Businesses revolve around two complementary skill sets: Implementation and Enabling.
Implementors are the people who get things done. They create, shape, cut, refine, prototype, iterate, program, design, manufacture, and ship. They are the craftsmen that create something worth selling.
Enablers are the people who help the implementors focus on implementing. They make sure all of the implementors are working towards the same end result and deal with things that take time away from creating. They are the leaders, managers, and assistants who keep the business side of things running.
Having a mix of implementors and enablers is a very good thing. Implementors can exist without enablers, but they won’t be very efficient. It’s hard to do a good job creating something when you have to worry about calculating payroll taxes. Enablers can’t exist without implementors, since no business can exist for long without something to sell. Leadership and management are worthless without a team of people creating something.
The prevailing business culture seems to emphasize enabling over leading, and that’s a shame. The highly-visible CEO and executive team gets the glory, while the people who get things done behind the scenes are largely forgotten, both in glory and pay. That’s a travesty – neither could exist without the other.
3 Things to Keep In Mind If You’re an Implementor
- Enablers have a difficult job – getting everyone on the same page and working in the right direction is as tough and challenging as the work you do. Remember to express your appreciation for the work they do.
- The hallmark of a good enabler is that they work to make things easier for you, not harder. The best enablers will keep you in the loop and shield you from anything not related to implementing effectively. Pay attention to who is really good at enabling, and find a way to work with them.
- Don’t assume your enabler is your superior, even if they’re your boss. They need you, and they know it. They also love it when you make their life easier. Work as a team of equals, and you’ll get a lot accomplished.
3 Things to Keep in Mind if You’re an Enabler
- Your job is to make the lives of your implementors as easy as possible. Do everything you can do to make it easy for them to focus on their job. Eliminate distractions, guesswork, politics, and random tasks as completely as you can.
- Set the direction clearly, then get out of the way. As Peter Drucker once said: “Most of what we call management consists of making it difficult for people to get their work done.” Micromanagement doesn’t help – it gets in the way of getting things done.
- Cheerleading is an important part of the job. Everyone loves to be appreciated, including your team. Make time to encourage people and express your appreciation for the work they do. Kind words carry a lot of weight.
Where Do You Fit?
Do you consider yourself more of an implementor or enabler? Why? Leave your thoughts in the comments.
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I am an enabler. My job now is to make my staff successful by removing barriers and coaching them along. Another aspect is to know when to follow what your implementers are telling you. Sometimes, a leader needs to follow: http://blog.venturecooker.com/2009/07/09/leadership-includes-followership/.
Another aspect of being an enabler, is to wait for something to happen. This allows the enabler to fire fight for their implementers.
With the younger generation workforce, such a classification does not always hold true … because they are used to both implementing and enabling. The core act of creationism has become more democratized and they feel empowered to have a more direct influence and impact in effecting the end state.
Cheers, Sainath
http://www.obviousideas.com
business value alignment
linking strategy | organization | execution
Josh,
I’m not sure I agree with the dichotomy you established. When I read the biographies of successful entrepreneurs/business people and just based on my experience at P&G and other jobs I’ve had, I’ve found the best people are both enablers and implementors.
They establish a vision and set of objectives, strategies, goals, and measures. They delegate effectively. But most of them role up their sleeves and “do work.”
I know some people might be 90% enabler, 10% implementor or vice versa. But frankly by goal would be to be maybe 60% enabler, 40% implementor.
If I think of famous people. I think I’d break them out like this:
Richard Branson: 60/40
Andrew Carnegie 60/40
Steve Jobs: 70/30
Bill Gates 60/40
Steve Ballmer 50/50
Elliott – good point; people do indeed do both. Some people start as implementors, and shift more and more to enabling as time passes and the company grows. It would really surprise me if Bill Gates spends 40% of his time elbow-deep in code.
If you do a little of each, the thing to remember is that the roles are separate. When you’re doing one, don’t try to do the other.
Josh,
It was a nice post but in my mind, the cheerleading part of the enablers holds good even for the implementors sometimes and the “making life easier” advice applies for both the clasifications. I also see there are lot more people doing the implementors job even when they are to do an enabler job due to their past work ex. I guess “shadowing” effect looms larger.
Anyways, it is good post and keep continuing good work!!
Josh, I believe the individual needs to be good at both. In my role as a middle manager I must be both to be effective.
Thanks.
Lee
“The prevailing business culture seems to emphasize enabling over leading, and that’s a shame.”
More than a shame, enabled implementors without a strategy (leadership) is a waste!
Going further, if you work by yourself (sole proprietor, for example) then you simply HAVE to be both. And while there might be a long-term balance (such as 50/50 or 70/30 between the roles, for any shorter period of time surely you are going to have to be close to 100 percent of one or the other role, particularly if you’re one of those who’s not very good at multi-tasking.
Josh, you might want to think about using a different term than “enabler,” simply b/c of the associations with the psychological concepts revolving around co-dependency. Not sure about that–you’d want to check with others who are more familiar with it, but someone close to me went through lots of counseling and the term has always had negative connotations when I’ve heard them use it.
There may not be a better term…but at least consider….
I enjoy your insightfulness in these things.
Hi Josh,
I would say that I am an implementor “enabler-minded”.
An enabler not only should “Set the direction clearly, then get out of the way”, but answer WHY. Why the direction was set.
By involving implementors in the business process, you will make them part of your project, giving more sense to what they have to do.
I think that I’m an implementer on my way to being an enabler (hopefully just as a stop on my way to being leader). I do a lot of copywriting, because it’s comfortable, and I’m decent at it. Yet, I know that our organization would best thrive if I would lead more, using my ability to create and innovate to help us pioneer new initiatives. Great read, Josh.
Interesting post!
I belive to be a great enabler we first need to be great implementor, though best people are both enablers and implementors. as time pass they need to leave implementation and get grip in enabling for beterment of world.
A model I have always thought useful is: visionary, salesman, pragmatist. I think your model would change my pragmatist role into two separate pieces: implementer and enabler, which is fine. But, without the first two, implementation (with or without enabling) is wasted effort. I have expanded on this thought in an article which you can read at: http://www.mbadepot.com/content/16325/
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