Top 5 Types Of Employers
Define the type of your employer and learn how to work with it. Or find yourself and your own type. What are you: producer of result, administrator, integrator, or entrepreneur? An expert in the field of the efficiency of enterprises improving Dr. Ichak Adizes for 35 years already studies the largest world's corporations. Despite the difference in politics, culture, education all the employers face the same kinds of problems.
Employees are not satisfied with their employer, because he demands too much and at the same time he does nothing at all and brings a company to the crisis. An employer is dissatisfied with the employees, because they are too lazy, all they do is drinking coffee or gossiping. The fact that company faces crisis is their fault. Dr. Ichak Adizes started to solve the problem of employers and employees and created perfect employer formula. Our resume service willingly shares the formula and its conclusions with you.
Formula for success
Regardless of the type of company, the head (employer) performs four main functions:
1) Result production. What to do to achieve short-term results.
2) Enterprising. Where and why to do something. The head defines the direction of company development.
3) Administration. How to do it.
4) Integration. Who does it. This is the company system of values that motivates employees to work together.
When an employer performs all four functions simultaneously, only in this case a company is successful. Also good employers know effective ways to save money that allow their companies to develop and grow. Now you know the secret formula, but there is one “but”: a man can not perform all the functions at the same time even if he / she has the features of a perfect boss.
It is hard to implement even two of four functions. If a child gets sick, a mother pay all her attention to it and does not have time to buy food, for example. The child’s health is much more important for her. The same happens to employers. They start performing only one function and turn into inefficient managers. Adizes examined the errors that each type of employers make and suggested the ways of their solution.
Type #1. Result producer
This employers type knows what and how to do to bring the work up to the end. He is aimed at the result, what is great for implementation of made decisions. However, decision making becomes a roadblock for a result producer. He does not accept long thinking over a problem and does not like dealing with strategic planning.
At the conferences while subordinates discuss the ways of a problem solving, result produces sleeps. He wakes up only when someone makes him a certain question which one of the two solutions to choose. Then result producer chooses more appropriate option and starts working. Alone.
Result producer does not recognize duties delegation, because he is the only person who makes it all quickly and correctly. Result producer works a lot, so recognition of his achievements is extremely important for him.
Kurt Herbert Adler worked as the artistic director of San Francisco Opera for 30 years. For the production of one of the operas he invited a director. At the rehearsal the director was giving orders to the performers and said the following phrase: “This is what you have to do in my opera”. Adler came up to the director behind, touched his shoulder and said: “No. In my opera”.
A result producer’s table is always littered with papers and he himself is always busy. Result producer works hard, as a bee, and complains that a day is too short. Subordinates of such an employer are often late for the work and loitering in the corridors with nothing to do. A result maker has no time to solve administrative issues.
What to do if you are a result producer:
- Before starting to implement the tasks, think whether it is really necessary.
- Make a list of tasks that only you can do. Give the rest to the subordinates.
- Think about the long-term results. Devote some time for planning the future of a company.
- Pay attention not only to the result, but also to the process.
What to do is your employer is a result producer:
- Say exactly how much time meeting or conference will take.
- At first start talking about important things, namely about the result. Only then explain briefly how you have achieved it.
- Get prepared for rush jobs. A result makes will definitely delegate the task to you when he realizes that he can not cope with it on his own. It usually happens at the last moment when time is running out.
- When you get a task, do it even if you do not understand what for.
Type #2. Administrator
System and documentation are main work elements of this type of an employer. An administrator perfectly organizes the work of other people. He clearly distributes the tasks among employees and monitors their implementation. He gives orders to the workers in written form.
If everything goes according to plan, administrator is calm. However, during the time of changes administrator falls into a stupor. He does not have instructions on how to act in terms of force majeure, so he follows the initial plan.
Administrator is careful, neat and meticulous, pays much attention to the appearance and demands the same from his colleagues. His desktop is a paradise for a perfectionist: pens are put according to the colors, paper is according to the size, and the keyboard is placed strictly parallel to monitor.
Unlike the result producer, administrator cares a lot of the process. He pays the process so much attention that he has no time to think of the result, without which business does not develop.
What to do if you are administrator:
- Deviate from the plan, take risks. It is necessary in the time of changes.
