The Successful Executive
A Warrior Dad practices success in all he does, he makes every moment of his
life special as every moment in life is special. In the training of the
"Peaceful Warrior" by Dan Millman his mentor says that there are "No Ordinary
Moments".
The Successful Executive
You must pay attention in life to everything you do, and each thing you do no
matter how small if you do it successfully it continues to build on success and
the journey builds a successful life.
Since work or career can be a source of stress that can deter a Warrior Dad from
his position in the family I want to share some valuable lessons from a book
called "Become a Successful Executive" I truly think you will find many great
lessons in this book that you can incorporate into your business life, which
will then "spill over' to your family life and position of "Warrior Dad"
Remember as you read anything that:
Success lies not in
making money but in making the man as he makes the money.
And now onto the lessons:
WELDING AN EMPLOYEE TEAM
A Company Is Known by the Men It Keeps
The success of many a business executive comes from his ability to develop an
effective employee team. To produce goods and services by depleting natural
physical resources and the spiritual reserves of people is to reassert slavery;
to produce them by utilizing the bounties of nature and the voluntary talents
of employees is an elevation of the spirit of man.
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Occasionally a single executive towers above his fellows like a giant redwood in
a forest of pines. The dynamic spirit of such a man can infuse an entire
organization. More often, however, it is a group of top executives who determine
the company climate in which an employee has to work. Their success depends on
exerting effective leadership, making prompt decisions, striving for growth,
maintaining balance among various parts of the organization, careful planning
as to objectives, selecting good working procedures and using ethical (as
distinguished from manipulative) motivation. In the absence of these ongoing
leadership traits, an organization deteriorates from the rust of executive
indifference and the friction of resistance to change. Decision making is
fundamental for your development.
Indecision will drive nails in the coffin which buries your ambition. Some
decisions are bound to be wrong; in contrast with an unsuccessful executive, the
successful man makes fewer bloomers. Or maybe he has learned the art of making
his mistakes when nobody is looking!
Executive Dilemma
Every manager is impaled on the horns of a dilemma: whether to develop employee
initiative or to tighten up supervision. He notes specific situations where
either one fails— or succeeds. One competitor goes in for the latest scientific
management devices. Another pays no attention to management principles, gives
employees considerable responsibility. Still a third treats employees like
four-year-old children, directs every act. Which one should he emulate?
The answer seems to lie in employee morale, according to studies made by the
Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan. Efficient
techniques and close individual supervision may yield high production, but at
the price of poorer attitudes and poorer quality, accompanied by increases in
accidents, absenteeism, turnover, grievances and work stoppages.
Employees tend to resist direct pressure from superiors for increased
production, but not pressure from fellow employees. Hence supervision of the
group rather than of its individual members seems to provide the optimum
combination of productivity, morale and individual choice as to method.
Employee-Oriented Supervision
The purely production-oriented supervisor drives men, materials and equipment to
achieve high production at low cost. He is amazed to find his employees
constantly snapping at his heels.
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The employee-oriented executive sees individual employees as the focus of his
problem and works through them. Hence he is able to hold morale high and at the
same time get high production with low cost. He thinks of his job in terms of
selection, training, compensation and supervision, jointly working to yield
production.
Without attempting a comprehensive discussion of these four factors, let us hit
some high spots about each one.
Selection
Rapid growth of some companies, coupled with long range planning, is causing
most employers to pay more attention to the promotion potential of applicants
for employment. Many executives are so sure of their magical intuitive powers in
selecting applicants that they never bother to check whether this cocksureness
is justified. Yet a rabbit's foot is a poor substitute for horse sense!
In selecting employees, you should develop adequate sources of labor supply, use
aptitude tests, give at least two interviews and by different persons, run down
former employer references, require a thorough physical examination, induct each
new employee carefully. These devices screen out the incompetent and the
unworthy.
What traits should you look for when interviewing applicants?
In one comprehensive study, 70% of the companies queried said that the ability
to get along with people was the most important attribute. This ability, they
believed, consisted of six major traits:
1. Cooperation with others in the group, including acceptance of the
surroundings in which the group had to work.
2. Persuading others, teaching them, keeping in two-way communication with them.
3. Enthusiasm, a contagious trait of great value in the group effort.
4. Self respect, reflecting an understanding of an individual's relation to
other members of his group, and their relation to him.
