One Piece of Advice Series – Yuko Koganemaru, Engineering Manager at Frollo

Taking on every single task yourself isn’t dedication, it is a fast track to reduced productivity and fatigue.

When we sat down with Yuko Koganemaru, Frollo Engineering Manager, for our “What’s One Piece of Advice (You Share With Others)?” series, Yuko chose a question every busy professional relates to:

“What advice helped you master your daily workflow, protect your time or maintain a healthy balance between work and life?”

Yuko admitted her natural instinct was always to take full ownership by:

• Raising her hand in meetings to draft documents;
• Volunteering for action items;
• Carrying the heavy lifting alone.

A key piece of advice from a former manager completely transformed her daily workflow:

“Look for support and ask for help from your peers when appropriate. Effective work isn’t about carrying everything by yourself.”

Putting that advice into practice helped Yuko upgrade her time management through three key shifts:

1. Shift from Solo Ownership to Smart Collaboration

Wanting to deliver great work often makes us want to “do it all.” But trying to carry every piece of a project solo limits your total capacity and doesn’t build capability or leverage capacity in others.. Yuko learned that greater effectiveness comes from working with your team, rather than defaulting to taking the load onto your own shoulders. As Yuko transitioned into people management, that also meant anticipating upcoming project work and skill needs across her team and identifying collective strengths and development opportunities across the team to grow capability and capacity in time for when it is needed. 

2. Stop Raising Your Hand Unnecessarily

We often fall into the trap of volunteering for tasks just because we are in the room. Yuko realised that being a valuable contributor doesn’t mean taking on every single action item. Protecting your time means being intentional about where your focus goes, rather than automatically signing up for extra tasks and identifying those items which are great development opportunities instead for others.

3. Delegate to Empower, Then Support

Instead of doing all the heavy lifting herself, Yuko shifted her mindset: empower others to step up and lead the task, while offering support alongside them. By letting colleagues take the driver’s seat, she was able to not only protect her own balance, but create the space for others to grow, too.

Real productivity isn’t about how much you can carry alone. It’s about building a sustainable workflow where collaboration replaces heroics.

If these insights have made you curious to learn more about the people who make NextGen & Frollo operate, you can read more from our careers blog to find other profiles and stories, or join our online community to learn more about what is going on at NextGen and connect directly with our teams.