Erich Von Manstein was a German Field Marshall in World War II and was regarded by many as one the Wehrmacht’s best military strategists. He is said to have categorized his officers into four types:
Stupid-lazy
His philosophy of dealing with these officers was to pretty much leave them alone. They did not create too much but on the other hand they did not cause active harm either.
Stupid-hardworking
Von Manstein felt that these people should be fired at once. The problem was that they not only wasted their own time but wasted the time of all their reports and people around them by forcing them to do lots of pointless tasks.
Clever hardworking
Clever hardworking people make up the bulk of today’s large high performance organizations. They are good at taking orders from above and converting them into action. They are effective implementers and administrators.
Clever ‘lazy’
Von Manstein felt that lazy people were always looking for easier ways to do things. If their values were sound therefore they would find innovative and creative ways of doing things and make those ideas available to the people below them. He also felt that lazy people were natural delegators giving them more time to think about the vital strategic decisions. These were the people he felt should be promoted to the top jobs.
Which quadrant would you fall in?