To be an effective leader in 2020, you should:

C – Clarify and simplify the work

A – Align and organize team members

R – allocate Resources to align with objectives

E – Evolve and grow your team members

S – Set the direction for your organization

1. Clarify and Simplify the Work

We humans have an incredible ability to make tasks, projects, and work more complex than necessary.  (I am sure someone has studied this phenomenon and has named a “Law” about this.)  This would be okay if complexity lead to greater efficiency and/or effectiveness.  However, this is rarely the case.

Since this is a blog about “How” and not the “What”, I won’t belabor my point.  I will go straight to how to minimize complexity by Clarifying and Simplifying the work.  A leader should try to:

  • Define each team members’ Roles and Responsibilities – each person on your team should have clarity about his/her role and what he/she is responsible for in terms of that role.  This is typically addressed through a Job or Position Description, although these often fall short. Consider adding the following two sections: 1) Here is your role and how in contributes to the organization’s objectives, and 2) Here are your responsibilities in that role.
  • Prioritize the Work – By definition, priority means 1.  Prioritize means to list or rate in order of priority. (See this blog post.).   As a leader, you should prioritize the work for your team so that each team member understands what is most important and the order of importance of multiple projects..
  • Be Consistent – Is today’s new project more urgent than last week’s project which has not yet been completed?  Is there a new goal or objective each month, leaving past projects only half-completed?  These are both the opposite of being consistent.  A leader needs to be consistent on what is important, prioritize the work to be completed, allocate resources accordingly and drive to completion.
  • Remove the Clutter – In most cases, there is more work to be done than there are hours in the day.  The leader is the one person who can remove the clutter which is causing an inefficient use of time and other resources.  For example, and this is always an easy target, meetings.   Are your meetings purposeful and productive?  If not, remove that “clutter” to allow your team to spend time being productive or structure your meetings to be purposeful and productive.

We have all heard the acronym KISS – Keep It Simple Stupid (seems like that last “S” could be more positive.) – and inside those 4 words is tremendous advice to a leader.   Clarify and simplify the work of your team to improve its productivity and to improve the job satisfaction of your team members.  After all, it is your role and your responsibility.

Go forth and lead!