Job descriptions are useless (and even harmful)

It’s easy to get distracted with fancy titles and descriptions.

But they're often useless and even harmful.

I was recently helping a client build their first accountability system.

We finished streamlining and automating, and it was time to systemize all of the manual processes (because there will always be some amount of manual work, and this is ok).

This exercise always starts by asking the founder and team members what they believe they’re responsible for - a very eye-opening exercise.

I got answers like:

- Leading and managing the technology team and ensuring they are aligned with the organization's overall strategy

- Developing and managing the technology budget

This is super common, but really, means nothing. It doesn’t describe what they actually have to do, leaving no way to measure success.

This is why I believe job descriptions on their own are useless.

The beautiful thing about trying to create accountability in your business is that it forces you to turn responsibilities into accountabilities.

What are accountabilities? Well-defined ongoing processes with clear success criteria.

Instead of saying, responsible for social media, you can define success by the number of posts per week, all comments replied to, or engaging with all new followers.

In other words, what do you need to see, in the simplest way possible, to know that responsibilities are being met?

But you don’t need to always define these yourself. If you have competent team members (which you probably do), you can ask them to help you define their accountabilities.

The good news is that it only takes 4 questions to define an accountability:

WHAT? What is the thing that must get done?

WHO? Who is responsible?

WHEN? How often does it need to get done? Daily, weekly, monthly, etc.

DONE? What does done look like?

I've seen how clear accountabilities can transform a business. When everybody knows exactly what’s expected of them, operations run smoothly.

Go ahead and try it:

- Review existing titles

- Identify their responsibilities

- Turn responsibilities into accountabilities

See you all next Thursday 👋

PS. Whenever you're ready... Here are three ways I can help you become more replaceable:

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