Here's Why I CAN'T Do My Job!

"Here's Why I CAN'T Do My Job!"

My Job Here is Done™ Transcript (for general use only – machine-generated and it may not be accurate.)

NOTE: This transcript and the audio portion of this episode may contain colorful language that may not be appropriate for all audiences.

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Dave 00:08 I was talking to our friend Jake today, and boy, is he in a bad way at work.

Kelli 00:13 Why? What's going on?

Dave 00:15 Well, he's ready to quit.

Kelli 00:16 Why?

Dave 00:17 Well, he says he can't do his job no matter how hard he tries.

Kelli 00:20 It sounds a little whiny to me.

Dave 00:22 Kelli, seriously, he's looking for a new gig. And I wonder why a smart guy like him would be in this unhealthy and aggravated frame of mind.

Kelli 00:29 Like you said, he's a smart guy. I always thought he had his act together.

Dave 00:33 Yeah, I think he does. But according to him, he's responsible for getting some major project done, and he can't get past all the red tape. And he's being blamed for the delays and the team's morale.

Kelli 00:43 I see what's happening here. Jake's caught in the middle of that classic failure scenario making it appear as if Jakey baby is at fault.

Dave 00:52 Well, since it's Jake's fault, I guess he'll just have to learn the hard way, right?

Kelli 00:56 But it's not Jake's fault!   Hmmmmmm

Intro 00:59 Hi, I'm Dave, and I've been starting and running businesses all my life. And I'm Kelli, working for the man like a dog for decades. And you are YOU, the driven career professional, clawing your way up the ladder of success ... maybe running your own business. The next 20 minutes or so is just for you. Welcome to My Job Here Is Done.

Kelli 01:24 Thanks for joining us today. I'm Kelli.

Dave 01:26 And I'm Dave, and welcome to the podcast. Before we get started, just a quick reminder that you can learn more about the podcast, listen to all of our previous episodes - We have some bonus blog material as well - and you can interact with us at our website MyJobHereisDone.com and all over social media at MyJobpodcast.

Kelli 01:46 This is the one about Jake and how it's his fault he can't do his job at work.

Dave 01:50 But Kelli doesn't agree that it's Jake's fault. For some reason. Jake told me he's being blamed by other people, that he is absolutely doomed and he's going to quit.

Kelli 02:00 What's going on here?

Dave 02:02 This is a classic case of what we call span of responsibility versus span of control. You may have heard the term span of control, also known as span of management, used before.  I's normally associated with the amount of people one manager or leader can handle effectively at one point in time.

Kelli 02:21 A wide span of management or control has many subordinates reporting to the manager. A narrow span has fewer. It's a fascinating study that's referenced as far back as the 1930s, but that's not our definition of span of control today. More on what we mean by that in a minute.

Dave 02:38 But first, let's chat about span of responsibility, which is really not a classic business definition. In fact, it's often confused with the same meaning as span of control. Let's break span of responsibility down a bit, Kelli.

Kelli 02:52 Well, very simply, if you're given a project to, say, create a new Department that offers consulting services, or you're tasked with building a new office, or even more simply, you're placed in a new management position where you're leading a team of people, you're given a span of responsibility.

Dave 03:08 Yes. You, like our friend Jake, are responsible for the finished product. You are responsible for ensuring the office is built correctly. You are responsible for the productivity of your new team.

Kelli 03:21 You are responsible and accountable. Period.

Dave 03:25 Those are really good examples of what we mean by span of responsibility.

Kelli 03:29 Seems simple enough. Clearly defined, no conflicts there until you add in the more elusive and most often ill-defined or even not thought about span of control. And this is where our friend Jake, and likely you have gone off or will go off the rails someday.

Dave 03:46 Kelli is so right. As a manager or leader, it's really easy to give someone a task to do like, hey Kelli, can you please coordinate and lead the effort to update all of the SOPs by year's end?

Kelli 03:58 Sure, Dave, happy to do anything to make your life easier. What more do you need?

Dave 04:06 Right?

Kelli 04:06 Exactly.

Dave 04:07 Well, for Kelli or Jake or you to have a chance of successfully completing your project, you need more than just a defined span of responsibility.

Kelli 04:18 Yes, you also need a defined span of control. So if span of control is not a weird algebraic formula for how many subordinates a manager can possibly handle…

Dave 04:29 What do you mean? Algebra. If you look up span of control, you'll find Wikipedia sites a reference that there is literally an algebraic formula to figure out how many people can work for somebody.

Kelli 04:42 Wonderful. What does that mean?

Dave 04:44 I have no idea. But outside of algebraic formulas and as such, let's actually define span of control in the context that we're talking about. Span of control is what your authority limits are and what resources are available to you. And with this important caveat, without the need for further approval, let's recap.

Kelli 05:07 Span of responsibility is the hopefully well-defined task or project you've been given or that you've assigned to someone else. It doesn't have to be over complicated. In fact, brief is better and allows for more creativity and flexibility.

Dave 05:22 And span of control is the well-defined limits of authority and the amount or type of resources the person has at their disposal to use as they see fit without any further permission needed to enable them to complete the project or task.

