Writing position descriptions for employees takes up a lot of management time, just another job that has to be done by a date.

    If this is the case in your business, you have missed the point, as it is people that make a business, not the other way around.

    To me it is pretty clear that in culture of success, a place where people want to work, there is robust leadership in place that achieves a few key outcomes in relation to their most important asset, their employees:

  1. Roles are very clear. Each person understands what they need to do, how what they do contributes to the overall outcomes as well as their own, and the rules and behaviors that are in place.
  2. Trust and autonomy. People want to work on things that make a difference, and they want the autonomy to go about it, within the rules, but in their own way being measured by the outcomes, and trusted to do the right thing.
  3. Accountability and due process. With clarity of role definition comes accountability for outcomes whilst what I call “Due Process” is in place.  Due process is simply the process of encouraging and enabling debate on an issue, so that irrespective of the final position, all parties who will have to live with the decision have had a chance to have their views heard and considered.
  4. Praise. Everyone looks for praise when they do something right that is out of the ordinary. In an environment that delivers praise when appropriate, it is also easier to deliver advice, admonishment,  and change tactics on areas that are not so good.