Dear NPLI Management Solutions,

I’m a manager with roughly 3 years’ experience; however, much of my time has been spent with employee issues and dealing with customers.  Now that things are beginning to calm down, I’m now wondering how am I supposed to spend my work time.  What exactly are the regular duties of a manager working in a small-to-mid size company?

RESPONSE:  This is a common question asked by many managers – even if they only ask the question to themselves.  A manager’s job duties can be broadly or narrowly defined…often falling somewhere in the middle.  In general, a manager’s job duties can be grouped into three major categories – planning, coordinating, and monitoring.

• Planning involves setting short-term and long-term strategic goals for the company;
• Coordinating involves identifying, acquiring, and positioning all necessary resources (including human resources) needed to successfully achieve the goals set for the company; and
• Monitoring involves measuring anticipated outcomes with actual results & making necessary adjustments.

If you are wondering how best to allocate your time, here are a few suggestions.

SUGGESTIONS

•  If the organization is new or going through major changes; then much of your time (roughly 50%) should be spent on strategic planning.  Otherwise, 20-35% of your time should be sufficient.

•   If the organization is facing issues such as low employee morale, high absenteeism, low productively, then much of your time (roughly 50%) should be spent on coordinating.  Otherwise, 20-35% of your time should be sufficient.

•   If the organization is dealing with issues such as low customer satisfaction or lower-than-expected sales/participation rates,  then much of your time (roughly 50%) should be spent on monitoring.  Otherwise, 20-35% of your time should be sufficient.

These are just suggestions and may not fit with your role within your organization.  You may have to create your own job duties by keeping a log of the things that you do on a regular basis.  Make a clear distinction between tasks that could have been completed by someone else vs. those that only you or someone at/above your authority level should do.  Keep the “someone else can do” tasks at a minimum – these you should aim to delegate or eliminate.  All others are ones you should keep and aim to master.