Identify your key areas
Key areas are headings—they are described using nouns that can be qualified by specific adjectives. The key area for a salesperson would, of course, be “Sales,” but this description is too general. It would be helpful to specify the different types of sales.
Actual sales? Projected sales? Sales strategy?
Foreign markets? Domestic markets? Region? Sales of Product X?
For key areas, it doesn’t matter when, how, or how much, so avoid using verbs when describing key areas.
Guidelines for defining key areas
When defining key areas, try to keep the following in mind:
- Keep it short
Use a maximum of 3–4 words.
- Use headings
Key areas describe the areas within which results are to be achieved. They should not specify particular goals or performance standards.
- Include everything
Your key areas should cover all aspects of your life—everything you do and should be doing should be possible to include in your key areas.
- Be unambiguous
Key areas should be immediately understandable to the people you work with.
- Avoid overlap
When two key areas are simply two different aspects of the same content, combine them into one.
- Focus on your own responsibility
Use the following procedure to determine your key areas:
- Ask yourself the questions in the left column of the table. Affirmative answers mean these are your potential key areas.
- Read the more detailed explanations of the checklist items.
- Use the right column of the checklist table to generate ideas for determining your own key areas.
- Write down your ideas/suggestions for your general key areas on a sheet of paper.
- Also use the examples of key areas for specific professions as a source of ideas for identifying your own key areas.
- Refine your key areas using the tips for defining the text listed below.
- You may find it helpful to discuss your key areas with your manager, colleagues, and friends.
- Once you are satisfied with the result, list the tasks and activities for each key area.
Checklist/Questions | Key Areas: Possible Descriptions |
1. Am I a manager/supervisor? | Staff. Staff/organization. Staff relations/effectiveness. If relevant, specify the staff category: Sales staff. Relationships with sales staff/effectiveness, etc. |
2. Do I have financial responsibilities? | Finance. Finance/administration. Costs. Profitability. Budget/ monitoring. If relevant, specify the type of financial responsibility: Production costs. Sales prices, etc. |
3. Do I have administrative responsibilities? | Administration. Administrative tasks/responsibilities/procedures. If relevant, specify the type of administrative responsibility: Personnel administration. Payroll. Maintenance: Buildings/machinery, etc. Administrative systems. Procedures/systems. |
4. Am I responsible for projects/major one-time tasks? | Projects. Current tasks. Major assignments. Or more specifically: bids/tenders. Projects – Type A. Client tasks – Type B. Development projects. Current tasks for your manager. Sales campaigns. Marketing projects. Staff selection. |
5. Am I responsible for internal communication and coordination? | Internal relations. Internal communication/coordination. Relationships: Manager/ colleagues. Relationships with certain internal groups may be a separate area: Board of Directors. Management. Branches/departments/subsidiaries . Parent company. Committees. |
6. Am I responsible for external communication and coordination? | External relations. External communication. Relations with certain external groups may need to be a separate area. Customers. Suppliers. Business partners. Representatives. Government agencies. Organizations. Institutes. Committees. |
7. Am I responsible for development? Progress? New methods? | Product development. Technical development. Method development. Market development. Organizational development. System development. |
8. Am I responsible for long-term planning? | Long-term planning. Future/Development/Ideas. Strategic planning. |
9. Do I have any special functions? Areas of interest? Offices? | Specific areas of interest. Positions of responsibility. Management. Politics. Associations. Interests. Continuing education. Committees. Independent work. |
10. Is professional development important to me? | Professional development. If important, specify the type. |
Allocate at least 1 or 2 key areas to “Personal Development,” “Family and Friends,” “Personal Finances,” “Home Management,” “Hobbies,” “Association Memberships,” or other key areas related to your personal life.
More detailed information about the list:
1. Am I a manager or supervisor?
The primary responsibility of every manager or supervisor is to ensure employee effectiveness and job satisfaction.
Therefore, all managers typically have at least one key area related to personnel management and development. This area includes tasks such as defining employees’ key areas, training and development, providing information, recognition and rewards, delegating tasks, managing HR data, career development, performance reviews, organizational structure, meetings, managing leave and absences, and hiring new employees.
2. Do I have financial responsibilities?
All individuals responsible for preparing and monitoring budgets—such as directors, most department heads, heads of specific functions, salespeople, or project managers—typically require a key area dedicated to finance. Typical financial tasks include preparing and monitoring budgets, annual and internal financial statements, accounts receivable and accounts payable management, financing, investments, cost control, insurance, profitability monitoring, key financial indicators, statistics, pricing, cash flow management, payroll systems, taxes, and internal audits.
