Communicate your department's business purpose clearly

He link at the end of this post leads to an article about companies who can't clearly state exactly what they do. Now you may not be the one composing your company's mission so you may think this has nothing to do with you. But wait, I have a challenge for you.

Now you are a manager, so you presumably manage a department, a team or some other kind of business unit. What does that department do? What is its mission, its purpose? For example, maybe you are the head of the accounting department. You may think, well everyone knows what the accounting department does, so I don't need to explain it to anyone. But that's not true. Accounting departments function very differently and have different purposes depending on their larger organizations. The same thing holds true for human resources, marketing, sales and other departments.

First, read the article by clicking on the link. Then come back here. Next, I want you to sit down and consider exactly what your department does. Not its title, but the service it performs and for whom. If it is accounts receivable, for example, one of your services may be to collect late payments, thus keeping the company's cash flow in line. So the purpose would be the cash flow part, and the service is one of the things you to do fulfill it. See what I mean?

You can also involve your people in this exercise, which will make sure they buy into your vision for the department, and make it easier to use the purpose to make sure everyone is performing well in the future. When you know how you are contributing to the big picture, it helps grow pride in your job.

I'd love to know what you come up with, so I invite you to come back here after you're done, click on the comment link and tell me what your department's business purpose it.

That's the challenge. Are you up to it? If you are serious about being a good manager, you'd better be.

Business: Clear communication a challenge