The (A)dministrator - (pAei) style

Is (P)roducing results sufficient? No. What happens when the manager is an excellent (P)roducer of results: A knowledgeable achiever?

This person is so good, productive, diligent, reliable, that we reward him with a promotion.

But now, he is no longer merely a (P)roducer; he has to work with five or six or more other people, he must coordinate and delegate and control and oversee. Instead of (P)roducing by himself, he must make the system (P)roduce results. And that is a different task altogether. That’s why we need another role: To (A)dminister.

The (A) role is indispensable for good management. It is the role of (A)dministration to pay attention to details, to systematize the (P)roduction process so that a wheel does not have to be reinvented each time a wheel is needed, and to ensure that staff follows those systems and routines. (A)dministration ensures that the organization does what it was intended to do – efficiently. It moves the organization up the learning curve so it can capitalize on its memory and experience. It analyzes successes and programs them so that they can be repeated.

If you (P)roduce results, your organization will be effective. If you also (A)dminister, your organization will be efficient. If you (P) and (A), the organization will be both effective and efficient in the short run. And if it is effective and efficient in the short run, it will be profitable in the short run, if that is how you measure success.

Input	Throughput	Output
The roles	Make the organization	In the
(P)rovides for client needs	Functional; thus effective	short run
(A)dminister	Systemical; thus efficient	short run

If an individual is (P)roductive but lacks (A), he will be very disorganized. He will work hard – harder than necessary – but not intelligently. He will waste a lot of time reinventing the wheel.

The same applies to organizations. There are organizations that satisfy their clients’ needs but lack an organized (A)dministration. They have no system. Their management of the supply chain is atrocious; their salary administration is a patchwork of individual agreements; their recruitment processes and policies are haphazard. This company will be effective but inefficient. It will have growing sales with declining profits.

An American analogy for management is “running the railroad.” How do we run a railroad? First of all, we need the railroad engineer to (P)roduce results: That’s transportation. The engineer takes the train from station A to station B. Then we need someone to manage the engineers, making sure they get the train from station A to station B correctly and on time. The latter role, in companies, is called Operations. That is the (P) function of the railroad organization, which should be managed by a person with a strong (P) style.

If the railroad engineer does a bad job or if Operations do not perform, then the organization is going to be mismanaged and ineffective. The trains will not run; the need for transportation will not be satisfied.

But to run a profitable railroad organization, we also need supplies and money, collection and payment, and universally communicated timetables to get the right train to the right town at the designated time. Budgets must be adhered to, costs must be controlled, systems developed, and their implementation supervised. All this is the role of (A)dministration, which should be managed by a person whose style is compatible with the needs of this role.

Management style

This person has the capability and natural inclination to pay attention to detail, especially details of implementation. He is methodical and likes his environment to be well thought-out and organized. He thinks in a linear fashion.

When you have a business idea – especially a crazy one or one you are afraid might be crazy – you go to this manager to help cool your enthusiasm. She will think things through for you. She will ask you questions you hadn’t thought of. She will see all the pitfalls you didn’t consider. Give her a business plan to read and she will tear it apart.

And you will be grateful! It costs less and hurts less in the long run if problems are anticipated; either you can find ways to solve them before they become crises, or you can reject the plan as unworkable.

A good Administrator, or (A) type, can foresee the problems inherent in an idea. People have told me, about such executives, “He can find a hair in an egg while it is still in its shell,” and “He can smell a rat a mile away.” In psychological terms, the (A) role is best served by a person with a need to control; while the (P) role requires a person with the need to achieve.

If you trust him, then if your idea passes his scrutiny, you know you can do it. And should do it. And if it does not pass his scrutiny and you decide to do it anyway, at least you know ahead of time what risks you are taking.

A good (A)dministrator always knows what is going on. He cannot sleep if he doesn’t know what is going on. He keeps track of the details. He is well organized and concerned with follow-up and implementation. He has an excellent memory (or is fortified by systems, which means he does not have to rely only on his memory), and he works to see that the system operates as it was designed to operate.

The (A)dministrator is good at worrying, but he worries appropriately. He worries about precision, about integrity of information. He worries that the organization will lose its memory, its database, or its intellectual property.

A good (A)dministrator is indispensable to a growing organization. A young organization usually grows too fast and in too many directions, and can easily trip and fall on its face (i.e., go bankrupt) without even realizing that it’s been bankrupt for quite a while.

The good (A)dministrator protects your back. He keeps the gateway to the castle closed so that the enemy – chaos – cannot enter.

What he does not do is (P)roduce that for which the organization exists.

If you look up the word “administration” in a thesaurus, you will find that its synonym is “to serve.” (A)dministration serves those who (P)roduce; i.e., meet the needs of their clients. One (A)dministers for Chapter 2, The Functionalist View 55, someone, for something. In public service organizations, government (A)dministers for society, and those working in such organizations are called public (A)dministrators, or public servants. The need they (P)rovide for – their (P) – is (A)dministration; if the job is to be done efficiently, however, they must also (P)rovide (A).

A lawyer with a (pAei) style is the one you want to write up your contract. But do not ask him to be your trial lawyer. He will lose in court. He can write an agreement that is faultless, but if you have to sue, you’re much better off finding a creative, (paEi) lawyer who can interpret night as day and turn a liability into an asset.

The same is true for accountants. I need two: One to advise me on my taxes – the (paEi) type – and the other to file my taxes – the (pAei) type. If the (E) files the taxes, I might find myself in trouble for creative accounting. If (A) plans my taxes, I will probably pay more than necessary.

Let us turn now to the (E)ntrepreneuring role.