For all businesses, clarity and ownership are essential components that drive success and growth. When all of your team member know: what they and others are accountable for, what is expected of them in that role, and what success looks like, your business can operate more efficiently, make better decisions, and foster a positive work culture.
Let's explore how creating greater clarity with clear ownership in your company can lead to improved productivity, better communication, and overall success.
How You Can Do This?
1. Clearly Define Roles and Accountabilities
Establishing clarity and ownership within your business is to clearly define roles and accountabilities. Each team member should have a handful of key results that are expected, and agreed upon, of them. This should call out what success looks like in their current role along with what it will take for them to get there.
Having your companies structure (picture an org chart but on steroids) built out and shared with everyone will also greatly help reduce complexity and create clarity.
Your structure needs to identify:
1. Your businesses main functions
2. They key roles/accountabilities of each function
3. Function Owners
4. KPI each function drives towards
5. Mission of each function
Creating role clarity also ensures that every team member knows whom to approach for specific questions or concerns. It streamlines communication and empowers employees to take ownership of their areas of expertise.
2. Promote Open Communication
A transparent and open communication culture is vital for creating clarity and ownership. Regular weekly team meetings, one-on-ones, quarterly company updates, impromptu meetings, and channels for feedback all foster an environment where your team members feel comfortable expressing their ideas and concerns.
Leaders need to provide a platform to listen to employees and address their feedback constructively. This helps build trust and encourages employees to take ownership of their responsibilities, as they feel valued and heard. Remember, people support what they help create so be sure to bring them along for the troubleshooting vs. telling them what needs to get done.
3. Set Clear Goals and Expectations
To promote clarity and ownership, you should establish and regularly communicate clear and achievable goals for your company, and individual metrics. When your employees align with the company's vision and focus, they can align their efforts accordingly.
When you take the time to work on your business by setting and sharing these goals, each individual should be able to directly tie their individual contribution and impact to the direction your company is going.
Lastly, define KPIs for each of your roles. You should be able to identify a daily/weekly metric for each role in your company. Once you've done this and clearly communicated with each team member, regularly review these numbers with each individual. What you will find is you cannot dance around missing a KPI. It is very black and white and people do not like falling short of expectations; therefore, having this in place will have drive accountability. Remember, praise in public and coach in private.
Summary
Creating greater clarity with clear ownership is vital for the success of your business. By defining roles, promoting open communication, and setting clear goals - your business can empower their employees to take ownership of their responsibilities and contribute to the organization's growth.
Clear ownership not only improves productivity and efficiency but also fosters a positive and engaged work environment. Businesses that prioritize clarity and ownership will be better equipped to adapt to challenges, capitalize on opportunities, and achieve long-term success.
Now, What Do You Do?
Nobody knows your business better than you. So, you need to decide where you are feeling the biggest thorn in your side and what needs to get addressed first.
Start off by picking one of these 3 improvements to implement. Once you and your team have this implemented and executing well, add the next and repeat. Remember, making the wrong decision and acting on it is way better than making no decision and living with the pain.
If you are not sure what to act on first and want some input, grab some time with me and I'd be happy to learn more about your situation and provide my advice.