5. Emotional maturity, revealed by freedom from impatience, pettiness, fear,
hatred and instability.
6. Leadership, the ability to plan work for others, to get them to follow the
leader's plan.
In interviewing applicants, dig deep for indications of the first five at
least—the sixth you may have to develop on the job by challenging assignments
and careful guidance.
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Interestingly enough, the findings from this research were indirectly
corroborated by another study wherein the personnel records of 10,000 employees
were analyzed. The conclusion was drawn that 15% of success results from
technical training and 85% from personality development.
Training Is Needed
Employees well selected deserve adequate training in what they should know, do
and be. Undoubtedly you are familiar with the pro's and con's of various
training methods—lectures, discussion conferences, case studies, demonstration,
on-the-job training, etc.
Here are three training devices which may not have come to your attention:
1. Compare the trainee against the mental, skill, physical and social
requirements of his job. Write out a training "prescription" based on his
revealed deficiencies.
2. By job analysis, discover the "hazard points" of the work to be done: those
difficult duties which mess up smooth job performance. Give special training in
the hazard points, so that, through repetitive impact, he will acquire facility.
3. Utilize role playing.
Role Playing As Training
Role playing is too little used as a method of preparing for important moves, or
of training associates.
The executive vice president of a well known company uses role playing for a
variety of problems. Within a three-month period, he:
1. Acted as the international union adviser in a simulated labor negotiation
meeting; had his industrial relations manager play the part of the union
president.
2. Brought in three long service salesmen to sell him the company's products
while his discomfited sales manager listened in over an open intercom system.
3. Brought together all executives and department heads, gave them two hours to
physically transport all their important records to the company clubhouse, ten
miles away. The situation was supposed to be an enemy air attack with atomic
bombs.
Each of these psychodramas had a certain touch of realism about it Weaknesses
needing correction came to light. Participants learned what NOT to do as well as
what to do, developed confidence.
You don't have to be the top dog to utilize role playing. In fact, you can do it
merely in your imagination:
What would I do, if ?
Of course, it's better when others take part. No rehearsals, no set lines to be
parroted. Rather the problem is tossed out, and individuals are appointed to
assume certain roles in attacking the problem.
Try it with your associates and subordinates. It's
interesting—stimulating—informative. You'll soon get the reputation of being
"different," a "comer," a "man we should keep our eyes on."
What's That Job Worth?
Compensation is a complex problem. If you are assigned to work on it, study:
1. The literature on job evaluation, especially the factor comparison system.
2. Performance (merit) rating.
3. Incentive pay plans, individual and group.
4. Time and motion study; measured day work; work simplification; establishment
of work standards.
5. Profit sharing. Wage and salary inequalities can wreck employee morale. Once
these inequalities are allowed to creep in, it requires much effort, great
patience, a considerable period of time and unnecessary payroll cost to iron
them out.
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When Walt Sungood took over the plant managership of an unprofitable eastern
foundry, he found some strange wage conditions. For example, foremen were not
supposed to know the rates of men under them. (No wonder—some employees were
getting more than their bosses!) New employees frequently had demanded, and
gotten, higher pay than older employees who broke them in.
Walt brought in a management consultant to set up a job evaluation plan.
Employees under the minima for their jobs were immediately given increases.
Some, whose rates were over the maxima, were transferred to higher jobs where
their rates could be justified. Performance rating was instituted. Wage
administration policies were published to employees and supervisors.
Within two years, most of the wage inequality problem had disappeared—but
solving it had added about 4% to the labor cost of manufacturing. Even so, it
must have been worth it, because the company made a profit for the first time in
six years.
Supervision
The functioning of an industrial organization normally involves:
Personnel, working with correct
Tools, and adequate
Equipment, using proper
Methods, at the right
Place, and at the right
Time, on necessary
Materials.
This general formula, with slight modifications, is applicable to office, shop
and sales, as well as service, organizations.
The demands upon a high level executive to carry out these functions are both
broad and exacting. We list some of these requirements, classified under what he
should know, be and do.
Some Characteristics of the High Level Executive
What he should KNOW
1. How to raise capital for the business; refinancing with stocks, long-term or
short-term bonds; borrowing from financial institutions; working capital
requirements.
2. How to manufacture the products or produce the services to be sold;
materials, factory layout, equipment, tools, working methods; costs.
