What is Your Progress? — Are
You Improving?
An organization can give a man the title of manager, but only the man can make himself into one.
— Joseph Mason
James Black presents in his book1 a perceptive discussion of the "Road to Self-Improvement." In recounting an incident at a certain training seminar, he struck what must have been a chord of response in every reader who had ever attended such a seminar. The problem being discussed was "how to sell top management" on their programs. One member of the group remarked heatedly, "The trouble is that high-level executives give only lip service to training. They want it because they think they should have it, but they don't want to be bothered with the details. They are not really interested in training. They resist new ideas." This struck a real spark. Immediately
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other conferences began to relate experiences of their own in which they had been rebuffed by their superiors when they sought to introduce improved methods or different ways of doing things. One said, "The truth is that the wrong people are at this meeting. Our bosses should be here."
An older man was sitting at the end of the table. He had said little throughout the seminar, but had listened attentively. The identifying badge he wore on his coat lapel gave only his name and company. He was simply a member of the group, and a silent one at that. But now he had something to say.
"I think you fellows are being very hard on top management. I find most executives are receptive to new ideas if they are good. They have to be. But those who have the final decision in management are cautious. They cannot afford to go off half-cocked. Therefore, when you make recommendations to them you must be sure they are well thought out and they they are useful to the company as a whole. Perhaps it is not top management that is rigid in its views. Perhaps it is we in the training field. Perhaps our problem is that we are interested only in training as such. We make no special effort to learn the other functions of management. If we had a comprehensive understanding of all of the problems of a company, maybe we would be better trainers."
After this observation the older man sat back in his chair and for the remainder of the meeting listened silently as the discussion moved to other subjects. At the end of the seminar the association manager said to him, "I hope you found this interesting. You should have let me tell the group who you are."
"No," was the reply, "I prefer to attend meetings of this kind quietly. It is up to me to know the latest developments
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in every area of management. If the others had realized I was president of my company, they might not have talked freely. Certainly they would never have taken me into the group on equal terms. After all, I come to these meetings to learn something, not to express my views."
Here was the president of a large Tennessee textile mill who had a planned program of attendance at seminars and courses in every phase of management. On his staff he had experts who were capable of administering the details of the various operations of his company, but he believed he could give his subordinates more effective direction if he familiarized himself with their specialties.
An increasing number of supervisors, managers and executives are annually attending conferences and seminars or management problems, evidence that the awareness of the importance of this critical tool is spreading rapidly. The rate at which new developments are occurring in managerial fields accentuates the urgency of the course of action for those who wish to sharpen their managerial skills. Continuing education for management personnel must be made a part of the job. It must be a mainstream activity, not merely something for nights and weekends.
One Christian executive was asked how he had benefited from the management seminar he had attended. After a moment's reflection he said that the results, only six months after the conference, could be seen throughout his organization, particularly in his key people. Two principles emphasized in the seminar had proved applicable to a number of situations in the work, both in the United States and abroad. The first principle was that it is more important to have right questions, when facing a problem, than to have right answers. "Right answers," arrived at
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hastily, may prove to be short-lived and unrealistic. Often they are "guesses" which seem appropriate at the moment but may be unrelated to the real problem. The right questions aim to uncover facts, ascertain the real problem, determine probable cause or causes, generate alternative solutions, and select the best course or remedial action.
The second principle which had proved useful was "management by objectives." Put in the form of questions, the principle appears as follows: What are your objectives? What are your resources? What are your opportunities? What is your strategy for applying resources to opportunities for maximum progress toward your objectives?
Upon returning home from a seminar to which he took one of his key assistants,2 this same executive, to whom we referred earlier, was asked how relevant such a seminar, designed for industrial executives, was to the needs of his Christian organization. He replied enthusiastically that he judged it to be 80 percent applicable and tremendously worthwhile overall.
Managers and executives in Christian organizations should appreciate management as a profession, approach it with respect, and determine to master it.
