Eliminate the 8 main functions of a manager with a solid system
By defining what a manager does, you can optimize a system that works without them.
Have you ever tried to define what a manager does?
Try to do it for yourself.
What does a manager actually do? Can you break it down into a list of responsibilities?
I encourage you to try. Because if you do… you start to understand exactly why Beast Method works so well without them.
Now let me explain.
Let’s try to define what the responsibilities of a manager are
Rather then try to define it myself, I instead decided to ask ChatGPT as it should be less biased then I am.
And it came up with these 8 bullet points above.
Seems like a decent list to me. I’m sure you can come up with other things, but I think it’s fair to say this represents 80%+ of what they do.
So let’s go ahead and use this list.
And so the way I think about it now is… if a system aims to cut out the managers then it needs to do a decent job of replacing their responsibilities.
And so let’s examine how Beast Method does it in the context of how I run my business, Reviv, a company where i’m the only full-time person and we have about 20 freelancers/fractional people.
There are no management layers. Everyone gets direction from me or from their peers.
1- Set clear goals
In Reviv everything we do is laid out into a tree-like structure of folders, lists and tasks in Clickup (see the left side of the screenshot above).
Anything that is a goal is clearly written up as a task and is in either ‘prioritised’ (it will start when capacity) or ‘in progress’ (it’s already started).
It also has a clear owner and if it has started it has a due date.
Some tasks are more high-level goals that then get further broken down into more granular execution tasks.
But everyone’s goals are clear. If it’s not in a task or if that task is not prioritised, then it is not a goal. Period.
Winner = Beast Method, Loser = Traditional Management Approach
2- Delegate tasks effectively
I probably write about 80% of the tasks in this system and others write perhaps 20%.
But writing up a Clickup task is not something that takes much time. I can usually write one in about two minutes and it consists of a Context (Why are we doing it?) and Goal (What is the definition of done?).
It takes far longer to actually do the tasks than to write the task up.
I delegate tasks to the team based on what area they own (eg. ops, marketing, etc) and how much capacity they have.
Traditional management is to me like the childhood game of telephone. You tell the manager and then he tells the person he assigns it to… and some stuff gets lost in translation.
Winner = Beast Method, Loser = Traditional Management Approach
3- Monitor performance and provide regular feedback
I am following every single task that I want visibility on in Reviv. And this ends up being about 90%+ of all tasks.
So this means i am following many hundreds of active tasks on a ~20 person team.
By following the task it means everytime someone updates it with a comment or status change, i get a notification to my Clickup Inbox.
If everything is ok, I just clear the notification so as to maintain a clear inbox every 1-2 hours throughout the day. But if it requires feedback I give clear direction to the person as a comment.
I probably clear several hundred such notifications in a day and I love it. It only takes me perhaps 1-2 hours as 80% of tasks don’t really require me to write anything.
Winner = Beast Method, Loser = Traditional Management Approach
4- Solve problems and remove obstacles
Everyone in the team knows they can comment on their task anytime with any question and I will address it within 1-2 hours.
I also maintain the attitude of “there is no stupid question”. And it is better to ask then not to ask and spend time going off in the wrong direction.
So under Beast Method everyone gets unblocked within 1-2 hours consistently. Compare that to your average corporate.
I remember when I’d see managers during my old corporate days where you’d be lucky if they checked your email within a week and reverted to you.
And yet if you went in the wrong direction because of the slow feedback, it would of course be your fault. Hahaha what a fucking joke that shit is. I just laugh at those dinosaurs doing shit like that now.
Winner = Beast Method, Loser = Traditional Management Approach
5- Communicate clearly with other team members and upper management
In Beast Method the only ‘upper management’ you need to deal with is me. And so you get very clear direction without politics.
With that said folks do communicate with others in the team all the time via the Clickup tasks. And they can tag anyone they want and expect a response within a couple hours.
Because everyone in the team is expected to clear their Clickup inbox every few hours. And you have to respond when tagged. It’s part of the system.
We have systematized good cooperation. And so our system doesn’t rely on relationships at all.
I compare that to my old days working in large corporate over a decade back where I first needed to try and develop a ‘relationship’ with the folks in other teams that I needed help from.
Again.. what an inefficient fucking joke that is.
Winner = Beast Method, Loser = Traditional Management Approach
6- Develop talent by training and having a career path
So in Reviv I bring new people in as freelancers all of the time and start them with small fixed scope tasks. If they don’t do a good job at the task or at following our system, we cut ties immediately.
I can go from deciding i want to bring someone in, to recruiting and interviewing them, to onboarding them and having them start within 2-3 days usually. Show me the corporate that comes close.
Also we don’t really have a ‘career path’ as we’re a young company. But with all the layoffs happening out there.. how many companies truly have ‘career paths’ these days. In most companies that I hear of out there the majority of folks are just in survival mode.
In terms of development, I develop most folks myself by giving them constant feedback. I call it ‘microsteering’ and ive written about it before.
So yeah… we don’t really have any formal training like corporates do. But I don’t see that as a disadvantage at all.
I’d consider 95%+ of all the training i’ve sat thru early in my career to be pretty much useless.
People learn the most from other people that are good and have the right habits. Period.
Winner = Beast Method, Loser = Traditional Management Approach
7- Make decisions based on data & priorities & team inputs
In Reviv it is extremely clear what is a priority. Because the status is either prioritised or not.
If something is in ‘Backlog’ status they know they shouldn’t work on it. Simple.
In terms of making decisions based on data I would say we do this decently at Reviv, but not really any better than anyone else.
Rather I understand perfectly well that there is never perfect data and it is better to make decisions fast with data that is ‘good enough’. But I give myself visibility on all these decisions so i can weigh in based on my gut.
Does that mean everything needs to be my decision? Absolutely not. I think our team feels quite empowered to make recommendations and I often go with them.
But I do want visibility and our system makes it very efficient for me to have visibility and input without slowing decisions down.
Winner = Beast Method, Loser = Traditional Management Approach
8- Foster a positive work culture that promotes accountability and collaboration
At Reviv our work culture is based on our system. We work completely asynch and people are spread out over numberous countries.
We have no team calls. We have no team parties. We make no investment into forming ‘relationships’.
And because of this we avoid politics. Because to me politics is just a weed that grows on the soil called relationships. Avoid the relationships and you avoid the politics.
So i can honestly say I think Reviv is probably the most free of politics of any team i’ve worked on in my entire career.
Could I be biased since im the owner? Sure. But i do think my team would generally agree.
We just get shit done without the bullshit.
Winner = Beast Method, Loser = Traditional Management Approach
Closing thoughts
So there you have it. I’d defined eight responsibilities of managers and then analyzed each one.
And surprise, surprise… Beast Method beat the traditional way of managing on all eight of them! Haha
I don’t mean to be boastful but there is not a single manager I have ever worked with in my entire career that I don’t think i could pretty easily beat right now in terms of executing fast and effectively.
Not because I’m better at the traditional way of managing.
No.. they’re probably far better than me at politics and all of that bullshit.
But i created a system where i took a torch to that shit. And created my own game.
And so far…. the results I’m seeing in terms of execution and team dynamics blow out every company and team I have ever been a part of in my 20+ year career.
By a landslide babyyyyyyyy!