The management of any team, department, company, family, country - or person (the management of our personal and professional life), can be defined by only four basic functions. If a person can develop these four roles, she or he will be successful in the short term as well as in the long term. The understanding of these functions and how to develop them is therefore essential knowledge for managing our lives.

Self-management means working on yourself, improving yourself. If you excel in one or more functions, you should also be able to meet at least the threshold requirements of the other functions. Why? In addition to the possibility that life may require you to perform one of your weaker functions in an emergency, you must also be able to communicate with those who naturally excel in your more difficult functions. As a result of your innate gifts and genetic predispositions, you will likely have a particular orientation toward one or two of the four functions, but you shouldn't lack any of them if you want a healthy life.

You can also understand a person's management style through these four elements. At the highest level, we find people with management styles that can be described as: Producer, Administrator, Entrepreneur and Integrator.

The key to Adizes management styles is the understanding that no person can be excellent in all four functions, at the same time. Each person has a certain dominance in functions: everyone is strong in one or several of the functions, but weak in the other functions. Hence the importance of a complementary team.

‍