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What are the Different Coordinator Responsibilities?

Erin J. Hill
Erin J. Hill

Coordinator responsibilities can include planning, directing, implementing, and strategizing projects, marketing campaigns, and the development of goods and services. There are various kinds of coordinators, ranging from product coordinators to human resource coordinators. Each sub-field, however, has the similar task of coordinating their given areas of expertise.

To coordinate means to plan and direct something which involves numerous people or parts, and bring it together as a whole. For example, a marketing campaign may include market research, development, sales, and advertising projects. Each of these things must be implemented simultaneously in order to achieve the common goal of developing and selling a product to consumers. Coordinator responsibilities for this overall task would include the overseeing and directing of each of these separate departments.

Coordinators often manage communications between different departments or organizations.
Coordinators often manage communications between different departments or organizations.

Common coordinator responsibilities are the direction of people. Whether in a marketing campaign or in the stocking and ordering of new goods, many teams of people are often needed to complete a task. The coordinator would check in with each team leader to ensure that they are performing well. He may also conduct meetings with several teams at once to discuss common goals and to develop ideas for achieving them.

Coordinators may oversee product distribution operations.
Coordinators may oversee product distribution operations.

Since coordinator responsibilities are so varied and numerous, many companies have several coordinators who work under a central supervisor. This allows projects to be broken down into small, more manageable, pieces. For example, there may be separate coordinators for sales, advertising, and development. Each of them would work under an upper level supervisor or coordinator.

Events coordinators may be responsible for securing parking for a particular event.
Events coordinators may be responsible for securing parking for a particular event.

In order to enter this challenging field and undertake all the coordinator responsibilities that come with it, one must be well-organized and aggressive. Being able to plan and direct more than one thing at once is a must, as well as the ability to work well with others in a team environment. Since coordinators handle large projects, dozens of professionals must come together in order to make the assignment a success.

An administrative coordinator may be required to work on many project details at once.
An administrative coordinator may be required to work on many project details at once.

Most coordinators have at least a four-year college degree, although this may not be the only way to enter the career field. Those who have the necessary qualities may be able to start in a lower level position and work their way up to the coordinator role. This career path works best for those who have a proven track record in a specific field, such as sales. The most important attribute for any aspiring coordinator is the willingness to work hard.

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Discussion Comments

Charred

@allenJo - I don’t think they need to step on any toes. The coordinator is there to make everyone’s job easier. It just depends on their specific job function.

I worked as a training coordinator for a company once, and I had to compile a list of company courses, and schedule trainers and classroom instruction dates.

I had to email other employees to find out when their best availability would be to meet for training, as people had meetings sometime or had vacation scheduled.

It wasn’t a big deal. Yes, I had to be aggressive but I don’t think I annoyed anyone. If feathers did get ruffled I would just punt back to my manager, and he would make a few phone calls to smooth things over.

allenJo

In addition to being an organized person who’s addicted to their day planner, I would think that a project coordinator would need a certain degree of tact or diplomacy to balance their aggressiveness.

I’ve met some of these coordinators in the past and their approach simply turned me off. You have to realize that while you think your job is important, my job is important too.

I have people that I report to.

Sometimes the project coordinator has to walk a delicate balance between knowing how to get what they want, while ensuring that the departmental employees continue to be productive and deliver to their own bosses the kinds of results that they expect for their assignments. That’s just my two cents.

Mammmood

In our company we have an administrative assistant, which is basically a coordinator type of role. She assists the general manager in scheduling important meetings, organizing paperwork and entering sales contact information into contact management programs, scheduling travel, and functioning as a kind of project manager.

That is to say, she gets a list of tasks from the general manager and then meets with different departments to see where they are in their completion on these tasks.

I think this role would vary from company to company, but these administrative assistant responsibilities would be fairly common I would think.

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    • Coordinators often manage communications between different departments or organizations.
      By: BlueSkyImages
      Coordinators often manage communications between different departments or organizations.
    • Coordinators may oversee product distribution operations.
      By: Gale Distler
      Coordinators may oversee product distribution operations.
    • Events coordinators may be responsible for securing parking for a particular event.
      By: Marc Xavier
      Events coordinators may be responsible for securing parking for a particular event.
    • An administrative coordinator may be required to work on many project details at once.
      By: corepics
      An administrative coordinator may be required to work on many project details at once.
    • Project coordinators can be found in the engineering, construction and information technology industries.
      By: mavil
      Project coordinators can be found in the engineering, construction and information technology industries.