Most people need only one key area for finance. However, for CFOs and accounting managers, financial areas are often divided into multiple key areas due to broader responsibilities. If an individual’s financial and administrative responsibilities are not extensive enough to warrant separate treatment, they can be combined into a single key area: Finance and Administration.
3. Do I have administrative responsibilities?
Most companies and organizations have at least one person responsible for administrative processes. These tasks include hiring and firing employees, payroll systems, pension plans, insurance, vacation management, organizing travel, visits, and meetings, cafeteria operations, internal and external communication, customs procedures, handling complaints, updating manuals and catalogs, document management, magazine circulation, cataloging, record-keeping, organizing celebrations, maintenance, office supplies, and vehicle management.
Some employees combine all administrative tasks into a single key area, while others distribute them across several different areas depending on the nature and scope of responsibilities.
4. Am I responsible for projects or significant one-time tasks?
Most directors need at least one key area dedicated to projects or significant one-time activities that cannot be meaningfully incorporated into other key areas. Examples of such tasks include organizing company anniversaries, implementing new technologies, renovations and modernizations, relocations, opening new business units, departments, or stores, development projects, organizational changes, and initiatives to improve efficiency.
If an individual’s work is primarily focused on executing projects or achieving project goals, it often makes sense to define multiple project key areas. Project managers, programmers, scientists, or consultants, for example, often organize their key areas based on project size, type, location, or other relevant criteria.
5. Am I responsible for internal communication?
Employees at all levels must collaborate and communicate with other individuals and departments within the company or organization. Both managers and employees therefore require a key area for internal communication that encompasses all aspects of coordination with immediate supervisors, colleagues, departments, business units, the parent company, subsidiaries, and other internal stakeholders.
Typical tasks within this key area include collaborating with managers and colleagues, recognition, meetings, committee membership, working in project teams, informing other departments, and cross-departmental collaboration.
Since communication and coordination with one’s own staff involve different tasks than collaboration with other individuals and departments, it often makes the most sense for managers to separate the Personnel area and the Internal Relations area into two distinct key areas. However, a director or business owner can often use a single combined area, Personnel and Organization, since they typically do not have a direct superior or peers at the same level.
6. Am I responsible for external communication?
Many individuals, especially managers, regularly interact with individuals, companies, organizations, institutions, or other stakeholders outside their company or organization. Therefore, it makes sense to create a separate key area for external relations.
This area may include all types of external communication and collaboration, such as consulting and information services, meetings, committee work, financial cooperation, procurement, obtaining permits and approvals, awards, and various forms of support and services.
Examples of external stakeholders include banks, auditors and accountants, lawyers, insurance companies, stockbrokers, local authorities, institutes, organizations, associations, advertising agencies, the media, suppliers, customers, business partners, and political representatives.
If the scope of external relations is small or limited solely to a specific project, internal and external communication can be combined into a single key area.
7. Am I responsible for development?
All managers and employees responsible for achieving results must ensure the continuous development of products, markets, technologies, work methods, the organization, and employees. Therefore, development often constitutes a separate key area.
However, development and progress can also appear as an important task within other key areas and are not necessarily always a separate area.
8. Am I responsible for long-term planning?
Long-term planning is a key area for all executives and employees involved in the development of the company or organization in the coming years.
Typical tasks within this area include preparing five-year plans, strategic planning, long-term staffing needs, transitioning to new technologies, business expansion, diversification, product adaptation, succession planning, changes to financial and organizational structures, business acquisitions or closures, employee engagement, changes to corporate identity, and adapting to market and social trends.
The central question of this key area is the future of the company or organization.
9. Do I have specific roles or responsibilities?
Many people perform specific roles, have additional interests, or pursue goals that require a separate key area.
Examples of such roles include board membership, employee representation, leading associations, safety responsibilities, membership in organizations, associations, panels, committees, or commissions, political activities, education, and leisure activities that require significant time and planning.
If these activities do not require much time, they can be incorporated into other key areas, such as internal relations, external relations, or personal development.
10. Is professional development important to me?
Every individual needs a key area for personal development that includes both personal and professional growth and the expansion of knowledge.
In some professions, however, professional development is so important that it requires a separate key area. This applies primarily to professions where continuing education is essential for successful work and maintaining professional competence.
Such professions include, for example, lawyers, accountants, doctors, dentists, IT professionals, researchers, educators, engineers, journalists, and politicians.
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