“So, let’s look at your description of Phillip,” I prompted. “You said he is probably in over his head. What exactly does that mean?”

Joyce’s brow furrowed. “You know. He is having trouble cutting it. Can’t deliver. Doesn’t know whether to scream or eat a banana.”

I smiled. Nodded. “I know. I know exactly what you mean. But how do we characterize this behavior so we can improve the situation?”

Joyce looked a little sheepish. “I don’t mean to poke fun. But I really don’t know how else to put it.”

“So, let’s say you fire Phillip and your boss comes to you and wants to know the reason. Are you going to say the Phillip was terminated because he didn’t know whether to scream or eat a banana?”

“Of course not. I would have to think of something more tactful,” Joyce replied.

“Instead of something more tactful, I want you to think of something closer to the truth, something you can be objective about and measure.”

“I don’t know,” said Joyce, backpedaling.

“Yes, but if you did know, what would the reason be?” -TF

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“So, it helps to understand Julie’s job,” I observed. Eduardo and I had been talking about how attaching Time Span to each task in a job, helped to understand the scope of the job.

An epiphany was occurring inside Eduardo’s head. “Yeah, think about freight,” he started. “Hector is our freight supervisor, and his area is a mess.”

“How so?”

“Well, he usually gets all the day’s shipments out. It’s a big job, because we have to carefully crate everything. That’s part of the problem, often our crates don’t hold up and our product gets damaged in transit. We have close to ten freight claims going at any one time.

“Hector thinks he is responsible for one day’s work each day, when the Time Span required is much longer. He should also be responsible for investigating and resolving all of these freight claims, figuring out which of our crate components failed, and making changes to the process to reduce transit damage. He needs to work with our vendors to buy different crate components that do a better job. All of that seems to get lost in the shuffle, but it is really Hector’s responsibility. Instead of a one-day Time Span, his job is more like a one-month Time Span. He has some serious follow-up to do.

“It is only when I describe the job’s Time Span as one month that I begin to see the true scope of the job.”

“I never thought of it that way,” said Eduardo.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“Trying to attach Time Span to specific tasks in a person’s job,” he explained.

“What do you think about it?”

“I never really thought about the person’s whole job. When I start to attach Time Span to the separate tasks in a job, my understanding of the job gets a lot larger.”

“Give me an example,” I prompted.

“Okay, one of my supervisors, Julie, is responsible for scheduling. On the face of it, she needs to sit down and write out the schedule once a week. It takes 45 minutes to an hour depending on the work we have in house. If the schedule gets messed up, you know, someone gets sick, or the volume of work increases, Julie throws up her hands. She is quick to blame the circumstance and says she did her job, she put the schedule together last Friday.”

I smiled as Eduardo continued.

“So, scheduling is not something with a Time Span of one hour. Scheduling has a Time Span of three weeks. That’s how far in advance that we schedule.

“When I explain it to Julie, we need to talk about the Time Span. We publish the schedule each Friday, but she needs to be planning, for real, three weeks into the future. She needs to check the incoming work mix, scheduled machine maintenance and vacation schedules for the upcoming three weeks. Materials, machines and people for the upcoming three weeks.

“And when there is a change in the schedule, she needs to recalculate everything, three weeks into the future. By attaching Time Span to the task, now, I can see the whole job.”

“A Performance Contract?” asked Ron. We had been talking about Miguel, a newly promoted manager.

“Yes, a Performance Contract,” I replied. “Miguel may have had a job description when he started here as a supervisor, but now that he has been promoted, you haven’t clearly stated his new expectations. Part of his being overwhelmed is that he doesn’t know exactly what is expected.”

“But I am sure we have a job description written, somewhere, for his position,” Ron explained, trying to cover.

“Yes, but here is the difference. A job description is a document that describes what you would like Miguel to do. It’s a one-way street. A Performance Contract is a document that you have to sit down and hammer out. It is an agreement that requires commitment from both sides.

“People will always squirm out of general accountabilities based on a job description. It is much more difficult to squirm out of clear expectations spelled out in a Performance Contract.” -TF

“He is in a bit over his head,” Ron explained. “Miguel has been with the company for three years, now. He was promoted to manager about six weeks ago. I just don’t know if he is cut out for the job.”

“What does his behavior tell you?” I asked.

“It’s funny. All of a sudden, he has become defensive about things. When he misses a deadline, and he has missed a few lately, instead of owning up, taking responsibility, he gets angry, blaming this or that. Because he gets angry, people around him back away and let him off the hook.”

“What do you think would improve his feeling of being overwhelmed with his new job?”

Ron had to think on this one. Finally, he shook his head, not sure, “He just needs to get organized.”

“And how do you organize yourself in a new job?”

“I don’t know,” started Ron. “Something to help you remember all the things you are responsible for?”

“And what do you call that?” I pressed. “You have one. At some point, your boss sat down with you and hammered one out.”

“You mean, my job description?” Ron stopped. “Come to think of it, Miguel has been working for the past six weeks without one.”

“Okay, now I want you to change the name of Miguel’s job description. From now on, I want you to call it a Performance Contract. Before we meet again, I want you to sit down with Miguel and hammer out his Performance Contract.” -TF