⚰️ Avoid the Second Death
🏷️ Manager in Title Only
🪤 Rule of 90-90
⚰️ Avoid the Second Death
When you declutter, you tend to give items with sentimental value a “second death.”
The first step is to box it away. You may not need it anymore, but you’re not ready to get rid of it. It goes in a closet, the basement, or storage.
Then you move or do another round of decluttering a few years later. The sentimental value has declined, and you’re now free to release it, giving it its “second death.”
In business, we tend to two step a lot of decisions, creating a second death:
- Instead of terminating an employee, they are shuffled around the organization, making it someone else’s problem.
- Instead of scrapping old equipment, they are moved around the warehouse or yard because they may be useful later.
- Instead of sunsetting a declining product or service, you expand the portfolio and try to broaden the brand.
Those decisions are often small and easy to ignore, but they are a drag on the organization. Eventually you notice it:
- A yard full of rusted out and antiquated equipment;
- A warehouse full of old product;
- A culture of tolerating poor performers;
- A brand you can’t explain because it’s stretched so thin.
As you make decisions, consider if you will have to revisit it later. When you can, avoid a second death. Make the final decision first.
🏷️ Manager in Title Only
Many people fall into management roles with little to no management expertise. They were the top performers or the most senior employees who got a title, but now it’s a problem.
When you have managers who are ineffective at managing people, the costs add up: low morale, poor productivity, and employee turnover. The work can get done, but the team constantly struggles to keep up, let alone move forward.
A manager-in-title-only is not a self-correcting issue. You have two options:
- Develop their missing people management skills; or
- Transition them back to an individual contributor role.
Start with an assessment: Do they want to be a people manager? Is this something they identify with and want to develop?
Quite frequently, the answer is no. According to Gartner, one in four managers would prefer not to be people managers. That’s ironic, considering their title is “manager.”
If someone loves the work, but not procuring results through others, don’t fight it. It may hurt their ego, but demote them or move them into a role that better aligns with their wants and capabilities.
For the managers that truly want to level up and learn how to become productive people managers, they may have the most humbling task of all: learning how to manage.
What makes the journey so humbling is acknowledging that management is an underdeveloped skill. The individual may be great at the job, but they are a rookie at leading people.
📊 One Stat to Watch
20%
Managers who focus on performance first are 20% more likely to meet their performance goals, according to Gartner.
🪤 Rule of 90-90
A dirty little secret I learned writing books is when it feels like you’re 90% complete, you have 90% more to go.
This is known as the 90-90 Rule. It states, “The first 90% of a project takes 90% of the time, and the last 10% takes the other 90% of the time.”
So many projects are started with the best of intentions, but never get completed. From product launches to software implementations to process improvements. It’s a graveyard of unfinished projects.
You got through the first 90%, but didn’t realize you had another 90% to get it over the finish line.
How many projects do you have stuck at 90%? Pick one or two, and commit to getting them completed. You may have underestimated the second 90%, but you can resize and replan to make sure you get these shipped, ideally before year-end.
🤔 Thoughts on Today’s Issue?
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