If you happen to be a manager this may either come as a revelation or a shock to you. As per the reports of a US based research that spanned over a period of ten years and studied the work ethics of managers from a variety of industries, it was found that only 10 percent of managers work purposefully to complete their duties, while the other ninety percent unintentionally self-sabotage the performance of their department by either detaching themselves from the tasks at hand, procrastinating, browbeating, pen-pushing and engaging in other purposeless activities.

In this revealing study, carried out by ace authors like Sumantra Ghoshal and Heike Burch it was discovered that a huge number of managers don’t live up (to) the responsibilities of their position by failing to act purposefully in their day-to-day work. The study identified four different profiles of managers and calculated their capabilities on the basis of a grid which measured them on parameters like focus and energy.

The four profiles are:

o Managers who are high in focus but low in energy were described as Detached.

o Managers who are high in energy but low in focus were described as Frenzied.

o Managers who are low both in energy and in focus were described as Procrastinators.

o Managers who are high in both energy and focus were described as Purposeful.

The Detached: About twenty percent of the managers that were studied were graded as detached because they were found to be disengaged from their work. Though they can be focused and were so to begin with but with time they have become apathetic towards their responsibilities and as such have no energy.

The Frenzied: More than forty percent of the managers were found to be distracted by the overwhelming number of tasks they are faced with each day. Though they are highly energetic but due to the varied responsibilities they tend to become unfocussed. Their “need for speed” makes them hasty, rash and unreflective. These people have a lot of potential and can really achieve more if they can get themselves to concentrate their “focus” on the things that really matter.

The Procrastinators: It was found that thirty percent of the managers willfully put off and delay doing their company’s most important tasks. They are people who are low both in focus and energy and would rather work on minor, unimportant things instead concentrating on tasks that can make a real difference to the companies they are serving.

The Purposeful: Only ten percent of the manager work to get the job done. They are highly energetic, resourceful and focused. They don’t allow themselves to get affected when the going gets tough and calmly work and guide their respective departments to get the work done well and on time.

What makes these managers the way they are?

Let’s take the case of the frenzied managers. These hyper-harried souls often tend to look for short-term quick fix solutions. When put under the pressure of working with fewer resources or limited time, they just focus on finding short-term solutions. Because of this they hardly ever take time to reflect on their actions, they and often get blamed when things go awry. Frenzied managers are well-intentioned but their desperate attitude to something…anything, makes them a wrong choice as managers.

Chronic procrastinators are usually recuperating frenzied managers. Once they get the flak from their bosses and realize that their frenzied and thoughtless actions just got them in trouble, they lapse into procrastination, losing their energy and desire to prove themselves. Now all they want to do is to keep themselves out of trouble which they do just by filling in time and getting away by doing the least possible bit of work.

Detached managers are those who have been serving in the same position for several years and no longer feel enthusiastic about the work they do. Simply put they no longer have they zest and energy they had five or ten years back.

So ask yourself, what kind of manager ARE YOU?