Monday, April 30, 2007

Intelligent and Lazy? Then You Need To Be Promoted!

One of my favorite books is the 80 / 20 Principle by Richard Koch. The book applies the well-known Pareto principle to various business and career situations.

In the book, the author talks about the 'Von Manstein matrix' which looks like the figure below:


The idea is that people who are 'stupid' and hard-working create more work for themselves and for everybody else around them. We've all known someone in our lives who works on weekends and expects his subordinates to also sacrifice their personal time. Beware of such people. They find devious ways to look busy and act busy. They create new projects and feel good only when they have a cluttered looking desk and busy calendar.

On the other hand, you have managers who appear to be relaxed, confident and almost lazy. They look for things that they can cut out of their lives and projects that they can shut down for their employers. They hire fewer people and embark on fewer projects. The few activities that they do undertake, they undertake with a passion, zeal and committment of the highest order. Align yourself with such people ... the ones who are intelligent and lazy. The ones who know how to prioritize and pick the vital activities.

Cultivate your own laziness. It's not as bad as people make it out to be. Take a day off from work to do nothing. Leave work early one day. And refuse to work on the weekends unless absolutely necessary. And after you think you've mastered the art of laziness, go ahead and ask for a raise.

Good luck and happy lazing!

5 comments:

ononotagain said...

When I saw pareto principle, I thought it was a typo. The PETER principle can also apply here. Whereas a person is promoted until he reaches his peak level of incompetency. look it up, you will be amused that we older generation already knew this stuff. great blog, by the way. Mine is BATTTLER.

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