Investigate, Review, Reflect, Act

Review your job description

Look at your current job description. For each activity that describes something precisely, give it one point. For each activity that is vague or requires a high degree of “judgment” to determine whether it’s been done well, subtract one point. For each activity that describes something you haven’t done in a month, subtract another point. Look at your meeting calendar and your to-do list. For each item that isn’t on the job description, subtract a point and for each item that is, add one. Look at the total—is it positive or negative? You might be surprised by the answer if it’s negative.

Have your team review their job description

Ask your team members to do the same review regarding their job descriptions, and remember that none of your team members should end up with a negative total. It’s common that your team members will, but it’s not desirable. Negative scores suggest that current expectations aren’t completely captured in the job descriptions for your team.

Investigate other job descriptions

Do a web search on your job title. Bookmark (or write down) the first half-dozen or so job descriptions you find. How much overlap exists across them? How much of these job descriptions overlaps with your current job description? Now do the same for each different job description of the people on your team. How much consistency or difference do you find for the roles on your teams?

Learn how to update a job description

Research who is responsible for the job descriptions in your company. If you aren’t sure, reach out to your HR representative or partner, informing them that you’d like to make a change to the job description of one of your team’s roles and asking them what the process is for doing so. (You don’t need to actually update a job description—you just want to understand how it’s done for when, inevitably, you will want to do so.) Determine what steps are involved, roughly how long such a change would take, and who would need to approve the change.

Brainstorm goals for your team members

Record some goals you’d like to see each of your team members pursue. What kinds of things could they and should each person do to improve their career at your company?