It's Hard To Do Two Jobs Well

Jobs Worth Having are Worth All of Your Attention

Summer, 2013:

The newly appointed Deputy Commander of the FBI’s Hostage Rescue Team approached my desk with an inquisitive look on his face. Days earlier he was a unit chief, responsible for one of the three operational units of assaulters and snipers that make up the core of the Hostage Rescue Team, and had asked me to act in his role until his successor was selected. He stood there, watching me until I was uncomfortable enough to break the silence.

“What’s up?” I asked.

“I need you to move into my old office,” he stated.

“I’m only acting until a new unit chief is chosen. Anyway, sitting here with the guys makes planning easy and they’ll know where to find me.”

“From here you’ll do your old job, not my old job. They need to see you’re in the position, and you do too. There are no actings, you’re responsible for the unit. Move into my old office.” He managed an amused smirk at the disgruntled look on my face before walking away.

He was, of course, right on all counts. Equally important to my teammates recognition that I was responsible for the unit was seeing it myself. Although I missed a couple missions I might have been on in my prior job that summer, fully embracing my new position allowed me to focus on the planning necessary for a very significant mission requiring robust communications and medical plans.

People are often asked to temporarily take over the responsibilities of the position they answer to when it is vacated, and my career has been no different. We often think we can succeed at both jobs, but it is critically important to make the shift to new responsibilities. The success of your organization may depend on it.

To Succeed at a New Job You Have to Leave Your Last

Spring, 2016:

I should have learned the first time. I was in a temporary acting capacity as the Special Agent in Charge (SAC) for Counterterrorism and it was about four in the morning when the Chief of Police called my cell phone. There was a threat to the White House overnight, she told me, and she needed help. The threat she explained appeared to be based on sovereign citizen extremist ideology and her officers came across it the night before while dealing with a criminal incident in a retail store.

On a normal day, I was the Assistant Special Agent in Charge (ASAC) over response matters and domestic terrorism investigations. The SAC I worked for was away at a conference, so I called him to let him know what was happening and immediately drove to the office while calling squad supervisors and arranging for surveillance of the subjects as I made my way in.

Once we were together, I did what I would normally do in this situation, I delegated key responsibilities to each supervisor. One would run surveillance operations, one was responsible for the investigation, one would manage the command post, etc. But the responsibility I failed to assign was my own: coordination of those efforts. Because of that failure, I didn’t adequately make the shift to the position I was supposed to be in, that of SAC. I ran operations from the command post and didn’t check the phone in my office, which led to really good coordination with the operational teams but a failure in keeping seniors at Headquarters adequately briefed as an SAC should do in such a situation.

When my SAC returned from the conference, I discussed the matter with him. The operation had gone well, but the organization had not been kept properly informed, potentially slowing the delivery of external resources and eliminating guidance that could have been helpful as I navigated the situation. In his words, I did too much “ASACing” and not enough “SACing.” He wasn’t wrong.

What I’ve Learned

It can be really hard to let go off old responsibilities, especially when you know it is going to be temporary. The feeling of obligation to the role you are normally assigned to can be strong, but it’s also comfortable. We routinely convince ourselves that we really know what it is that our superiors are responsible for and how they do it. Often, when we get a taste of their jobs we start to understand they have many responsibilities we just don’t see in our day to day interactions.

In the scenarios above, both of my colleagues were trying to teach me essentially the same lesson. As both risk and rank rise, it is more and more critical that people in senior positions are fully dedicated to the responsibilities of those positions. It can be easy for those in tactical or operational positions to underestimate the difficulty and value of senior level coordination and communication while handling a time sensitive matter for an organization. It’s really hard to do two jobs well, especially if you’re inexperienced in the second job.

What You Can Do

It’s not uncommon for people to temporarily cover the responsibilities of the senior leader to which they report. It often doesn’t seem difficult, until something happens that requires you to exercise all components of the role under pressure. Here are some thoughts:

• If the temporary assignment is going to be for any significant length of time, or if your role in the organization tends to be highly responsive, assign someone to cover your normal responsibilities. Do this as soon as you have been obligated to take on the new role, even if it is only for a few days. This is essential. Effective responses to unpredictable situations require predictable division of responsibilities before hand.

• When significant incidents or operations take place while you are in your normal role, use those as opportunities to provide professional development to others. You can cement real learning just in reviewing your actions and how they played into overall organizational responsibilities with those you count on when you are away. It is often hard to find time for formal developmental training for your employees, but there are almost always opportunities to help them grow if you are willing to share your experience.

• Seek to better understand the responsibilities of the person you work for. Often, not all of those responsibilities are visible to others and some critical functions can be missed by those who are busy fulfilling their own obligations.

New Chapters

The Creating Culture newsletter is intended to be an exercise in studying, discussing, and sharing thoughts on topics important to building better teams and stronger organizations. Whether you and your organization are looking to prepare for the unexpected or seize new opportunities, I hope you’ll join me.

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