Have you ever asked yourself questions like these about one of your direct reports or even a boss: “How or when did they ever come to think that certain tasks were the top work priorities?” or “How did they get so off track?”
Clarity around one’s role and alignment throughout a company are keys to professional effectiveness, yet well-educated and highly experienced managers on occasion share statements like these with me:
“There is...
…a lack of clarity around my role. What really is the ranking of priorities around my expected day-to-day focus?
…a lack of clarity around ownership or contributions toward objectives. Which of us is accountable for what?
…a lack of clarity as to where there is a checkpoint or reporting timeline that helps the team to realign when things are off track.”
Here is one of the most powerful tools I’ve ever used to facilitate alignment throughout leadership teams.
How to Use My Echelon Role Focus 12
The Echelon Role Focus 12 is a 12 question worksheet best used in one-on-one meetings between the manager and direct report. Both fill out it, and both will go back and forth reading their answers to one question at a time. The manager gives the answer to the question first.
It is important everyone understands there will be no punitive actions or disappointment in the answers given. Be upfront this is about facilitating, directing and in some cases negotiating clarity around roles and what the management and company can do to improve everyone’s effectiveness.
Reviewing the Role Focus 12 doesn’t need to take longer than a 60- or 90-minute lunch break. You can eat and take notes as you listen to each other.
You may need to create and agree upon a “version 2.0” for your answers, but this will be some of the most valuable management dialogue you may have throughout your year.
Bottom line, when you create these powerful forms of accountability and begin to think of them as relationships that sharpen the saw or as growth levers that accelerate growth and reduce risk, they aren’t constraining but empowering. You are pulling on a high-growth lever that is somewhat distinct in small to mid-sized businesses. Private companies often don’t use a lever like this one, but many larger firms and public companies have an equivalent to this Echelon Role Focus 12.
Begin using this tool every six months, and watch your team gain alignment and focus.
