Rules Of Management

RULE 91 - Do one or two things well and avoid the rest

“The first 90 per cent of project takes 90 per cent of the time. The last 10 per cent takes the other 90 per cent of the time.”

Anonymous

The really good manager is a specialist. You can’t do everything. You can’t do everyone’s job. You can’t do more than a few things each day anyway. Best to pick your specialist subject, be really, really good at it and leave the rest to other people. In my company we have a clear demarcation of who does what. I try to do as little as possible. I figure the better a manager, the less you do; it’s all down to your powers of delegation.

“Best to pick your specialist subject, be really, really good at it and leave the rest to other people.”

So I stick to what I do best, which is basically talking to other managers. I don’t do sales but I do open doors for sales staff to walk through. I don’t do key accounts but I do set up contacts for our key account people to follow through. I don’t do accounts but I do oversee the accounting staff. My ‘one or two things’ is setting up meetings for my team to the do the business, and overseeing the overall style of the company – its branding, its corporate identity, its place in the market. I manage the company but I don’t do products. I know my limitations. I know what I am good at and what I am bad at. I’m lousy on detail, routine, order, regular everyday stuff. I am good on sudden, unorthodox, interesting, one-off, people-orientated projects. I don’t see what I am good at being better, nor do I see things I am bad at as being inferior. Quite the opposite in fact, I envy the ordered, those who can pay attention to detail, those who like to see a project through from beginning to end, those who empty in-trays and tidy desks.

What are good at? And bad? How would you best describe the one or two things you could do well?

posted by Right Ranger @ 9:37 PM