Are You Doing the Right Job?

This sounds a little strange but having the right people doing the right jobs can have a powerful impact on your bottom line and how effective you and your organization is in getting the job done.

Right now I’m personally caught in the classic dilemma of starting a new business and having to be very careful how and where I spend my time. I would like to do everything but know that is not possible. I have to parcel out the duties in the organization based on who is best qualified to do the work. On the surface that sounds easy, but the reality is very different. Let’s break it down.

All the bases have to be covered.

Before you get too fancy, you have to be sure that all the bases are covered; at least one person per job or function. It would be nice to be able to pick and choose but the goal is to be sure you have a warm body in place. Multiple functions are necessary in small organizations all the way to a one-man band doing all of the jobs.

Start to work backwards.

Once you are covered, you now can start to look at who is doing what and evaluate them on a number of criteria. The people who have multiple talents are the easiest to maneuver around. It’s the specialists that create the logistical issues. Someone who is only capable of doing one job has to be put in a position that allows him to do that particular job and no other. Sounds simple enough but the reality is that in a busy organization, or in a single owner operator business, lines of responsibility can get blurred very quickly.

Once this happens, production goes out the window and people quickly find themselves scrambling just to keep their heads above water. When you allow your key people, your specialists, to get bushwhacked, you then find yourself borrowing from Paul to pay Peter. You not only have your key people doing something other than what they are best suited for, but probably now have unqualified people trying to step in and help out by doing something they are clearly not qualified to do. If it sounds like a disaster, it is.

Are you doing the right tasks, let alone the right job?

In my current situation, I’m torn between doing the right jobs in the organization. In this case, the crucial job that I have to do is create content for our new web sites and getting involved in the marketing of the web sites. Marketing of the web sites is a crucial job but it is a crucial job that someone else can do or it can be farmed out. Creating content for the web sites is a job that only I can do, so my real responsibility is protecting my time and organizing myself so I do what I must in order for all of us here to move forward.

If you want to put something up in your mirror that captures what dealing with production issues really is, this is it: "Making the really tough choices about what gets done and by whom, and then having the fortitude to make it happen, day in and day out". You can call this decision a big issue decision, choosing large task jobs over others. On top of this decision, there are yet others to be made.

Not only do I need to spend my time on creating content, there is specific content to be created. Another layer of decisions, another layer of complexity. The purpose of this explanation is not to intimidate anyone but to simply illustrate that if you want to reap the rewards of increased production, there are obstacles to overcome.