Kelli 05:37 But here is where it all falls apart. Remember our friend Jake. Jake is frustrated that he can't do his job, so much so that he wants to quit.

Dave 05:44 Do you really want to lose Jake as an employee? Is Jake's frustration warranted? Can this angst for everyone have been avoided?

Kelli 05:54 Yes.

Dave 05:55 Let's say that together. Yes, in Jake's case and we’ll hazard an educated guess here that it's in your case as well, there has been a mismatch between span of responsibility and span of control.

Kelli 06:10 This comes up when you, as a leader, give someone a project to do with the full expectation that they will own the outcome. But you fail to provide that person with the authority and resources they need to really own it.

Dave 06:24 When span of responsibility and span of control are not aligned, as Kelli just explained, the project will likely fail and you're going to make a Jake.

Kelli 06:34 Here's an example. You're given the task of coordinating a large project, but you don't have access to the budget for the project, so you don't know how much you can reasonably spend. What do you do? Right now you have to rely on other people to provide that information and in a timely manner so you can make decisions and keep the project on track for completion. When the project is overspent or was not completed on time, who's responsible?

Dave 07:00 Yeah, you are. You messed up.

Kelli 07:03 How do you avoid this?

Dave 07:04 Well, first, it's a conversation, and secondly, it's a process. And we don't want to go through all of the steps like 12345, but we are going to go through 12345 because we want to give you some sort of a format that you can follow. You can change it up the way you want to. But just consider each of these. Number one, define the task or project in just one paragraph. Use the theory of Twitter, where if you can't say it in 160 characters, it shouldn't be said. And then, of course, Twitter moves it to 240 characters, whatever they did. But that's the whole concept here is make it short and succinct.

Kelli 07:39 Next, select your leader for the project. Ask them if they have time and the desire to take the project on.

Dave 07:46 Yeah, it's important because you want that person to want to do the project. The old days of saying, you work for me, you do what I say. That's over and it's not effective and it doesn't work anymore.

Kelli 07:59 You want them to be excited about it and invested in whatever it is.

Dave 08:04 And after you get buy in on that, send them the paragraph you wrote on the project and then have a verbal discussion.

Kelli 08:09 Talk about it. Ask the leader what resources they need to be successful. Make sure you hit on budget, people, time, material resources like supplies and intangibles like access to other peers.

Dave 08:22 Right. And also make sure that they know if there are any hard limits and get them on the table right away.

Kelli 08:29 Like if everything must be done internally with no outside consultant.

Dave 08:32 Yes. Sometimes you're not allowed to do stuff and you don't know the reason why, but you can be told from somebody, hey, listen, here are the boundaries and you need to get them clear. Another example of a hard limit would be the project is a board level initiative, and weekly reports are needed. They're mandatory and go to the leaders so that they can keep their peers up to date.

Kelli 08:53 Another one could be that your budget is a certain amount and there is no more. There's no going over that amount. Or you can hire one person.

Dave 09:01 Just one.

Kelli 09:02 Just one. And HR is aware.

Dave 09:04 And HR is aware. What's important about that?

Kelli 09:09 It's important because you may not have access to the same level of leadership in HR, but now you have the authority up front to work with HR to hire for that one approved position.

Dave 09:20 And that is going to save you a ton of time if you had to go through all of the red tape in order to get that person approved.

Kelli 09:28 Think about all the back and forth communication. Who said this? You’re monkey in the middle.

Dave 09:32 Exactly. This just delays the entire thing. Which brings us to another point, and that is it must be done by June 1. Pick a date.

Kelli 09:41 Super important. You need a goal date.

Dave 09:43 Absolutely, positively. Even if you feel, as the person who is delegating this task, that it could go a little later, don't make it wishy washy like I need it in about three weeks.

Kelli 09:55 Right.

Dave 09:55 I want it by June 1. This needs to be done by June 1.

Kelli 09:59 So those are a bunch of hard limits that we think you need to get on the table right off the bat.

Dave 10:05 Okay. At this point, let's just quickly recap the steps. Define the task or project in one paragraph, select the leader of the project. Make sure you ask that leader if they have the time and the desire to take on the project. Send them the paragraph that you wrote and have a verbal discussion. Ask that person what resources they need to be successful. Define any hard limits and get them on the table. And finally, discuss the what if scenarios. Make sure you both understand the points where things could take a turn in the wrong direction.

Kelli 10:36 And lastly, make sure the leader of the project knows they can come to you at any time for any reason, and that even though you're the owner, you're there to help.

Dave 10:46 Okay, that's great. But what about when you're already in a situation where span of responsibility and span of control are way out of whack?

Kelli 10:56 Well, that's a tough question, because usually everyone is very frustrated and you're sadly too deep in the quagmire to feel like there's an out and the clock is ticking to hit that completion date.

Dave 11:06 We've also found out that the reason for this situation is most always in the lack of a defined span of control.

Kelli 11:14 It's super easy to give someone a task with full responsibility, but it's work to create a proper span of control.

