Unlocking the power of "Ownership"
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Unlocking the power of "Ownership"
First, and to be clear, I’m not talking here about company, asset, or brand ownership. This is about ensuring that your business has clear job role and task “ownership” throughout the organisation. This clarity is absolutely crucial for productivity, morale and business growth and, not least, to liberate the valuable time of the MD/owner.
For many business owners, delegation is not always a core strength. As a result, it’s often not clear who is really meant to deliver a task and so unresolved issues frequently end-up back on the MD’s desk, thus taking up more time and further increasing stress levels. This energy-sapping activity then hinders the ability to spend proper time on tasks associated with growth and productivity and can lead to a lack of visibility and control. Employees are then affected and will typically fall into one of three camps.
- The Completely Frustrated - these employees are unhappy about working in an unclear environment. They will probably eventually leave, but not before they have become demoralised and unproductive.
- The Valiants - these employees attempt to do their very best with genuinely good intentions, but end-up going outside of boundaries to get things done and so exacerbate the lack of clarity.
- The Milkers - some employees soon realise that they can ‘milk’ a situation, so end up performing some sort of role but with zero accountability.
These are familiar issues in many businesses and are often the cause of inefficiency, unclear thinking and implementation, and lower morale. Employees prefer clarity in their roles, but also an understanding of where others in the team hold their responsibilities. Getting this right means the business owner/MD has the comfort and clarity of being able to go to the designated “owner” of the role/task in question and expect a coherent response.
There are many ways to unlock the significant benefits of clear job role ownership and at Tackle, I help businesses to achieve just that. If these issues are affecting your business, just drop me a line at richard@tacklebusinessadvice.com and we can have an informal chat about where I can assist.
-- By Richard Hitchcock, owner and founder at Tackle - Helping businesses to run like clockwork
This article first appeared on LinkedIn
Photo credit and thanks to PDPics on Pixaby
