Easiest Way to Fix Any Problem As a Manager

The Investigating Manager

What do you do when you know you have a problem but don’t know how to fix it?

Investigate what’s wrong.

Let’s say you have a company that sells products which, after many years of decent profits has been loosing money and market share during the last year; what do you do?

A quick tour of the warehouse will provide you with clues, a visual idea of which are the products that move and which are the ones that don’t and most likely you will notice that the 80/20 hypothesis applies: only 20 % or less are products of high rotation while the remaining 80% are not.  A deeper investigation will most likely also prove that only 20% of your customers account for 80% or more of your total sales. Find out which products sell the most and what those 20% of customers are looking for in order to solve the problem.

What makes this type of Manager successful?  ASK QUESTIONS

Questions enable people to piece together connections which enables them to understand how they fit into the big picture.  The right answers depend on the number and quality of questions asked and the determination involved in the process. The process is called INVESTIGATIVE THINKING: do not automatically believe what everyone else believes or accept everything you are told – question, investigate and understand.

In general, the most pertinent business related questions are:

• Are a few products or customers super profitable?
• Who are you main customers, what makes them different, what do they expect?
• What are you most profitable product lines, which are not?
• What is your firm’s core, which activities are extraordinarily important and give the business its reason to exist?

However, a successful investigative manager needs to turn their microscope on more than just the firm and its products and ask a series of some more personal 80/20 questions:

• What single powerful idea will turbo-charge my business … and my career?

There are an infinite number of ideas in the world; however, investigate only those that have been successful elsewhere – in another country or another firm and then choose the one that has the best chance of making an enormous impact.

• Who might sponsor the idea?

Make sure you have the support of decision makers.

• Who is achieving great results and how?

Look for successful people, learn their methods and achieve similar results.

• How do I achieve significant improvement?

Don’t look only for improvement but rather aim for significant improvement.

• How can I achieve much more with less?

Results matter more than the effort to achieve them.

• What is holding me back?

There are many reasons for success, but there are usually only one or two principal reasons for personal failure – IDENTIFY THEM.  Is it lack of confidence or knowledge? or is it overwhelming workload, the boss or the organization?  -   what is holding you back?  Be honest.

How to Use Liberation to Increase Employee Engagement

A Liberating Manager must be utterly honest with his people – supportive and friendly yet very demanding.

Liberation requires total honesty and openness from both the manager and the people. In some cases, this philosophy is not for everyone and it is not even possible to practice in some organizations.

A Liberating Manager creates friendship, honesty and trust. You will be more successful if you rule by trust instead of fear.

A fear based culture is all about money, so people are willing to negate themselves. Many organizations have been based on power, fear and tight supervision which negates liberation. It worked well in traditional, predictable and slow-changing industries, but does not in today’s knowledge based industries.

Liberation makes people behave exactly as who they are and not as who they are expected to be – it makes people more engaged, positive, creative and productive.

As a Manager you need to liberate them to achieve their full potential, which means, identifying their outstanding personal attributes; then, encourage them to deploy these skills in ways that will benefit the team and the company. However, it is important that a Liberating Manager insists that their team works hard, not in terms of time or incessantly, but in imagination and determination. 

In essence, a Liberating Manager builds a culture (business culture) of trust and opens the door for creativeness.

How to Find Meaning As a Manager

Nothing is more important than achieving meaning in your life.

Meaning derives from achievement, from creating something or performing a task or deed that comes from your own self and talent.

Money and entertainment are only substitutes; and as much as we might think it creates happiness, it doesn’t.  Happiness is a by-product of leading a life with meaning.

Anything you are good at contributes to happiness.

As a Manager, in order to give meaning to your life you have to make the most of your inner potential – your contribution to the organization is what will provide you with meaning within that organization.

In today’s business world, Businesses require Managers who make the most of what is unique within them. It requires Managers who seek meaning in their work. It’s only when you “do your own thing” in a disciplined and creative way that meaning becomes reality.

The 80/20 principle relates to Meaning in the sense that a small minority are the ones who possess a higher individual imagination, creativity, personality and unique skills. One particularly talented executive can have hundreds of times more impact than another.

Everything in business is a commodity:  money, hard work, loyalty, degrees, etc. Everything in general is a commodity except individual inspiration and innovation.

In order to find meaning as a Manager:

• The field in which you work must turn you on
• The job must give you new and rewarding knowledge
• The job must allow you to perform you true potential
• The firm must inspire you rather than rule you
• Mutual like of your colleagues and bosses
• The firm must be going places