3. How to market the products or services; distribution agencies; retail
outlets; market potentials; consumer demands as to style, quality and price;
advertising and sales promotion.
4. How to manage personnel in plant, sales and office; deal with unions;
selection, training, compensation; motivation of employees.
5. How to abide by numerous laws and governmental regulations.
6. How to get and maintain good public relations.
7. How to translate economic conditions and trends into business decisions;
interpretation of company accounting and statistical information.
8. How to forge an organization to help him carry out these varied demands upon
him.
9. How to keep stockholders happy through profits for dividends and reserves.
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What he should BE
1. Personal traits: Equable temperament, pleasing personality, dependability,
creativity, initiative, energy, perseverance and self control.
2. Mental capacities: Intelligence, education, technical knowledge,
comprehension, analytic powers, judgment, vocabulary, verbal facility and
imagination.
3. Social skill: Ability to lead and motivate other people, friendliness,
interest in people, earning the confidence and respect of others, sensitivity to
social situations, empathy with the problems of others, consideration,
development of subordinates and the leadership ability to weld people into loyal
teams, the members of which will cooperate with each other.
4. Physical attributes: Principally the physical energy for the work to be done,
but also freedom from physical handicaps which might necessitate repeated
absence from the job.
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5. Attitudes: Adaptability to changing conditions, a wholesome point of view
about the job, ambition for the future, enthusiasm, optimism, loyalty,
self-confidence, objectivity and good orientation to the people associated with
the work.
What he should DO
1. Plan what is to be done.
a. Get as many facts as possible on each problem, to reduce
the area in
which judgment alone must be
exercised.
b. Wherever possible, express the facts mathematically.
c. Define objectives and sub-objectives clearly.
d. Lay down tentative procedures.
e. Establish a schedule.
2. Subdivide the work among the people available.
a. According to their competence.
b. Tell specifically who is to do what.
c. Tell when each portion is to be done.
3. Coordinate the work as the plan unfolds.
a. Arrange for progress reports.
b. Redistribute work loads, if necessary.
c. Change sub-objectives if necessary.
d. Change schedules if necessary.
4. Set up a control system.
a. To check progress against the master schedule.
b. To avoid errors in future planning.
c. To establish future standards as to cost, quality and
quantity.
Supervision is a way of human relations in
industry, not a series of devices. Nevertheless, it includes four distinct
approaches:
1. Planning the work: aims and sub-aims; factors of time, place, equipment, etc.
When employees have not been given clear objectives they are like a driver
without a road map.
2. Direction: telling who is to do what, and when. Never forget the last two
words!
3. Coordination: insuring that all parts of the plan are working together.
4. Control: checking up that the plan continues to be effective, or perhaps
needs modification.
Descriptions of Executive Positions and
Knows, Is, Does—Which Is Most Important?
Some day your company may want a manual of executive position descriptions. The
person assigned to do such an important study as this is generally a "crown
prince' definitely in line for higher responsibility, perhaps for the throne
itself sometime in the future.
If you would prepare yourself for such a difficult assignment, study a book
entitled Defining the Manager's Job (published by the American Management
Association, Inc., New York). It tells how to make such a survey and presents
numerous typical descriptions of high level positions.
So how do we set guideline and parameters to pick and groom the right person?
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Judging from this list, it would
seem that what an executive is and does are much more important than what he
knows.
Organization Principles
A successful
organization, like a great painting, demands
knowledge, skill and patience. Some
organizations seem more like
thumbnail sketches than finished works of art. In contributing your share to
build an organization, you will
want to take cognizance of certain accepted principles
Some of the more usual are given below:
1. Authority
should equal responsibility; both should be
in writing.
2. An executive should understand what he is account
able for and should be made accountable for it.
3. The span of executive contacts should be limited by
his time and ability.
4. Work should be so subdivided that it can be handled
by the competence of the persons available.
5. Standards of performance should be established for as
many tasks and persons as possible.
Mechanization and automation are bringing about
changes of
organization as well as changes of some accepted
principles. For example, a trend in recent years has been to increase the
relative proportion of total employees
who are engaged in technical, scientific, clerical,
control and
administrative activities.
Part of your problem in attempting to weld an employee
team is to recognize
that fundamental changes are occurring. You must cling to old ways as long as they are effective,
but be ever open-minded to the new just as soon as it
proves better.
Supervision's a Cinch!
