redoing it.2. Recognize that very few people are good at everything. That’s why we have specialists. That those reporting to you aren’t excellent at every aspect of their jobs just might mean your company stretches its employees too thinly. That’s okay – some companies have to operate that way – but there is a consequence, and that’s that not everything that has to get done will get done equally well.3. Take a look at how your managers are hiring, retaining, training and coaching their staffs. Not everyone is good at everything, but it’s usually possible to hire others to fill in the gaps. If the gaps remain there’s a good chance they’re either “hiring themselves” or hiring so as to avoid threats to their positions. One of the advantages to working in a smaller company is that each employee gets more scope of action. That’s also one of the disadvantages, as you’ve discovered.– Bob Technology Industry