John Adair's: 100 Greatest Ideas for Being a Brilliant Manager

Eleven Greatest Ideas for Managership Skills

Idea 25: Defining the task

Keep the general goals in sight while tackling daily tasks.

Chinese proverb

A task is something that needs to be done. People in organizations and teams need to have the task distilled into an objective that is:

• clear
• concrete
• time limited
• realistic
• challenging
• capable of evaluation

This is not my task, it is our task – we share it because it has a value for the organization and for ourselves.

There are five tests to apply to defining a task:

• 1   Do you have a clear idea of the objectives of your group now and for the next few years/months, and have these been agreed ...