“Mini-Me, if anything should happen to you, I don’t know what I would do…I’d probably move on, get another replica but there would be a 10 minute period there where I would just be inconsolable.”
– Dr. Evil
I remember the first time I watched the Austin Powers movie. It was a hilarious, original film with extremely memorable quotes and characters. If you were to ask me to recite quotes from the movie, I would butcher the phrases, but there was one character that stood out to me above all – Mini-Me.
Mini-Me is supposed to be a smaller replica of the movie’s villain, Dr. Evil. Mini-Me acts, talks and moves like Dr. Evil. He’s supposed to be Dr. Evil’s mini-clone. Do you ever wish you could split yourself in half or that you could clone yourself at work? Perhaps you feel you don’t have as many hours in a day to complete your work. Or you might feel like you have too many projects on your to-do list. Wouldn’t you want a Mini-You? Here are three steps to follow in order to create your own Mini-Me.
1. Identify Your Mini-Me
The true reason why we want to split ourselves in half is because we want someone to do the work exactly as we would do it. We don’t believe there is anyone else out there who could do a better job so we would need another “me” to execute the task at hand. In order to build your Mini-Me, you need to first identify someone that you can take under your wing who is as good as (or better than) you. Are you managing someone who is extremely talented? Is there anyone that you trust or you can depend on at work? Who can become your Mini-Me? In my opinion, there is one characteristic I would look in a person above any other characteristics: is the person teachable and coachable? You might have the smartest, talented, competent person in your department, but if that person is not coachable, you will struggle to mold that person into one that can execute per your expectations.
2. Learn How To Teach
You might have already identified a person as talented and teachable, but if you don’t know how to coach, train or teach that person properly, you will have difficulty building that person up to your standards. Most people want to create a Mini-Me, but they don’t know how to properly teach their Mini-Me. Telling someone how to do an expense report is not teaching. Telling someone to figure out how to do your job is not teaching. Although you might have those shining stars that could probably figure things out on their own, if you truly want to have things completed appropriately, you’ll have to roll up your sleeves and coach someone. Become a better trainer and show the way with details so that your Mini-Me understands what you see, hear, how you think and what is the expected outcome.
3. Invest Time In Your Mini-Me
Investing time in others is probably the most difficult part of any manager’s role. It’s difficult because many managers can’t seem to find the time to complete their job, let alone, invest in others. However, the secret to developing a successful Mini-Me, is the prioritization of the time you spend with your Mini-Me. You want to spend more of your time teaching, training, coaching, observing, correcting, giving feedback to your Mini-Me, and less time doing tasks that won’t contribute to the development of your Mini-Me. Eventually, you want your Mini-Me to be able to do those tasks that keep you from spending time with him/her.
Perhaps your Mini-Me won’t walk like you, talk like you or act like you, but at least he/she will do the work exactly as you would, or better. Then, if you’re successful at building your first Mini-Me, you might end up having multiple Mini-Yous.
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