Succession Planning – 3 of 8

January 25th, 2011

Less than 30% of most people’s time is focused on mission-critical work.
(HBR 10-year study)

Introduction

The job book is started. You have a binder with at least eight sections and you have completed the first three sections: Job Description, Reporting Structure, and Additional Structure Information. Here is where we create section 4: Key Accountabilities.

Step One: Create the Job Book

Key accountabilities reflect the mission critical work that the organization counts on this job to produce. Key accountabilities are why the job exists. It is important to be clear on key accountabilities because it is easy to have “scope creep.” People often are asked to participate in numerous “important” activities that are not priorities for their jobs. In a later post on time management, I will give some tips on how to handle these requests. But for now, just identifying the key accountabilities and the job’s priorities will be extremely clarifying.

Key accountabilities

1. a.   Prioritized list
2. b.   Ideal percentage of time
3. Vision for each accountability
4. Key measures for each accountability
5. Goals and initiatives for each accountability
6. Key information for each accountability including the location of protected passwords for a qualified person. (add this to the vault created earlier.)

a. Prioritized list.  In answer to the question, “Why does the job exist?” brainstorm answers and use this form to manage and categorize them.  See the instruction sheet.

 b. Ideal percentage of time. Using a total of 80%, estimate what percentage of time each key accountability would take for someone who was qualified to be in the position. Use 80% for two reasons: people generally underestimate the time needed and there are inevitably time periods required that do not fit into any of the key accountabilities, e.g., a birthday gathering, an unexpected meeting, etc.  Use the form in the above link to log ideal percentage of time.

Next

We are part way through Step One – creating a job book. Next we’ll focus on what success looks like and what has to happen to achieve that success.

Entry Filed under: Succession Planning