A headhunter approached me today for a C-Level position at a large advertising agency.

I have been self-employed for the last 19 years and have doubts whether I would even be capable of working at a large organization, but my curiosity got the better of me and I clicked to learn more.

They had a job description all right — a very thorough one.  I learned that the candidate has to execute 47 unique roles in the company. If you can’t do all these at a high level – don’t apply.

Accountability for Everything

I wonder if this Ad agency expects their Delivery Chief to do 47 distinct things well? This is superhuman.  They will not find a single honest executive to apply for such a position. Unless the candidate is desperate and this is the last thing they do before jumping off that bridge.

When I embark with my clients on their Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS) journey we start with the essentials. One of them is to define the five roles of each major function in the business. Not 25, 35 or 47, just five.  There are always only five roles that take care of 80-90% of the result. We want the function owner to…