Job Descriptions and KPIs: your two most powerful tools for leading your team.

Job descriptions and KPIs are not to be created by an outside consultant and then filed away with a dusty old employee manual! They must be kept ALIVE in your organization through coaching, conversations, and reference to them every day! Some people even choose to keep them printed beside their computer to make sure they’re focusing on the most important things each day. Here at TMH, we start any meeting off by sharing the intention of our time together. Our intention is always to achieve the job descriptions, KPIs, mission and vision! When you’ve got everyone clear on where you’re going, how you will get there, and how they are a meaningful part of that – you’ve got magic. And lots more profit. If you want to lead your team to success, check out this post! 

job description and kpi important tools

Job descriptions and KPIs are two of the most powerful tools in your tool belt, when used correctly! Along with your culture statements, mission, and vision, one of these documents should be referenced during EVERY coaching conversation you have with your team! Additionally, EVERY monthly KPI meeting with your staff should be focused around their job description and their KPIs. Just remember, THEY need to do the talking and YOU need to listen and use questions as your superpower. Let your tools (the job description and KPIs) do the heavy lifting! 

When you create effective job descriptions and KPIs you are putting an important system in place within your business! This system mitigates risk and makes companies MUCH more profitable, and is completely centered around the job description and goals. Creating this system is important and here’s where to start. First, you need to have a very clear understanding of what your people do and make sure that all of these tasks are on their job description. Second, your people need to make sure they’re using their calendars (just like you do) to schedule their repeating, most valuable activities and then updating it daily, to make sure it’s an accurate record of how they spend their time each day. Every event in their calendar should be one duty from their job description. That one duty (and every other one listed on the job description) should have a corresponding procedure, in the manual for that employee’s role. This mitigates risk, helps people cover temporary leaves, and makes it incredibly easy for you to do your monthly and yearly calculations. And it’s all built from effective job descriptions!

Start with a conversation! 

Make it fun, make it easy, make it a conversation. ALWAYS a conversation, NEVER a confrontation. Conversations can be challenging sometimes so check out this post from last year sharing about how to get through challenging conversations. Be yourself, and use these two powerful tools! Always let the tools do the heavy lifting, Then, in these meetings you are free to just be the amazing, kind, trusting, and compassionate leader I know you are. Creating and updating job descriptions and KPIs should be almost as enjoyable as SMASHING those goals (KPIs) together!!!! OOOOH I just wish I could high-five you right now! You got this! Make it awesome!

What do great job descriptions do for my business?

  • Job descriptions are how you accomplish your strategic objectives! When creating and updating your job descriptions and KPIs, remember that when done correctly, as a team, you will hit your strategic objectives for the year! This is a highly productive way to work towards a common goal. Read about increasing staff productivity here. That means that everyone hitting their goals equals your business hitting its’ goals and you hitting your goals. When you add up all the tasks on everyone’s job descriptions, the result needs to be the achievement of each of your strategic objectives. Every task that is assigned is part of working towards those overall goals! Why wouldn’t you create effective job descriptions and KPIs so that they add up to you hitting your big business goals for the year!
  • Job descriptions show your team that they are valuable. Your team members need to know that their role is meaningful and that it contributes to the bigger purpose: the vision for the company. Your staff have so much purpose and meaning in your organization and you need to remind them of that and make it clear and true! Even if you know it, they might not see it in the day to day tasks, you need to lead them in this. Make it very clear to them and repeat it often. When you sit with a team member to create their job description, this would be the perfect time for your first “meaning & purpose” conversation. To get your team to stick around, they need to feel good and to be engaged. Meaning and purpose, clear roles and goals. Remember that rhyme!

role and goals job description

Job descriptions need to have clear expectations.

You must give your team extremely clear expectations. It is not fair or reasonable to hold someone to expectations that are not clear and reiterated often (on the job description). Also, if you don’t give clear expectations, they’ll make up their own, based on their own set of experiences, thoughts, and opinions. Check out this article from Forbes reminding us the importance of clear expectations. So, to make sure expectations are very clear you as the leader must teach in the way each team member learns best, have them tell you what they believe the expectations are to make sure you’re on the same page, and have them help you create or update their job description and set their KPIs. We use the job description and KPIs in every monthly KPI meeting, as well as in many coaching conversations. These are all opportunities to make sure that the expectations are clear regarding what they are tasked with accomplishing. Otherwise, you can’t expect them to achieve goals or utilize their job descriptions or other procedures to the fullest potential. As a side note, it is mind-blowing to me that we as humans can understand each other at all, with the vastly different lives and sets of experiences we all have! So SET those expectations clearly or you and your team will be very disappointed.

 

Job descriptions are only effective with accountability. 

Make sure people are being held accountable to their roles and goals! If you want to read about the importance of accountability in the workplace, check out this article from the Harvard Business Review.This whole system only works if every part is done effectively. This is why those monthly KPI meetings are so important! If team members are not being held accountable to their job descriptions they can end up feeling that their role is not important or like they don’t actually need to accomplish or schedule every task that’s part of their role. Additionally, you could lose your best performers because they don’t feel like it’s fair that “so and so” gets away with not living up to their role & goals. This has been proven in studies, and witnessed by me for 21 years. Make sure everyone is held to the same standards: we do our jobs (which are very clear to us) and we achieve our KPIs (which we helped to create.)

Job descriptions and KPIs are two of your most powerful tools. Implement them in the way we recommend and you’ll see great results IMMEDIATELY. 

If you found this post helpful, there’s A LOT more where it came from. If you want to make a difference in your leadership and your business today, join the TMH VIP Mastermind group. For only $99/month you are getting regular live, group coaching with me, access to our TMH team and our group business experts, a training and resource library, and a platform to ask questions anytime. Not to mention the value of being in a community of business owners, leaders, and entrepreneurs that want to make a difference with their business! Take action today!

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Kelli-Rae Tamaki

Kelli-Rae is truly passionate about successful business, and believes it can always be better, which is why she has spent 22 years studying, running, coaching and consulting with businesses, just like yours.