Job Tuition

Clarify Responsibilities to Improve Job Performance

February 6th, 2007 by Andrew

You’ve landed the job. You’re working 40 hours a week at a company, and your plate is filling up fast. Pretty soon, you have more work than you can handle. What do you do? Clarify your job responsibilities!

If you clarify exactly what you are responsible for, you will do a better job. You can focus on the things your employer sees as vital. Your performance will increase, along with your salary and your advancement possibilities. But how do you accomplish this?

Find your supervisor

This may sound like an easy task. However, the chain of command might not be clear in some companies. Perhaps you are a general support staff member, and you get projects from several different people. Who is your central supervisor?

To find this out, simply talk with your higher ups in the company. Flat out ask them (in a nice way) who should be overseeing all of your work. If they don’t know, get them to find out. Someone should be your clear boss. They don’t have to give your daily commands, but someone should have ultimate responsibility for your work.

Ask for priorities

Once your company identifies your supervisor, it is your time for action. You must gather your current tasks and go talk to him.

Ask your supervisor to prioritize your work. Simply tell him that you have more work than your schedule can permit. Be clear that you are not being lazy, but that you want to make sure the important tasks get done first and are not delayed.

Work, based on priorities

Now that you know what tasks are most important, do those first. You might still have the exact same number of tasks on your plate, but you can feel free to let some things rest until you have time.

This doesn’t mean that you forget about tasks or let them die away. To the contrary, you should work on the lower priority tasks whenever you can. Maybe you have some downtime during an urgent project. Perhaps you can catch up a little on a weekend.

Supervisors, read this too!

Importantly, if you are someone’s supervisor, pay close attention to this article. You must understand that not all work can be done immediately. Your employees must prioritize. You can help this process by making your priorities clear.

Advance your career

Now that you know these basic priority communication skills, your career should benefit. There is no magic formula to this. You simply should communicate your time demands to your supervisor. Hopefully your supervisor will cooperate. This will result in better work product for her and a better career for you.