Dave 11:21 So you're deep in the imbalance of a span of responsibility versus span of control project. How do you get out of trouble?

Kelli 11:28 The key to correcting this is in the hands of leadership, and your new job is exposing it to leadership. Go have an honest discussion with the person who assigned you the project.

Dave 11:37 Hey, Jake, listen up.

Kelli 11:38 Right? Start off with, I need your help.

Dave 11:41 You know why you start off with that? Because it puts the leader, the other person who you're talking to, on your side. It doesn't put them on the defensive.

Kelli 11:50 It's a cry for help. Hey, I need you.

Dave 11:52 Exactly.

Kelli 11:53 Then launch into, hey, this project isn't going as well as I hoped, and it's my intent to finish it successfully.

Dave 12:00 And the reason why you're saying that is because you want to make the other person feel as if you're not giving up. Don't give up on me. We're getting this thing done together.

Kelli 12:09 Tell them here's where I'm at. Here's how you can help me.  Be succinct and honest.

Dave 12:14 Remember, nobody wants to fail. You're counting on someone like Jake to do a project for you. Jake wants to do it well. And when it's off the rails, Jake may try to put it back on the rails himself, delaying the inevitable.

Kelli 12:28 We talked about how to help ensure success by planning for a balanced span of responsibility and span of control at the start of a project. And we touched a little on how to approach rebalancing a project that had no balance and is now off the rails a bit. But what about all those projects in between?

Dave 12:46 Well, I would ask yourself, are you sure the projects that are assigned to your teams and managers are on track? If you can answer yes to that. Well, my job here is done. Skip to the bloopers. But if you can't answer that question, go find out.  You're not doing your job. Sorry about the brutality of that, but it's a fact. When your team fails, you fail. You are the coach, the mentor, the strength, the leader, and the ultimate owner. Own that span of responsibility with a misaligned span of control.

Kelli 13:23 In our experience, is the biggest reason why projects fail to achieve expected results.

Dave 13:28 It's also why many projects fail miserably.

Kelli 13:32 What's more, it's why Jake feels he needs to throw his hands in the air and quit.

Dave 13:37 And we like Jake. And you do, too.

Kelli 13:40 By making sure your chosen leaders have a balance between the span of responsibility you give them and the span of control they have as tools, you will see an immediate return on your efforts in the form of more on time projects, increased efficiency and results, and a much happier and inspired team of people.

Dave 13:59 Hey, what? Did Jake quit?

Kelli 14:02 Yeah, but that story was, like, from seven years ago.

Dave 14:05 Is he working now?

Kelli 14:06 No.

Dave 14:07 Why?

Kelli 14:08 I think he's holding out for a management position.

Dave 14:13 Thank you. Christmas vacation. Eddie syndrome. We have a little more for you, so hang on but first, thank you very much for listening today. If you like our podcast, all we ask is that you tell one friend about us, a colleague perhaps, who you think would enjoy the content and the stories that we share.

Kelli 14:31 You can listen to. My job Here is Done anywhere and everywhere podcasts are available, and check out our website for all the latest info on the show and how you can work with us@myjobhereisdone.com.

Dave 14:43 Drumroll, please. It's time for a special edition of Buzzword Bingo.

Kelli 14:50 Practice using Who Touched Base in my Thought Shower in a sentence that has nothing to do with business.

Dave 14:59 Wait up. This is kind of usually the place in the program where we make fun of business buzzwords because we absolutely hate those damn things.

Kelli 15:07 So annoying.

Dave 15:08 This is the part of the episode that's usually not all that funny.

Kelli 15:12 Oh, come on. It's sometimes funny.

Dave 15:14 Yeah, but it's kind of mostly dumb as well.

Kelli 15:15 Yeah, that's true.

Dave 15:16 But we started this and I feel like we have a span of responsibility to keep it going occasionally. But it's frustrating because our span of control has been limited to just a Google search of dumb buzzwords.

Kelli 15:31 Very good.

Dave 15:32 So recognizing that imbalance, I found a helpful resource.

Kelli 15:36 What is it?

Dave 15:37 Well, it's a funny and very informative book called... get ready ...

Kelli 15:41 Let's hear it.

Dave 15:41 Who Touched Base in My Thought Shower? It's by a guy named Steven Poole. I ordered it from Amazon, and it's our new go-to book for the origin and meaning behind dozens of business buzzwords. We put a link to Mr. Poole's book Who Touched Base in My Thought Shower in the show notes, and we highly recommend this.

Kelli 16:03 We're reaching out to Stephen to see if we can get permission to use some of the parts of his book in the program. But in the meantime, grab the book yourself. We really love it.

Dave 16:12 And remember, the business buzzword market penetration is nothing more than sex behind a fruit stand.

Chuck Fresh 16:22 I'm the announcer guy, and I sound as good as the story you just listened to. My job here is done as a podcast production of 2PointOh LLC. Thank you and your awesome ears for listening. Want to get involved? Have your own special story to share. Tell us all about it, and you might get some airtime just like me. Browse over to myjobhereisdone.com yeah, squish that all together into one word and look for the My Story link. Until next time... My job here is done!