You’ll stay disappointed in others, without this one skill

Posted by John Prendergast

2 min Read

You’ll stay disappointed in others, without this one skill

Entrepreneurs, Advisors, Side hustlers (works for all)

You delegated a task to an employee, a contractor, a partner

→ And for
→ The 100th time
→ You’re disappointed.

You had to get involved, take over, or have them do it again.

→ Sometimes you
→ Even do it
→ Yourself.

WTF? Why can’t I find someone reliable?

→ But maybe,
→ Just maybe
→ It’s you.

Stay with me now. It’s not JUST you. But you have a roll to play.

→ And you’ve got way
→ More influence
→ Then you think.

But only if you develop this one, key management skill.

→ It comes from
→ Andy Grove
→ Of Intel.

This transformed my leadership and the 100s I’ve coached.

→ You must adapt your style
→ Of management based on your
→ Colleague’s Task-Relevant-Maturity(TRM).

Stay with me even if think you know this.

→ Basically, it means we should
→ Adjust our approach based on how
→ Experienced someone is at THE TASK.

NOT how experienced the PERSON is.

→ So someone with 2 years experience
→ Who has done something
→ 100 times.

Is more mature than:
↳ Someone with 20 years experience
↳ Who has done something
↳ 10 times.

The above is worth repeating to yourself because in practice it can feel weird.

I think of TRM level as:
↳ How close is someone to being able to do something
↳ On their own, with no guidance, flawlessly
↳ Even with a little ambiguity.

So your management approach has to flex to match a person’s TRM level.

This means:
↳ High TRM level = Delegate as usual
↳ Med TRM level = Hands-on check-ins early/often
↳ Low TRM level = You are teaching/mentoring

If you learn to do this you will
↳ Reduce disappointment
↳ Develop your team
↳ Win more.

Have you ever tried managing based on TRM? How’d it go?

John is the co-founder and CEO of Blueleaf and is an active startup advisor. He is also an experienced entrepreneur and senior executive. As part of 6 founding teams, he has led the product management, marketing, and finance functions. His background in banking and wealth management has shaped the vision for Blueleaf.

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