- Make a list of rules for each worker. Emphasize the rules, implementation of which will bring the result to a company. Do not judge strictly for the failure to comply with other rules.
- Examine each situation separately. Sometimes it is necessary to deviate from the plan to save a good employer or a company.
What to do if your boss is an administrator:
- Before starting to fulfill a task, coordinate the work plan with an administrator in the written form. Act strictly according to the plan.
- Reduce your rate of speech while conversation. An administrator does not perceive inconsistent, fussy information.
- Do not mix ideas and facts, administrator treats everything literally. Name the bare facts first and only then speak about your idea based on the facts.
Type # 3. Businessman (entrepreneur)
An entrepreneur is a charismatic leader. He is self-confident, he always have all the best: car, latest phone, apartment in a prestigious district. He is a star. Everyone recognizes this fact, beginning with a cleaning woman and ending with a company client.
Transformations are a driving factor of a businessman. He does not tolerate stagnation: if a company is profitable and successful, an entrepreneur looks for a new direction. A stable success is too boring for such a person. An entrepreneur is full of ideas, which he easily turns into successful business.
It is difficult to work with such a person. Priorities and interests of an entrepreneur constantly change. That is why he is always dissatisfied with the work of his employees. It seems to him that everything can be done better and in a new way. If an idea does not work out, an entrepreneur looks for someone to blame.
What to do if you are an entrepreneur:
- Do not hurry to announce every your idea to the employees. They will take it for a guide to action.
- Postpone the decision for a day: you will manage to cope with emotions and think over everything carefully.
- Let the workers say what they think. You hired professionals, and not spectators in the one-man show.
What to do if your boss in an entrepreneur:
- Let an entrepreneur take part in your project. He does not like when a worker does all work from the beginning till the end on his own.
- Speak about problems carefully, avoid words like “crisis”, “catastrophe”, “this is the end” and so on.
- When they give you a task, say how you understand it. An entrepreneur is full of ideas and can not formulate it clearly what he wants and you need to do.
Type #4. Integrator
Creative, sociable, a good friend, active and sensitive – these are five features of an integrator. He is always with people, takes part in personal processes of each worker. An integrator knows the name of your grandmother and how old your cat is.
A compromise is important for an integrator in business decision making. An integrator has his own mind, but he is afraid to express it. Only when everyone agrees with an idea, the work begins. A compromise search may last for weeks, but business requires quick actions.
What to do if you are an integrator:
- If you need to solve a problem, imagine that you are on an uninhabited island. You do not have advisors. The decision is up to you.
- Do not be afraid of critics. If someone does not share your mind, listen to this person. It is not necessary to follow his mind.
- Devote an hour to communication with the colleagues. The rest of the time devote to strategic issues of a company.
What to do if your employer is an integrator:
- Before suggesting a new project, discuss it with the team.
- If an integrator expresses his mind, support him at first. After that you may suggest how to improve the idea.
- Build relationships in a team. If you are against the team, you are against the integrator as well.
Type #5. Mixed type
This fifth of the employers types is a combination of several (usually two) above mentioned types. Such a “mixed” employer has the features of different types, for example, he can be a result producer and a businessman at the same time. But usually features of one type are expressed stronger and predominate. So the style of behaviour with such a person should be chosen according to what types he combines.
Applying in practice
Dr. Ichak Adizes is sure: one person is not able to combine all four types. That is why it is impossible to be a perfect employer. However, it is possible to become a good one. How to do it?
The first way is to define your own type and hire for work employees of other types. For example, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak is the perfect tandem. Jobs is an entrepreneur. He knew how a product should look like, what for and when it should be released on the market. But he did not know how to create the product. Engineer Steve Wozniak is a typical manufacturer (result producer). It was important for him to create something new, but he did not understand what for. If they had not met, then Jobs' brilliant ideas and Wozniak’s unique inventions would have never been brought to life. And we would have never heard about the legendary company Apple.
The second ways is more complicated and requires discipline. Now you know four functions of a perfect boss, presented by our service, but you are strong in one of them only. Make up the rules that will correspond to each of the weak functions and follow them systematically. Even if you are fully focused on one function, the rest will still work. It is not easy to create the rules, but it is possible. Rely on your own experience. They say that a person who has passed the career ladder from the beginning till the end has more chances to become a good employer and a good leader.