Dealing With an (A) – An (A)dministrator or Bureaucrat

What is his way? Well, the (A) type is more interested in the how than in the what. He confuses form with function, so you have to pay enormous attention to the form. He doesn’t care if something is a crisis or not. He cares about whether you are following the correct procedure.

If you want to grab an (A)’s attention, you must show him that your problem is actually a violation of something that had previously been agreed upon: “A rule has been broken. We agreed, and guess what? They are not doing what we agreed upon. It’s not working right.” The word “right” is important.

Then, to prove the validity of your proposed solution, bring as many pages as you can write – the more, the better – with lots of details and footnotes. Show him that your solution has been approved by all the luminaries and the gurus; that it’s been tried before, and that there is no risk. Finally, end your presentation with a sentence that goes something like this: “This is my recommendation, and if it does not work I will take full responsibility for it.”

Basically, an (A) wants to avoid risk. When a problem arises, the first thing you have to do is find a way in which the problem can be interpreted as a deviation; otherwise the (A) will not want to risk making any changes. Then, of course, your solution should also have no risk. If you can frame the problem as a transgression against the established code, and the solution as no risk, the (A) will have no reason to object and will probably tell you, “Fine, go ahead and do it.”

How do you handle an (A) under ordinary circumstances, in your day-to-day meetings and communications when there is no urgent matter to be dealt with? You must follow a protocol.

When you need to meet with an (A), always ask for an appointment. Don’t surprise him. If you do, you’ll lose the first half hour of the meeting because he won’t be listening; he’ll be obsessing about how you’ve caught him unprepared.

Next: Use your “bias multiple.” That is the term I use to measure and compensate for each style’s idiosyncratic view of time. For instance, (E)s and (P)s move fast, while (A)s and (I)s can be very deliberate, even plodding, in their actions.

I have found that as an (E), my own bias multiple is six. When I tell my subordinates, “We can do this in an hour,” how long does it really take? Six hours. If I tell them, “Ah, we can do that in a week,” how long will it take? Six weeks.

I suggested earlier that we think of an (E) as an eagle, up in the sky: With one move of his wings he can cover half a mile down on the ground. In fact, the higher up in the clouds that (E) is, the smaller his movements have to be to cover the same amount of ground.

But for the people on the ground, traversing that same territory might entail going up and down canyons, mountains, and rocks; and it might take many hours. An (E) tends to overlook that fact, which is why it’s important to remember the bias multiple.

So, if you are a (P) or an (E), and you need to meet with an (A)dministrator for what you estimate will be half an hour, you’d better call and say, “I need a meeting with you hmm hmmm hm ….for three hours.” Why? Your tendency will be to say: “I need to see you for half an hour” but you should stop and calculate your bias multiple. An (A) would be infuriated by a manager who asks for half an hour and then stays for three hours. You must ask for a specific amount of time, and you must keep to that schedule. It is better to leave a meeting with an (A) early than to stay overtime.

Next: When you schedule the appointment, you should also make sure to tell the (A) what the agenda of the meeting is to be, so that he has time to prepare himself.

The next step, before the meeting, is to prepare yourself. How? By breathing. Deep, slow, breathing. The more relaxed you are, the more slowly you’ll make your presentation and the more chance you’ll have of being understood. In addition, the more relaxed you are, the better your decisions will be, because you’ll be more aware of what your gut is telling you.

When you slow down, you can also be more observant of the person you are talking to. Watch his eyes, his eyebrows, his hand movements. Watch his body and synchronize what he says with how he says it. Body language can be the key that unlocks the meaning of what someone is trying to say. But you won’t notice it if you are rushing. In order to become more observant, you need to slow down. And that means deep, slow breathing.

(E)ntrepreneurs and (P)roducers are not very good at breathing; they’re always running out of breath. Why? Because they’re going full speed ahead – all the time. In countries like Mexico, they joke that in an argument, the first one who stops to take a breath is the loser. It can be amusing, but it’s not the most effective way to make your point, is it? The most important technique for (P)roducers and (E)ntrepreneurs to learn – especially when dealing with (A)dministrators and (I)ntegrators – is to slow down.

Even before you reach the (A)’s office, slow down – physically, literally, slow down. Take deep breaths. Consciously do it in the corridor as you’re on your way to the meeting, because your natural tendency when you’re excited or under stress is to speed up. The (A), waiting for you in his office, is moving at his usual speed of one mile an hour, and if you don’t slow down you’re going to careen into him at 150 miles an hour, which won’t be good for either of you.

