Must Do’s Must Get Done

In general, a successful company is structured by an organizational chart, in which each role has its own set of responsibilities. Best scenario, everyone completes all their tasks, every day. Obviously, the best scenario is not always reality. If this is the case, your team needs to have the skills to prioritize effectively. A simple phrase to help with this is “Must Do’s Must Get Done”. Along with this phrase, there are some things you can do as a manager to support your team. 

Define

You (as the manager) must specifically define what their must dos are. These should be specified by role, and clearly communicated to anyone in that role. A must do should be a responsibility that if not fulfilled, can hold back the operation or success of your company. Along with defining which tasks are a must do, you have to define what a must do means. Some must do’s have to be done daily, others weekly. For example, an Account Manager may be held to a Must Do that all client communication must be returned within 24 hours. While an operations Manager may have a Must Do that Time Entry must be accepted every morning by 10 am. If you have implemented Weekly Checklist, everyone should have a must do that must be completed before they can go home for the weekend.

Verify

Once you have defined the Must Do’s and clarified what this means for your team, you must verify. This does not mean you should micro-manage the tasks. But you owe it to yourself, the companies success, and your employees’ success to check-in periodically and verify the task is being done at the agreed occurrence. For something like a Weekly Checklist, you can simply collect their checklists each week, therefore confirming everything was done. For the example above, you could check once a week that your operations manager has approved time entry. Perhaps you periodically check your Account Managers inbox to confirm there are no outstanding client communications. You do not need to verify every time, but if this task truly is a must do that will help the company continue to move forward smoothly, you must do your part of verifying. 

Hold Accountable

In a perfect world, your method of verification never identifies an employee dropping the ball and not completing the task. But, as we agreed earlier, the world is not perfect, and neither are our employees. That’s ok! As a manager, you must address responsibilities not fulfilled. The first few times this can be a simple conversation or email, reminding them of the task. If the individual forms a pattern, then a more serious conversation may be needed. Holding your team accountable does not have to be forceful of intimidating. It should be a method of supporting everyone in order to help them succeed in their roles. 

Once you implement Must Do’s and fulfill your responsibility of verification and accountability, you will see a difference in your team’s ability to prioritize. By prioritizing these tasks first, you are allowing them to be successful, even when things are busy or unexpected items come up. When they feel successful, they are more efficient! As a result, defining Must Do’s can impact your culture, organization and efficiency. If you need help organizing your procedures to align with this topic, please reach out today.