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Hello, friend!

If this was forwarded to you, we highly recommend reading this accompanying overview. It will give you context to both the template itself and why defining management expectations is so important.

If you came here from the Want To Work There newsletter and are ready to dive in, below are extended directions for each activity.

Part 1: Top Three

In the space provided, do a 5-10 minute brainstorm of management responsibilities that are currently practiced at your organization. These may be obvious, but if you need something to get the juices flowing, you can click into tab three (Responsibilities) for a long list of possibilities.

Once you’ve finished your brainstorm, ask yourself the following questions:

1. Is this responsibility shared by all people managers across the organization (from executives through your newest managers) or is it specific to a particular level of management?

2. Of the shared responsibilities, which three are the most important for people managers to understand and practice consistently?

Capture those three responsibilities in the dedicated section, along with any clarifications or important notes. And just like that, you’ve got your first clarity snapshot! Finish by reflecting on the following questions, as it relates to the three expectations you identified:

--> Are these three responsibilities clear to your people managers?
--> Do they have the training and support they need to accomplish them?

If you answer no to either, that’s where you start!

Part Two: Leveling

The next step in defining expectations is to get clear on the different levels of people management within your organization. As mentioned in the newsletter, you can:

--> Level by title (manager, director, VP) or
--> Create your own leveling categories to place people managers into (manager I, II, III)

We recommend starting this activity by listing the job titles of everyone who is currently a people manager within the organization. You do not have to clarify by specialty, just by level. For example, you wouldn't list "Director, Sales" and "Director, Customer Sucess," but rather Director. That said, if one was a Sr. Director, than you'd want to list both Director and Senior Director as titles.

Once you've listed all current roles, spend some time reflecting on any roles that obviously share the same or similar management responsibilities. If you're not sure, you can skip this step.

Important Note: DO NOT let leveling be what stops you from defining management responsibilities! You can always start by defining company-wide management expectations and then build leveling into it down the road.

Part Three: Responsibilities Matrix

The Repsonsibilities Matrix is your chance to reflect on what expecations you have for people managers of all levels within your organization. In the first column, you'll find a list of potential responsbilities your people managers may be tasked with. In the first row, you'll have populated a list of the different people management titles or groups within your organization. For each role or group, work down the list of responsbilities, checking off every row that applies. Next to the checkmark, you can make a note of how often this task is required. Some tasks may be co-owned by a manager and the people ops team. If managers have any responsibilitiy in the task, we recommend clarifying what that is through the wording, instead of skipping it alltogether.

Of course, feel free to add, delete, and edit this resource to make it work for your needs! We hope it provides a great start point for defining clear management expectations within your organization!

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