Lines of Authority

The first thing your employees need to know is who do they report to and who, if anyone, reports to them.  This may seem obvious but I had a friend who did consulting work. He was hired to work on the efficiency of a single department in a municipality. The department had thirty employees.  He was having trouble understanding the structure of the department so he handed each employee a two question questionnaire. Who do you report to and who reports to you.

He then tried to construct a box diagram of the authority lines in the department. He was unable to even begin because there was no clear path. He had several people who said they report to each other and many who said they report to individuals who did not list them on their list. He asked the head of the department to draw the box diagram and there was still no clear chain of command.

If you have a pool assistant who helps several people pick one of the individuals as the primary that can sort out conflicting or contradictory directions for the assistant. Then make sure that this person understands their position and accepts.

If you have everyone report directly to you it is likely you will never get the important things done.  I once had a client that owned an electrical utility installation company. He complained he always had to stay until eight or nine in the evening to finish his work. I spent a day with him. He carried a radio on his hip and in the morning every employee from the truck drivers to the operations manager would call in to tell the owner they had arrived.  During the day if they had a problem in the field they would call him. Nearly every time he referred the problem to the Operations Manager who dealt with the problem.
At the end of the day again every employee called in to tell the owner he was leaving.

I suggested he go without the radio. After two days he called me to tell me he not only got all his paper work done by closing but he also had time to begin a couple of long range projects that had been sitting on his desk.

Draw yourself a box diagram and then share it with everyone.

All original content ©Thomas Robinson 2010