Position Card

Most companies have never written down what a position actually does. The work lives in one person’s head, so nobody else can pick it up — and telling somebody “you’re the backup” changes nothing, because they still have no idea what they would be walking into. A Position Card fixes that in one page: what the position is for, the five things it actually does, the numbers it is judged on, and the decisions it can make without asking you. Once that exists, a backup is a real answer instead of a name on a list.

Write the card for the position, not for whoever happens to sit in it today. That is the whole trick. A card built around a person describes a person; a card built around a position outlives them, and it lets you ask the only question that matters — could somebody else run this? The starter is whoever owns the position now. The backup is whoever could genuinely run it if the starter were gone for three weeks. If that second line is blank, the position is exposed, and the count of exposed positions is your Exposure Score.

1. Name the position and its purpose in one sentence. What does the business need from this seat? Not the person’s history — the point of the position.
2. Write the five jobs. The five things this position is actually responsible for. If you need fifteen, it is two positions.
3. Set one to four stats. The numbers that say whether the position is winning. No stat means no way to tell.
4. List the audibles. The calls this position can make on its own, without checking with you. This is where most leaders find out how much still routes through them.
5. Fill the depth: starter, backup, developing. Then hand the card to the starter and ask the honest question — could the backup run this? Where the answer is no, you have found the work.