Another reason why it’s crucial to slow down to his speed is that for every one of your ideas, the (A) is going to think of ten or even a hundred ramifications. He needs time to process that information. So slow down.

Begin the meeting by telling him again what you are there to discuss. Confirm your agenda. Again, no surprises.

Next: Begin with item no. 1. (It’s important to go in order, with the first item on your agenda broached first.) As you present it to him, it’s very important to watch his eyes: When his eyes go “out to lunch,” that means he’s not listening anymore. He’s thinking. What is he thinking about? The repercussions of your idea. Who is he listening to when his eyes are out to lunch? To himself. Is he listening to you? No.

What should you do while he’s listening to himself? Stop talking. Stop talking! This is very difficult for an (E)ntrepreneur, I know. But it’s crucial to wait until the (A) has finished processing the information he has before you continue.

What should you do while you’re quiet? If you’re an (E), three hundred new ideas will have crowded into your mind while you waited, and you’ll want to say them before you forget them. Don’t. Write them on a piece of paper. You can get to it later. Once you write them down, you will immediately feel calmer, because you’ll know you can go back to them any time you want. You will not have to over-burden the person you’re talking to.

What happens when the (A)dministrator comes back from “lunch?” Usually, he will have a question. And what will that question be? It will be about some detail of implementation, which, especially if you are an (E)ntrepreneur, will probably upset you: Here you are trying to deal with the big picture, and here is this (A) type asking you about totally irrelevant little details.

Don’t get upset. That is him and you are not going to change him. Take another deep breath and then acknowledge the question: "Good question; let me write it down.” Even better, write it on a flip chart, so the (A) can see that you respect his question and are not ignoring it. Copy it down and say, “Thank you. Great question. I would like to address it later, when I finish my presentation, if you don’t mind, so that it can be discussed in the full context of what I am presenting.” This serves two purposes: First, the (A) will understand that you’re acknowledging his concerns; and second, you will not feel as if you’re being sidetracked.

Continue with your presentation until the next time his eyes go out to lunch. Then stop again. Take a deep breath. Wait. Acknowledge his question when it comes up. Write it down. Continue with the big picture.

What you are doing, in effect, is presenting the what and why before you address the how, or the repercussions of implementation.

When you finish explaining the big picture, summarize it for the (A), making sure he understands it, and conclude, “Now let me address your questions.” Then it’s time to deal with the details, one by one by one. In this process the (A) can not veto your idea, or even argue against it, until he knows what it is; thus, you must not be drawn into discussing the how until you’ve communicated the what and the why.

If you’re ready with answers to the (A)’s questions then and there, go ahead and answer them. But beware: If you are not absolutely sure of your answer, it would be better to ask for time to consider. Make another appointment to come back and present your answers.

Honestly addressing the (A)’s concerns might mean that you will have to change your original recommendation. So be it. If that is what happens, the important thing to remember is that by giving yourself extra time to reconsider the details, you avoided making some major mistake. Be thankful.

How long should you stay in a meeting with an (A)? Only the length of the time that was allocated to you. Don’t say, “Ten more minutes, just ten more minutes and we’ll be finished.” Because that’s when you start rushing, and the worst mistakes are usually made in the last ten minutes of an extended meeting.

If you’re an (E) type, it will be very difficult for you to stop in mid course. It is almost like coitus interaptus. But remember: Management is about selling ideas. And you’re not selling them to yourself, you’re selling them to somebody else. You must communicate to an (A) in a way he can understand you, if you want him to buy what you are saying.

There is one more important point to remember when communicating with an (A), especially if you yourself are an (E).

For an (E), numbers tend not to be meant literally. They’re really only a magnitude. Thus, an (E) might say, “We sold a million,” when he really means a million more or less – somewhere between half a million and a million and a half.

Now for an (A), a million is exactly a million. If it is 999,999, then it’s not a million. This is a huge issue between (E)s and (A)s; it’s one of the main reasons that (A)s mistrust (E)s. The (A) thinks, “That guy – you really don’t know what he’s saying. His word is not his word. He says, ‘I need to talk to you for half an hour’; then he comes half an hour late and stays for three hours. To him, numbers, time, words have no meaning. He’s full of hot air, and I don’t trust him!”

When you are talking to an (A), remember that they are very literal-minded, and try to honor that. Be careful not to confuse ideas with facts, because if you refer to something as if it is fact when it isn’t, as soon as the (A) catches your mistake, you’re dead. He won’t trust you anymore, and he will dismiss everything else you’ve said as if it has no value.