Influence and Impact

CHAPTER 4Now Write Your Working Job Description: The Essential What and How of Your Role

 

“No one should be ashamed to admit they were wrong, which is but saying, in other words, that they are wiser today than they were yesterday.”

—Alexander Pope

You have collected a wealth of data about yourself, your job, and your organization. In truth, there is more information here than you can use. Our next task is to sort through the data and condense it to a clear, straightforward description of what you now know is essential to your job. That framework, which we call your working job description, should explain:

• What drives our work? What matters to the organization? To the owners?
• What are the norms, rules-of-the-road, and operating principles? How do people interact, make decisions, allocate resources?
• What is your manager responsible for? How are they evaluated?
• What does your manager need and expect from you? What can you expect from your manager, based on your data?
• What do your stakeholders need from you? What do you need from them?
• What is your working job title, which accurately describes your responsibilities, independent of what your organizational title is today?
• What are your essential priorities?
• What do you need from your team? What does your team need from you?

Keep in mind, you are not trying to figure out, “What did I do wrong?” Where you are now may well have ...