80/20 Manager by Richard Koch

In this continuation, we will be exploring the next two types of managers

In case you have missed the previous two chapters, the links are at the bottom of this article.

There are ten types of 80/20 managers written in his book.

1. The Investigating Manager
2. The Superconnecting Manager
3. The Mentoring Manager
4. The Leveraged Manager
5. The Simplifying Manager
6. The Liberating Manager
7. The Manager seeking meaning
8. The Time-rich Manager
9. The The Lazy Manager
10. The Strategic Manager

We will be discussing on the Mentoring Manager and The Leveraged Manager today; specifically on how they can be a solution during this pandemic (COVID-19).

The Mentoring Manager

As the name suggest, this manager mentors and shares experiences, processes by understanding the person from a personal level.

There are three types of people to be mentored:

1. Those awaiting a mentor to lead them or guide them
2. Those who are doing well
3. Those who might be slipping off soon

To be a mentoring manager, the manager will first need to have his own mentor. This shows that the mentor has someone to check and balance for progress and growth, as most times we tend to want to be like our mentors. Mentoring managers take full responsibility in wanting to grow someone.

Mentoring Manager during COVID-19

During this period, there are many people out there who are in need of a mentor to guide them well. If you are a leader and have people working under you, what are the steps you will be taking to guide them during this period?

1. How will you mentor those waiting for a mentor?These people usually are positive but might not be focused. By creating a focus for them and giving them a vision, they might be able to see their potential and grow even bigger.
2. Who are the people doing well in your organisation?Why would they need a mentor? The reason is similar to why you as a mentor, will need a mentor too. This will help to create check and balance with the individual. No one is perfect; by creating the opportunity to mentor someone who already is doing well will prevent them from hitting a ceiling as there is always room to move forward. You will play the role of creating the flow theory for this person – knowing their skills to push them towards certain challenges.
3. For those slipping off, it will be good to understand why and how you can help. Not everyone will follow through an organisation especially during change. Just because someone leaves the organisation does not mean you cannot be a mentor still. Remember everyone who left the organisation have automatically become an acquaintance that will help with your superconnecting ability.

The Leveraged Manager

You can use as many levers as you can to be a leveraged leader.  In this case, a “lever” is an essential tool that can multiply the output of your input and therefore helps you to produce exceptional effects by constant effort.

Here are the seven levers that yield excellent results:

1. Caring and the subconscious force

When you genuinely and deeply care about something, the subconscious force might be strong enough to lead you to new ideas and thoughts – this might eventually lead you to breakthroughs or help solve a critical problem.

2. Confidence

Confidence can produce an area of super positive momentum, life-saving strength, the creativity that defies the impossible.

3. Ideas

Every company starts with a plan – it can be built on any concepts or framework but it must start off as a positive idea for the company to succeed.

4. Decisions

Without decisions, we fly rudderless on the sea of life. If we are decisive, then we will be through. When we are indecisive, we will never. Focus on making the few critical decisions that could change your business and life, and hang the rest.

5. Trust

The essence of trust is that you rely on outcomes, not inputs, and encourage your people to do the same thing. A loss of trust requires continuous attention, which makes it appallingly inefficient. The 80/20 solution is the antithesis.

6. People

Spend whatever resources, time, energy, and persuasion is required to attract the industry’s best. Recruiting the right staff is almost as critical as retaining, or perhaps more so, the right clients.

7. Money

You can afford to dream big because the funding for the project comes from the client, as a planner with a good idea. If the plan is going to take off, so you can. When this happens, the money does not have to be paid back. Launch bigger ventures.

Leveraged Manager during COVID-19

1.  Caring and the subconscious force

In order to exercise the first lever and to get into the subconscious force, one must take ownership of the organisation’s situation at hand. If everyone thinks that someone will be solving the problems, no one will. Eventually the highest ranking person in the organisation will have to be the one making all the tough decisions. Sometimes during tough times, everyone starts to look at the CEOs as if they have some kind of a magic wand that could just change the situation almost immediately. The biggest difference between the staff and a business owner, especially in SME (Small Medium Enterprise) will be the ownership the business owner has over the situation compared to the staff. For the staff, this is their monthly salary but for the business owner this could mean closing down the entire dream that has been build. Once a company employee starts to have ownership over the organisation, there are many considerations and perspectives that will start to come forward.

2. Confidence

Confidence in a manager especially during testing times gives a sense of assurance to the people following. This confidence builds trust with the followers, and although the situation might look bleak everyone will listen and do everything that has been told.  

3. Ideas

During this time, it is critical to constantly fight the fire. However, it is also crucial to think about what is next? What happens once the fire has been put out? If you could think of ideas on what the organisation can be heading towards next, you will be leading your market. Every time the market goes into such situations, every organisation that comes out of it will restart on a clean slate. This means that companies are given opportunity to catch up and for those leading companies to find solution to keep at the front.

4. Decisions

Leaders are trusted upon on making the right decision that does not jeopardise the entire organisations. Strategic planning is especially tough during this period as everything is unclear. However, it is critical to make decisions for a clearer vision and direction for the organisation. With this, employees will be more focused and more motivated to work towards it. Leaders who have identified the right decisions and act upon it, will be ahead of the rest in the market race.

5. Trust

During this period, many organisations have shifted to ‘Work From Home’ and many leaders are finding it extremely hard to keep control over their employees. They are unsure if their team is effectively productive. However, if the leaders can put that aside and come up with a set of measureable target for the team to work on, it could put both the leaders and employees at ease. In other words, leaders should trust that employees have their ownership to achieve their target – to concentrate on the outcome instead of the input; to look at the results rather than the process.

6. People

Staff and clients are equally important. Many of us would have now seen the true transformational staff. During this period there will be three types of people

Transitional –This group of people could be waiting for the situation to be over, waiting for bonus or waiting for the HR from the other company to give a green light before they leave the organisation. They are highly disengaged and may sometimes be actively influencing others to be like them.

Transactional – This group of individuals will find ways and means to do less during their time. They would sit in office and do nothing and still expect the full salary at the end of the month. They would only work when they see that they are being noted and appraised. Their working style will be “Give first before you get”, rather than “Let me give first and I trust the organisation will give me back something bigger when we are better”.

Transformational – This is the group of people are critical in the organisation. They work hard and ensure that they do everything possible to change the situation. They do not mind job restricting as long as it involves in the transformation of the organisation. They are always positive and want to achieve something.

It will be good to identify who your people are and ask yourself how you will like to move forward with this group of people. All of them can become transformational – there might be something lacking for the transitional group and there might be trust issues with the transactional group. If this two can be solved, the organisation might have just created a team of transformational individuals – imagine the possibilities.

7. Money

If we are confident enough to understand this concept, we can create many different ideas. The point is, every idea we generate or invent we want the clients to buy it. So no matter how big the idea is or how expensive, if during this period they are willing to buy the idea there is no harm in changing the direction to get it done.

Stay tune to the next Chapter, Part Four: Becoming an 80/20 Manager – The Simplifying Manager and The Liberating Manager

In the previous chapters:

Chapter 1: Overcoming this pandemic by being effectively productive. (http://www.focusadventure.com/overcoming-this-pandemic-covid-19-by-being-effectively-productive/)

Chapter 2: Part Two: Becoming an 80/20 Manager – The Investigating Manager & The Superconnecting Manager (http://www.focusadventure.com/part-two-becoming-an-8020-manager-the-investigating-manager-the-superconnecting-manager/)