Bishop House Consulting, Inc.

Who’s on 1st, What’s on 2nd

Build consistency in your leadership and delegation of tasks and projects by clearly differentiating the roles people should play.  It’s important to clarify that roles are not people.  Leaders must distinguish, clearly articulate and consistently visualize the differences between the roles that exist and the people who fulfill those roles.

One great tool to help identify and communicate roles and responsibilities is a project management approach code named RACI.  RACI is a responsibility matrix and stands for Responsible, Accountable, Consulted and Informed.  Below are descriptions for each role copied directly from Wikipedia.

Responsible – Those who do the work to achieve the task.  There is typically one role with a participation type of Responsible, although others can be delegated to assist in the work required.

Accountable (also Approver or final Approving Authority) – The one ultimately answerable for the correct and thorough completion of the deliverable or task, and the one from whom Responsible is delegated the work.  In other words, an Accountable must sign off (Approve) on work that Responsible provides. There must be only one Accountable specified for each task or deliverable.

Consulted (sometimes Counsel) – Those whose opinions are sought, typically subject matter experts; and with whom there is two-way communication.

Informed – Those who are kept up-to-date on progress, often only on completion of the task or deliverable; and with whom there is just one-way communication.

Give it a Try

Grab a blank piece of paper (or open Excel or Word) and create a table.  Across the top write the names of the people who are part of the project.  Down the left side of the table write the tasks or activities.  Next assign the roles using the RACI indicators for each task/activity by person.  Think hard on the delineation of the roles and even more deeply on how well you’ve communicated those delineations among the folks who fulfill the roles.

Need to see an example?  Click here to see a sample RACI matrix should you need or like to see a visual sample.

Rehire Yourself

Remember those feelings of the first days and weeks in a new job.  The thrill of learning a new environment, the freedom from office politics and gossip, the flood of ideas, the intrigue with meeting your employees for the first time, the adrenaline rush of opportunity to make an impact, and the unwavering belief of your boss and peers in your ability to have great success.

Re-create it!  Rehire yourself into your position.

Today is your first day of your first week of your first month in the job.  Clear your calendar and GTD list (Getting Things Done).   Let the fog roll into your memories of relationships.

Start everything anew. . .

• Review your job description
• Re-introduce yourself to your employees
• Craft a vision and align your resources around the vision
• Draw a stakeholder chart of key peers and teams with whom you’ll need to establish relationships
• Champion and enable the execution of your plans
• Start a new GTD list

Create the opportunity to allow yourself to be fully motivated for your leadership role.  Rehiring yourself will allow your mind to discard old baggage that weighs you down and explore/establish boundaries that enable you to be more effective.

DiSC Tip:  Adjust Your Face

Are You Having an Impact?

Effective leaders seek to continuously improve how they impact the organization and those with whom they interact.  Gaining objective insight on your behaviors and how those behaviors impact others can provide you with critical data to adjust your actions and behaviors.  So, where do you really stand?  Are you an impactful leader?  Is that a positive impact or a negative impact?  When was the last meaningful conversation you had with your boss regarding how you are performing as a leader?

Seek the feedback.   A profound method for analyzing how well you are doing is to seek feedback from individuals within various stakeholder groups that surround you.  As a leader you have your direct reports who have a perception of you.  And there’s the boss who has her own perception as well.  But there are several other groups who can provide valuable insight.

• Peers – locally and globally
• Customers – external as well as internal
• Matrix team members – up, across and down
• Members of the Board of Directors, Mentors, External advisors

Formal feedback can be garnered via a 360 degree feedback survey – think of yourself as at the center of the circle and your stakeholders surround you laterally, above and below – which provides tremendous, objective and usually anonymous feedback.  Well run 360 degree surveys provide the input along leadership competencies which allow you to internalize the perceptions from various stakeholders.

Short on your budget?  Here are some less formal methods you could follow to gain input.

• Create your own electronic survey and deploy to your stakeholders via
• Free survey tool: www.Surveymonkey.com
• Outlook Exchange Voting/Tracking Survey
• Create a simple questionnaire and email to your stakeholders
• Facilitate in person meetings with stakeholders

To be successful, you should:

• Seek the feedback
• Create an action plan
• Find an accountability partner; you boss is a good place to start

Take Action:  Take 4 minutes to determine your stakeholders.  Using a blank piece of paper draw a circle in the middle of the page the size of a half-dollar.  Place your name in the circle.  Now, draw spokes off of that circle and write the names of stakeholders.  Start with broad groupings if needed such as direct reports, bosses, peers.  Then narrow those groupings with individual names or subsets.

By taking inventory of your stakeholders you will at least begin to think through how they might perceive your leadership impact on the organization.

Click here to see a sample 363 for Leaders tool which we use with our clients.

We’re Looking for New & Maturing Leaders Who Want to Increase Their Wisdom 

Get the training, tools and skills needed to be a successful manager. Our management training program immerses participants in the art and science of managing.

• Eight half-day training sessions held weekly
• One-on-one situational leadership coaching sessions guide application of new skills
• Dynamic training, invigorating discussions

Our next program starts the morning of March 22nd! Click here to learn more about our highly rated training program.