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The Five Jobs Every Leader Must Do
When you’re responsible for the performance of a
group you have five basic jobs that you have to perform. For each one, you’re going
to have to master the basic toolkit, and then learn the specific tools and techniques that
you’ll need for the exact situation you find yourself in. Here are what those five
jobs are.
You have to make sure that today's work gets
done
The daily work of the organization needs to get done both
effectively and efficiently. To do it effectively means making sure that the most
important things get done. It means establishing priorities, setting up systems, and
concentrating effort so that organizational goals and objectives are achieved.
Getting today’s job done also means paying attention to efficiency. For most of us
that means putting systems in place to get the maximum amount of output for the minimum
amount of input, or that accomplish tasks as rapidly as possible while achieving
appropriate levels of quality.
You have to make sure that tomorrow's job
will get done
It's not enough to get today's work done, you're responsible for
making sure that tomorrow's job gets done, as well. The two major components of this job
are: planning; and training and development.
Your job includes planning for the future. That, in turn, involves getting some ideas
about what sort of issues and problems the future will present and then devising ways to
recognize them and deal with them..
You're also responsible for training and development of the people who work for you.
You may do some of that through work assignments or individual counseling. In some
leadership positions you would do this job by setting up training and development systems.
You have to handle critical incidents as
they occur
Critical incidents are low frequency/high impact events. They
don't happen often, but they have large potential impact when they do.
To do this job well, you need, first, to identify what kinds of situations might be
critical incidents for you. Then determine how you'll recognize them or prevent them, and
develop a plan for how to deal with them.
You have to do performance interviews
Performance Interviews are contacts with folks who work for you
where you have an objective of changing their performance. Most of them are short,
informal and single purpose. The book, The One Minute Manager, dealt with that kind of
Performance Interivew.
The farther you move up the organizational chain, the more you will work on this
indirectly. You'll still do direct Performance Interviews with some folks, but most of
your leadership time on this job will be involved in setting up systems and culture so
folks down the chain from you can do Performance Interviews effectively.
You have to create a great working
environment
A great working environment is one where the mission is
accomplished and morale is high. Great working environments have the following
characteristics when viewed from the worker's perspective.
- Interesting and meaningful work
- Clear and reasonable expectations
- Regular and usable feedback
- Fairness
- Consistency
- Maximum control possible over work life.
All five of these jobs become your job when you become responsible for the performance
of a group. The context will vary with organization and position. So will the various
tools you'll use to do the work.
Created/Revised/Reviewed: 12/31/00
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