The Cranky Middle Manager Show #312 The Future of the MBA Ken Starkey
Discretionary Effort- What’s Your Job Then?
Posted on 10. Jan, 2006 by Wayne in General
A study in the UK (and first reported in Management Issues) says that Managers consider things like coaching, developing their teams and adopting a creative approach to work are “discretionary efforts”- outside the scope of their daily jobs. (God love the English and their mastery of the euphemism). Read more about the study here….
Why is that? My guess it’s about reward. We reward managers for hitting sales numbers and other short-term goals but don’t measure the things they do that have long-term impact. What does your company do to turn these “discretionary efforts” into job descriptions? Let us all know.
Meanwhile, I’m working on euphemisms. If Discretionary Effort is “stuff I should do but don’t get around to and nobody seems to care” then I”m going to start referring to stuff I don’t want to do but DO appear on my performance review as “Dispatched Necessities”. Sounds impressive and will probably confuse the heck out of my boss. That’s a good day’s effort.
Don’t let the weasels get ya down.