It does not matter what kind of business you are in – one employee or 100,000 – a key element to a culture by design and a team that executes is defining what people’s roles and subsequent responsibilities are.
I have never met an employee in my 30 plus years of leadership that wants to do a crappy job. I have met a lot of leaders though that do not understand how to create an environment that their people know how to succeed in.
Most every business will develop a corporate vision, mission statement and strategies (usually too many strategies). The leaders of the business may even share what the corporate vision is with their people. That is usually where they stop. The employee team will then do their very best to interpret the meaning of the vision from a personal point of view and determine (on their own) how they, as individuals, contribute to the success of the vision.
Now imagine you have 3 or 300 employees each interpreting what they need to do to make the vision successful! Chaos will definitely ensue!
It would be like getting a group of 11 people together and showing them a Soccer Pitch and saying the vision is to put the ball in the other team’s net. And… that’s it. No explanation of the rules, the boundaries, passing, shooting, strategies, plays, etc. No one knows who is in goal, who is defending and who is going to score goals, the team will all do their very best to do whatever they think is right. Then when the team gets penalized or thrashed by the competition, the coach and management think it is all the player’s fault. They will say the team or certain individuals are not capable and think they need to make personnel changes.
When players know the rules, boundaries, strategies and the roles of each player on the pitch, they know what their role is. They know who is responsible for what and the team gets results. The team is also able to get innovative on the field and change their play as the competition throws different tactics at them.
In business, make sure every one on your team knows what their role is and what they are responsible for. It is CRITICAL! Make sure they have clear objectives that are understood and they know how they will be measured. Finally, and I know it seems basic however it is mind boggling how many leaders do not do this one basic, but massively important job… Give the employee and team feedback on how they are doing, what they are excelling at and where they need to improve.
