Role games that are no fun

Too often I have ended up in stories where my role, or the department’s role, was, let us say, blurred.

Areas of responsibility overlapped. Functions were duplicated. Decisions and responsibility were taken away, then dumped back. Sometimes two departments did the same thing, differently, and without agreeing.

And this corporate “Twister” inevitably led to a loss of time, energy, and money. Profit missed, errors at the joints, customers and sales pulled in two directions. Not because people were stupid. Because there was no role clarity.

I am not someone who enjoys chaos. So I decided to aim for clarity whenever I could. Below is a short extract you can use at once.

🧠 Role clarity versus role ambiguity

Role clarity is when a person understands, clearly:

• the tasks and the duties;

• the area of responsibility and the authority;

• the criteria of success;

• how their role connects to the others.

More simply: I know what I do, why, and who I work with.

Role ambiguity is when expectations are blurred: who is responsible for what, and which result counts as success.

🔥 Why this matters

Role clarity is an underrated foundation of management that works:

1. Less burnout

Without clear boundaries the brain lives in anxiety: “Am I doing enough? Will I be blamed?”

Clarity lowers the noise and gives you something to stand on.

2. Faster decisions and faster work

Clear roles cut the approvals, the arguments about “who was supposed to”, the duplication, and the correspondence.

3. More trust and more order

Understandable boundaries mean fewer grudges and less “getting into someone else’s garden”.

4. Quality and responsibility

A blurred zone means blurred responsibility.

A clear role produces the wish to do it well.

5. Money

Clear roles reduce errors, speed processes up, and raise the quality of the service and the financial result.

🔎 How to tell you are in role ambiguity

If at least 3 or 4 of these land:

• you do the work “nobody is supposed to do, but someone has to”;

• you spend time finding out “who is responsible”, and there is no answer;

• different managers give different priorities;

• you “think for the system” and insure everyone;

• you feel you “do little”, although you do a lot;

• you get pulled into tasks with no explanation;

• the feeling is: “if I do not do it, nobody will”;

• it is unclear where your zone ends and someone else’s begins, but they still ask you for it.

The main marker: constant tension, and the thought “I am supposed to match this, but the rules are unclear”.

✅ What to do

1. Ask for clarity, calmly and at once.

Not “who is to blame”, but “let us agree who is responsible for what”.

2. Write it down on one page.

That removes 80% of the arguments.

3. Find the overlaps and the zones that belong to nobody.

Often the problem is the map of roles, not the people.

4. If there is no clarity, propose your own.

Do not wait. Form it and get it agreed.

5. Keep other people’s boundaries the way you keep your own.

Otherwise the system does not work.

❤️ Why this is a step toward being all right

Many people put up with role ambiguity for years. They complain, they burn out, and they stay, like a dog sitting on a nail.

This matters: you create role clarity for yourself, not for the company.

When the role is clear:

• less rumination and less anxiety;

• easier to make decisions;

• easier to say “no” to what is extra;

• a base for growth appears.

We spend years at work. Clarity is not a privilege. It is a healthy professional standard.