My staff and I were discussing job assignments and “Role Descriptions” of what they were paid to do. I asked the office manager, “What is the purpose of management?” She replied, “Maintaining an efficient flow of work.”
I disagreed. An efficient flow of the wrong type of work or the right work done at the wrong times is not only useless, sometimes it is harmful.
She challenged me, “What, then, is the purpose of management?” Here’s my answer: The purpose of management is to get the job done in the best way considering all the implications. I used to just say, “Getting results through people,” but it is more than that.
You see, the purpose of any job is not the process of doing it. It is the outcome that is produced. In transmission repair, it is getting the cars repaired and back on the road with happy customers while intelligently using the tools, resources and time of the people involved. If we spend too much time, too many resources or take away from other priorities then we aren’t managing our business well.
On a racetrack, the job isn’t running a good race. It is winning the race! They don’t give awards for “best pit stops”, “fastest speed in the straightaway”, or “car with the most crowd appeal.” In a shop, the job is profitably serving the customers well.
My friend and colleague Jack Canfield is known for saying, “There’s a reason they don’t call it the ‘best books’ list.” It isn’t about just writing books; it’s about selling them! The purpose of a sales job is to produce sales profitably and to build a clientele of satisfied customers. The sale is merely the transaction portion of it all.
When you talk with your team next, I recommend that you discuss “What are you really paid to do?” Get each person to clearly state the reason their job exists, the outcome they are assigned to produce. The value of this is that it keeps them focused on their purpose instead of getting lost in their process. I once told my staff provocatively, “I don’t pay you to do your work.” They were shocked! What? Why not?
I explained, doing your work is just process. If it doesn’t achieve the desired effect then it is worthless. For example, saying “Thank you” to a customer is polite and appropriate but if it is done in a bureaucratic tone that doesn’t sound sincere then the customer does not “feel thanked.” That is the goal: to get them to feel our gratitude. Saying the words is meaningless unless it conveys the feeling we intend.
Every job and task should be examined in the light of why it matters, what it will do. Filing documents is not done in order to store them, it is done so they can be easily retrieved. I once told my assistant, “If you store it and we cannot find it, you didn’t “file” it, you hid it!” (Humor intended.)
The purpose of a business is the valuable outcomes it produces. A donut shop isn’t there to bake pastries, it is there to sell them to happy customers who will come back often. A doctor isn’t there to “treat patients”, he or she is there to heal them!
Now, what are YOU paid to do?
Jim Cathcart, CSP, CPAE, is a long-time friend of ATRA and GEARS magazine. He is a Mentor to small business owners and the leader of The Going Pro® Experience 8-week training. More importantly, Jim is a true professional: past president of the National Speakers Association, inducted into the Sales & Marketing Hall of Fame in London, author of twenty-three books, life member of the American Motorcyclist Association, and recipient of the Golden Gavel Award from Toastmasters International. Reach out to Jim at info@cathcart.com or visit his website Cathcart.com. In 2022 Jim coauthored HI-REV for Small Business with ATRA’s own Dennis Madden. Get your copy at info@hi-rev.net.
