The seven blocks
- Area of responsibility. One or two sentences: what this person is answerable for in the company.
- Daily actions. Five to seven items that repeat every day.
- The numbers they are judged on. The same figures as in the report: conversion, response time, touches, deal size.
- Reporting line. Who they report to, and how often.
- What they decide alone. A discount up to a certain percentage, for example.
- What they get approved. A change of lead time, or non-standard terms, for example.
- Consequences. What happens on persistent failure to deliver.
How it differs from a set of rules
- Rules: how to do the work, step by step.
- Job description: what the person is answerable for and what they are judged on.
So the rules get read daily in the first weeks, and the description gets read on the first day and in conversations about results.
A practical test: if the description contains no number that the person is judged on, it is not a description, it is a list of wishes.
Separate descriptions for other roles
- team lead: add responsibility for the group's result and for the reviews
- head of sales: add planning, hiring and reporting to the owner
- customer care specialist: documents, aftercare, collecting instalments
How to stop it lying dead
- The numbers in the description are the same as in the weekly report.
- The description is walked through on day one and signed.
- Conversations about results lean on it rather than on impressions.
- It gets updated whenever the process changes.