Running a business or practice can be a daily challenge. Everyone else seemingly does it so easily, so why does it sometimes seem like so much hard work? Business owners don’t always have someone they can turn to for answers to daily frustrations, which is why more and more are looking to find a business coach. The most common issues revolve around people, money and time. In particular, the lack of it. This question and answer series of articles provides scenarios for practice and business owners to find answers to those frustrating situations.
Q: I have a small and reasonably successful business with pretty good people on the whole, but when I ask someone to do something that I consider part of their role I seem to be coming up against the ‘not my department’ response, and end up doing the jolly thing myself. I don’t think I’m being unreasonable and in most instances am sure that the tasks in question were mentioned in their employment interview, but have been conveniently forgotten. What is the best way to deal with this?
We have answered a similar question in a previous column, but as it seems to come up quite regularly, it’s worth addressing again. While you will almost certainly have covered these tasks off in a general sense in the initial interviews, all of us can be subject to selective hearing and remember only the bits we want to remember. There is a missing piece and that is a clear and agreed
understanding on both sides of what the job entails. Job briefs do it to a certain extent but are usually too general.
With all our business coaching clients we introduce the concept and practice of implementing Job Agreements.
They start with the simple definition of a “job”, which is the responsibility to produce a specific set of results. You either do the work to produce the results or you do the managerial work to see that other people or systems do the work to produce the results. A job agreement is an understanding between the business and an employee and a commitment to produce specific results. Some job agreements list all the various tasks and accountabilities that are expected to the most minute detail, which is great, but not always necessary. If one of the results of their role is, say, to acquire long term, quality clients for the business, and the allocated task contributes to that outcome, then almost certainly it falls into their lap.
A Job Agreeement lists the different kinds of work inherent in the position; it sets out the reporting relationships and the authority to make decisions, get resources or manage others. Having an agreement such as this in place will very quickly clarify the situation for you and your staff. You will both know exactly your roles in the business and move and whose department the various activities belong to.
Watch for Part Sixteen…coming later this week!
Until next time…
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