The topic of conversation today was about simplification.  As such, the one sentence job description got a lot of attention.  I love the simplicity and easy filter that is a one sentence job description.  If it doesn’t fit under that job description, then why are you doing it?  If it isn’t helping you meet that simple goal, then it isn’t your priority.  One sentence can be excessively long, like in the Joseph Conrad or Robert Louis Stevenson sense.  If everything fits into your sentence, then it might be a little long.  I recommend thinking of what you might say out of frustration, or a statement to which you could put an exclamation at the end.  So if you are in sales, you could say “My real job is to grow revenue, dang it!”  See how the exclamation works!  Simple and focused.  If you write a verbose sentence like: “I come to work everyday thinking about how to increase shareholder returns through managing the production schedule, its resources, inventory, equipment capacity, personnel, and lead time while trying to maximize performance to on time and efficiency metrics, dang it!” the exclamation no longer works, nor could anyone remember what you said by the time you finish that long statement.  Too many things could be lumped under that vague statement.  A better version might be “My job is to meet the customer’s request for product, in line with quality expectations as efficiently as possible.”  That statement can be measured, remembered, and used to focus.

My personal one sentence job description is still under construction, as it will probably always be, but for now I say: “I come to work every day thinking about how to grow the company through people and strategy development.”

So what do you come to work thinking about every day?