Operational Responsibilities of Leaders

The depth and scope of operational responsibilities within an organisation can greatly vary, yet there is one constant. Leaders are needed to integrate the vision or mission of the organisation with the day-to-day activities. It is fine to have a well-defined mission, but the only way true value can be reached is if the organisation has developed leadership roles, which take the business from end-to-end without losing sight of the defined goals.

In other words, the overall mission must be translated into a strategic action plan that is then implemented. It is particularly at the implementation stage that leaders have an outstanding opportunity to build a cohesive team of employees that see themselves as strategic partners no matter what job they hold.

The term “operational responsibilities” can actually be considered the same as “organisational readiness”. The ability of the business to respond to the external marketplace or competition is directly tied to its leadership abilities internally. Leaders can be found at all levels of the organisational structure and play key roles in “getting things done”.

What are the operational responsibilities in question? The reality is they include everything from managing the mail system to reporting final results to the governing board. The specific responsibilities any one business member has depends on their position, whether it is as a project team leader, a department supervisor, or an executive manager.

Taking Responsibility

The overriding operational responsibility is the ability to choose people who can carry out the mission of the organisation. Leaders often are responsible for hiring those who will get the work done on the day to day basis. But it is the leader’s ability to communicate the mission of the organisation in a way that encourages each team member to take personal responsibility for their contributions to the organisation.

Other organisational responsibilities include the following.

* Establishing effective reporting lines
* Delegation of responsibilities and job functions
* Clear identification of goals and objectives
* Crisis management
* Finance and budgeting accountability
* Staff training
* Monitoring of progress in relationship to assigned goals
* Integration of internal functions with outside suppliers
* Resource management

In other words, operational responsibilities begin with team development and then establishes and monitors the processes with best utilise team talents for the purpose of meeting goals. The leader responsibilities can cross multiple functions including marketing, finance, sales and production.

On-The-Job Decision Making

One of the signs of well-trained leaders is the existence of teams with members who are capable of decision making which supports the goals of the organisation. It means the leaders have mastered the skill of being able to fully develop team talent. People are strategically trained to perform their operational duties in a way that always propels the organisation forward as it meets competition head-on.

The ability to strategically manage operational responsibilities is much different than just “getting the job done”. This is why professional training of business leaders can become the critical function which sets one company apart from another. Market leaders do not achieve that rank in the marketplace by accident. They achieve their prominence and success through strategic leadership training to insure operational responsibilities are managed in a way that reflects their importance to meeting the corporate mission and goals.