RULE 97

Do one or two things well and avoid the rest

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 very 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.

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 people to follow through, and I do oversee the accounting staff. My ‘one or two things’ is setting up meetings for my team to 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 as being better, nor do I see the 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 with empty in-trays and tidy desks.

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