A good manager is a lazy manager.

Have you ever watched as a project manager from the very beginning constantly engaged in fire fighting, completely immersed in the fight against urgent problems, the rate of receipt of which exceeds the speed of their solution. All the tasks that the project team receives have the highest priority and urgency: “This should have been done yesterday!” Labor heroism. Permanent overtime. Saturday cleanup. Avraly. Training, analysis, planning, design, testing, refactoring - “it's all afterwards!”.

Familiar?

“A well-managed enterprise is a peaceful place. On the other hand, “a factory that is distinguished by its“ vigorous ”activity and“ labor heroism ”of workers, which any visitor catches in the eye, is in fact poorly managed,” wrote management authority Peter Ferdinand Drucker .
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The problem with most software development projects is not that people work very little, but that they do the wrong job to do. A good manager should be guided by the fundamental principle of least action and, therefore, be lazy. And he will succeed. Why?

Because he…

Has its own goals

To carry out the project on time, in the budget and with the required quality is not the goal, it is the work. Work work lazy manager laziness. He usually has personal goals. They can be material - increase in salary or position. They can be perfect - to learn new things, to do something that nobody has done before, or, finally, to make happy all of humanity. But they are.

And the main thing is that for him these goals are so significant that they allow him to maintain perseverance in their achievement from the beginning to the end of the project.

Manages priorities

A lazy manager has only two types of jobs. The first type is important and urgent: critical situations, problems, deadlines. The second type is important and not urgent: planning, risk analysis, search for opportunities, building relationships, development, recovery. Important are only those without which the goals can not be achieved. All other works, even if they are urgent for him are not important. He, like Michelangelo, cuts off all activities from the snowball of design work, without which you can do and achieve the goal.

In each project there are problems and critical situations that have the highest priority, which must be resolved right now. And it is hard work. But if you deal only with them, then there is a high probability that you will never reach important matters, but not urgent ones. Therefore, a lazy manager is proactive. Each day allocates a quantum of time for fire fighting and, of course, a quantum — important things, but not urgent ones. Anticipating problems, he gradually reduces the flow of burning tasks, which allows him to concentrate mainly on work in advance.

Delegates

Micromanagement is definitely not for him. Lazy manager does not like to work, so he delegates everything he can delegate. Delegates authority, but not responsibility for achieving goals. If Vasya is nosyachil, then - “I am a fool myself, that I entrusted this order to him,” the lazy manager concludes. Delegation is impossible without mutual trust. The one to whom the leadership has been delegated becomes his own boss, driven by his own conscience towards achieving the agreed desired results. Trust takes time and patience, the need to train and develop people, so that their abilities can match this trust. But having made these one-time investments in human capital, we will then be able to receive dividends for a long time.

Sharpening saw

You can, of course, cut wood and stupid saw, but lazy. Therefore, a lazy manager constantly monitors and evaluates the effectiveness of all project processes: “what do we do too much?”, “What can be done easier?”, “What threatens the project?”. Works to reduce unnecessary effort, instead of striving for new heroic victories. Identifies bottlenecks and applies corrective actions where processes begin to slip or the risks are too great.

Builds relationships

A lazy manager is more kind than evil. Evil to be troublesome ...

A lazy manager tries to accept people as they are, respects their right to their own opinion and to make a mistake. He selects the team of people most relevant to the objectives of the project. For each fighter is looking for the most suitable task for him. He patiently works with each member of the project team, helping his development, guarding against external and internal shocks, in order to maximize his individual abilities, increase the contribution to the common cause.

But this does not mean that it can not be angry. He bellows in such a way that he will not find it. Or just fired nafig. Only for this you need to do a lot more effort than a workaholic manager.

"What goes around comes around". Neglect of people will only generate reciprocal neglect. Having invested a part of your soul in people, you get a hundredfold.

Bill Gates said:

I will always choose a lazy person to do a difficult job, because he will find an easy way to do it .

Something like this…