Scrap the Job Description

From my perspective, a major way American business wastes time is in the slavish development of job descriptions. Some companies spend months trying to develop the perfect job description. Personnel people spend an excessive amount of time doting the i’s and crossing the t’s and trying to figure out all the little details relating to a specific job responsibility.

Instead, focus should be on the key performance areas of a specific job. What is the bottom line for the job in question? What are the observable, measurable components of a job which make a contribution to the organizer’s overall productivity and performance?

In our book Putting The One Minute Manager To Work, Bob Lorber and I write that quality, quantity, timeliness and cost are the four variables that can be measured and used to evaluate job performance.

It’s our philosophy that if you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it. Rather than going through all sorts of antics building a job description, which usually doesn’t measure job performance, people need to know the key performance standards associated with their duties. Once they know the criteria, they can concentrate on reaching key achievement levels.

To illustrate my point, when you are attending a social gathering this weekend and meet someone new, don’t ask the typical introductory question often posed to a new acquaintance: ‘What do you do?” – meaning “What’s,, your job?” Asking such a question provokes an answer that is a mere job description. Instead, ask what the person accomplished this past week.

You’ll get some funny looks. However, if you wait through the long silence, 95 percent of the time people will begin to explain the various things they accomplished.

Their answers will be in the personal realm. They will mention painting the front hall. They will answer that they won a tennis match, and so on. Why is it that people fail to mention their accomplishments at work?

The sad answer is that people don’t know what they are being asked to accomplish at work. Sure, some know their job descriptions. However, they really don’t know what they are being asked to do in terms of specific achievement or performance levels.

Managers can help their people think in terms of job-related accomplishments through the use of the two-item agenda. At a meeting with key people, there should be only two items on the agenda. The item used to start the meeting involves asking each individual to tell the group what he or she has accomplished since the last meeting. This accomplishment should be observable and measurable. Further, people must note who helped them during the process. This latter point contributes to the building of teamwork and cooperation.

The second agenda item consists of going around the room and asking people to report on what they anticipate accomplishing before the next regular meeting. In addition, they are asked if members of the group can help them achieve their goals.

This procedure develops a philosophy that emphasizes performance and achievement. It takes people away from a static job description mentality and puts them on notice that performance – observable and measurable performance – is what really counts.

Dr. Ken Blanchard, the “One Minute Manager” himself, is the co-author of four internationally popular best selling management books, holds the position of Professor of Leadership and Organizational Behavior at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and is chairman of the Board of Blanchard Training & Development Inc., in Escondido, California.