No doubt about
it, the supervisor has a soft job. Here's
all he has to do:
1. He works extra hard in a lowly job eight hours a day
so he can get to be a
boss, so he can work ten hours a day.
2. He carefully picks his employees, only to have his
boss likewise pick them—to pieces.
3. He must repeatedly attend supervisory conferences,
gradually learning more
and more about less and less until
finally he knows everything about nothing.
4. He
must pursue production as zealously as a monkey
on a flea hunt.
5.
He
must worry about his employees' earnings—but
never about his own.
6. He
tries to keep gremlins out of production, only to discover
that gremlins are self-made men.
7. He
must have the drive of a devil and the temper of
a saint.
8. He
must read books like this one to prepare himself
for those softer jobs above him!
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"The Managerial
Mind"
This is the title of a
thought-provoking article in the Harvard Business Review for January-February,
1959. In it the author, Charles E. Summer, Jr. suggests that the managerial mind
characteristically reveals a blend of the four attributes listed below,
attributes you would be wise to acquire:
1. Dig for facts before deciding; measure information and results; use theory
and experience of others as aids to decision making; mistrust too much theory
and "fads"; face the truth of facts gathered; utilize estimates or judgment
where facts are not available; apply correct reasoning.
2. Accept responsibility and challenge. Do this routinely in your life; never
back off from them. And don't stop just because you get your knuckles rapped
occasionally!
3. Take social values into account. Don't buy profits at the cost of people,
whether they're your employees or your customers.
4. Take timely action based on a whole-problem judgment of facts, of estimates
and of forecasts available to you.
An article in Collier's (February 5, 1954) entitled "Are You the New Executive
Type?" points out the demand for generalists as distinguished from specialists.
In developing executives, industry is emphasizing the broad gauge, well rounded,
flexible man.
The important underlying trait seems to be your attitude toward problem solving.
How do you measure up?
Your Executive Potential
So far in your life, have you developed attributes which give you high level
executive potential?
Here are 50 traits for you to review in your pursuit of executive excellence,
take the time to think about these traits and see if they are a strength or an
opportunity to improve upon:
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1 |
Organizes his work |
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2 |
Emotionally balanced |
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3 |
Analyzes problems |
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4 |
Motivates other people |
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5 |
Optimistic |
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6 |
Uses time effectively |
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7 |
Can accept criticism |
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8 |
Adapt to new situations |
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9 |
Get people work together |
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10 |
Tolerant of others’ views |
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11 |
Produces large amount of work |
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12 |
A go-getter |
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Good reasoning powers |
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Gets loyalty from subordinates |
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15 |
Avoids personal bias and decisions |
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Follows up work of others |
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Has lots of initiative |
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Technical knowledge for job |
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19 |
Respected by fellow workers |
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Maintains an open mind |
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Accurate with figures |
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Not easily discouraged |
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Wide range of knowledge |
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24 |
Considerate of others |
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Willingly assumes responsibility |
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Plans his work |
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27 |
Calm under pressure |
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28 |
An analytic observer |
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29 |
Make friends easily |
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30 |
Enthusiastic |
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31 |
High standards of work |
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32 |
Self-confident |
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33 |
As original ideas |
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34 |
Interested in people |
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35 |
Loyal to employer |
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36 |
Energetic |
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37 |
Seizes opportunities |
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38 |
Superior intelligence |
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39 |
Others give cooperation |
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40 |
Attitude toward job |
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41 |
Enforces work schedules |
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42 |
Adheres to company policy |
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43 |
Is imaginative |
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44 |
Has confidence of superiors |
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45 |
Has well defined goals |
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46 |
Work is thorough |
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47 |
Has perseverance |
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48 |
Explains ideas clearly |
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49 |
Work easily with others |
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50 |
Ambitious |
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High Lights
1. Learn how to build a cooperating team.
2. See your problem as one of working through people.
3. Select employees who are potentially promotable.
4. Train employees, and check up that they are trained.
5. Iron out wage and salary inequalities among employees.
6. Understand what an executive should know, be and do.
7. Apply organization principles, but modify them to meet
changing conditions.
8. Study your own executive potential, to improve your
weaknesses.
A boxer who is not forced to fight usually takes on excess poundage. Successful
organizations seem to suffer the same fate. How to reduce to fighting trim will
be the challenge of the next chapter.
Filed under Success by Steven Patrick
