Seeing the Work You Do Not See

Recently I had the privilege to visit the RealPage headquarters in Richardson, Texas for their Affordable Leadership Summit. The sessions were filled with insight from leaders across the affordable housing and property management industry, but one moment in particular stood out.

Savas Karas shared a data point that made the entire room pause.

He said that 60 percent of corporate employees and 40 percent of site staff regularly perform work outside their defined scope. Even more striking, 35 percent of that work adds no measurable value, yet it persists because of habit, tradition, or simple inertia.

That statement landed hard. Every leader in the room nodded, because we have all seen it. Workarounds that were meant to be temporary become permanent. Manual reports get duplicated across departments. People keep tasks alive simply because they have always done them.

Over time, those small inefficiencies compound into a quiet drag on morale and productivity. They are rarely malicious. They are often invisible. But they hold organizations back.

The challenge for leaders is learning how to see the work you do not see.

The Problem with Invisible Work

In most organizations, invisible work starts with good intentions. Someone identifies a gap in a system, creates a workaround, and moves on. The problem is that the workaround stays long after the system changes.

An assistant might create a parallel spreadsheet because the main database feels too slow. A compliance manager might build a manual tracker “just to be sure.” A maintenance supervisor might keep a personal list of vendors instead of using the shared platform.

Each of those solutions feels small, but collectively they create shadow systems that no one manages and everyone depends on.

What starts as helpful becomes harmful. Time is wasted. Data becomes inconsistent. Accountability blurs. And the organization loses sight of where effort is being spent.

Invisible work thrives where leadership does not ask enough questions. It hides in the space between “how” and “why.”

Activity Is Not the Same as Value

One of the most important lessons from that RealPage session was this: being busy does not always mean being productive.

In our industry, people wear their workload as a badge of honor. “I’m slammed” becomes the default response to “How’s it going?” But if 35 percent of that workload adds no value, then the real problem is not effort. It is direction.

Leaders often reward effort before they evaluate impact. It is easier to recognize the person who works the longest hours than the person who quietly eliminates a broken process. Yet the latter creates far more value over time.

Great leaders learn to look beyond activity and ask the harder question: Does this task move us closer to our goals, or just make us feel busy?

When the answer is unclear, it is time to pause and reevaluate.

How Workarounds Become Culture

Over time, invisible work hardens into organizational muscle memory. “That’s how we’ve always done it” becomes the silent enemy of progress.

Teams stop questioning whether a process still serves its purpose. Reports get created that no one reads. Spreadsheets multiply. Forms are copied and renamed. Entire workflows live on shared drives without an owner.

This happens most often in periods of growth. As organizations expand, systems struggle to keep up. Staff fill the gaps through creativity and hustle, which is admirable, but if those stopgap measures are never reviewed, the result is fragmentation.

By the time leadership notices, people are tired, processes are inconsistent, and productivity is harder to measure.

The irony is that the more dedicated your team is, the more likely this problem becomes. Good people will do whatever it takes to make things work. The leader’s job is to ensure that effort is directed, supported, and sustainable.

How to See What You Cannot See

Leaders cannot fix what they do not notice. To see invisible work, they have to create visibility.

Here are three ways to start:

1. Ask open-ended questions.
Instead of “Is everything on track?” ask “What part of your job takes the most time that adds the least value?” or “What process do you repeat that you wish you could stop?” People usually know where inefficiencies live. They just need permission to say it out loud.

2. Follow the data trail.
If reports are late, inconsistent, or require multiple versions to reconcile, there is a process problem hiding underneath. Look at how many steps it takes to produce one deliverable. Every unnecessary step is an opportunity to improve.

3. Map the flow of communication.
In many organizations, information passes through too many hands. The longer the chain, the higher the chance of distortion or delay. Visualize who touches what and why. You will often find steps that exist only because they once filled a gap that no longer exists.

The goal is not to assign blame. The goal is to create awareness. Once inefficiencies are visible, teams can align around removing them together.

From Awareness to Action

Awareness alone is not enough. Once a leader uncovers redundant work, they must take deliberate action to address it.

That starts with prioritization. Not every inefficiency deserves immediate attention. Focus on what creates the biggest drag on time, accuracy, or morale. Often, those are the tasks that seem harmless but touch the most people.

Next, communicate clearly. People are more likely to change how they work if they understand the “why” behind it. Frame process improvement as a way to give them time back, not take control away.

Finally, celebrate progress. When a team eliminates an outdated report or automates a manual task, acknowledge it publicly. Reinforce that efficiency is a shared win, not just a management metric.

Culture shifts one success at a time.

The Leadership Mindset

Savas made an important point during the session that ties all of this together. He said that leaders are often blind to the workarounds their teams create because the system still delivers results. On the surface, everything looks fine. Occupancy is strong. Deadlines are met. Reports get sent.

But under the surface, people are compensating for broken systems. They are spending energy that could be used for innovation, problem-solving, or resident engagement.

Leadership requires the humility to admit that visible success can mask hidden strain. It requires curiosity to ask, “What am I missing?”

The most effective leaders spend as much time removing barriers as they do setting goals. They understand that improvement is not about demanding more effort. It is about designing smarter systems so that effort produces better outcomes.

My Takeaway

As I listened to that session in Richardson, I realized that the invisible work in our industry mirrors something larger about leadership itself. The best leaders are not always the loudest or the most visible. They are the ones who quietly find the friction points, simplify the process, and make it easier for everyone else to succeed.

The same goes for the work itself. What we do not see often matters most.

Every organization carries some level of hidden inefficiency. The question is whether leaders have the courage and curiosity to surface it.

Seeing the work you do not see is not about control. It is about clarity. And clarity is the first step toward freedom, focus, and better results for the teams and residents we serve.