Management In A Changing World

CHAPTER 4DEFINING ROLES AND GOALS

In the previous chapter, we explained how to delegate projects and tasks. This chapter is about two bigger‐picture types of assigning work:

• Creating meaningful roles that make clear which individuals are responsible for which broad categories of work.
• Setting goals that help us make our intended impact.

If you own a bakery, delegating would be asking someone to bake a cake. Creating a role would be hiring a pastry chef. Setting a goal would be deciding to sell 10,000 cakes next year.

Roles help people understand the bottom‐line expectations of what they should deliver and how they contribute to the whole. They're like positions on a sports team—with clear roles, everyone has a meaningful and distinct part to play in helping the team win. (Without well‐defined roles, your team looks more like the chaotic kids’ soccer game from Chapter 3!)

Setting goals helps ensure that we don't leave it to chance whether our work makes an impact. And when goals connect to our overall mission, they keep us focused, energized, and motivated to do an excellent job.

Roles and goals are both critical to a conspire‐and‐align approach. They help bring purpose and clarity to our work with our co‐conspirators. And when we craft roles and goals with an eye toward equity and sustainability, we ensure people have both significant responsibilities and balanced workloads.

HOW TO CREATE CLEAR AND MEANINGFUL ROLES

Clearly defined, meaningful roles give people agency and ...