The building of a management library is important. Just as exposure to other managers, as in seminars, conferences and courses, is a refreshing, stimulating and provocative experience, so exposure to the literature of management is vital to one who would manage. Auren Uris, former editor of the Research Institute of America's Management Development Division, said, "A management library is becoming just as important for the professional executive as the technical library is for the engineer. Behind the academic activity lies a basic idea: management is a profession that can be taught and learned."3 While most bibliographies are discouragingly long, any effort to present a few of the
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best selections invites criticism for the omissions. Nonetheless, conviction of the importance of this beginning for the reader who may not have begun a serious study of the profession of management impels the recommendation of a few of the better-known works, including some of a highly practical value (see "Recommended Management Publications" at the end of this chapter).
Subscription to at least one of the top management periodicals is recommended. Several excellent publications come with the personal membership in the American Management Association. Particularly for the chief executives in Christian organizations, this membership is highly recommended.
Membership in professional organizations provides contact with other executives with similar problems and responsibilities. Occasional meetings of such associations provide the manager with a break in the routine; a chance to "get perspective" on the job; an occasion to mix with others who have faced similar problems and may provide valuable answers; and an opportunity to hear professionals present a field or area of management of interest.
One of the hazards of management is the tendency of executives to view their organization from the perspective of a specialist. It is not surprising that a person whose training and experience has been in personnel, for example, should tend to view organizational matters through personnel-oriented eyes. Nor is it surprising that this executive often continues to operate in this area, even making decisions which, in all other departments, would be left to the department manager.
Many executives, when first confronted with this tendency, immediately recognize the description of their own activities. From this realization has come the concept of the "generalist" as the person who is needed for modern
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management. The "generalist" is one who can make the necessary adjustment to the managerial view of the overall organization. He or she realizes that the rapidly developing techniques and specialties in the field of management require that the executive at the top have an overall grasp of objectives, resources, opportunities and strategy. By implication, this means that the technical knowledge required for departmental operations should be left to specialists within the organization. The modern manager has his or her hands full mastering the profession of management. Let him or her, whenever possible, stay with that.
A questioning mind has been suggested by many as an essential characteristic of the manager. Such a mind is alert to change; is constantly in quest of facts; relates facts to situations and projects them into future possibilities; views interruptions as opportunities; seeks relationships between facts, situations and people; contemplates strategy.
The importance of preparation has been emphasized as the most important single factor in turning opportunity into success. Preparation required for your own job should be evident from a review of your position description... or its development, if none exists. For any manager other than the chief executive, the position description of your superior, or another in a position to which you aspire, presents valid requirements for preparation. There is no better candidate for advancement than the person who, while handling a current position in an exemplary fashion, has also prepared for the job above. Meanwhile, there is no better assistant than one who understands the job, comprehends relationships, and is sensitive to the situational environment.
In the area of self-development, the question may be raised concerning the quest for excellence. Is it Christian to aspire to a position of leadership? Without becoming
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unnecessarily involved with theological issues, the writers are of the conviction that responsible stewardship of one's talents may require no less. The nurture and development of the gifts God has given to each of us must surely be acknowledged as a requisite to returning to Him our best. For a Christian with talents leading to managerial responsibilities, aspirations to excellence in performances and opportunity for maximum service to the Lord would appear imperative. So set your goals high and strive for excellence. Cultivate a "passion for excellence." In the final chapter this is presented as the Christian standard.
"If we ask what our society inspires in the way of high performance," warns the Rockefeller Brothers Fund report, "we are led to the conclusion that we may have, to a startling degree, lost the gift for demanding high performance of ourselves."4 Ralph Waldo Emerson said our chief want in life is for someone who will make us do what we can. The former president of the Carnegie Foundation, John Gardner, stated, "The idea for which this nation stands will not survive if the highest goal free men can set themselves is an amiable mediocrity... But excellence implies more than competence. It implies a striving for the highest standards in every phase of life. We need individual excellence in all its forms — in every kind of creative endeavor, in political life, in education, in industry — in short, universally."5
The implications of change in organizations ... its management .. and winning acceptance of it from your people... have assumed major proportions for the modern manager. While this may be considered as but one of the many managerial concepts, it has far-reaching consequences in areas such as standards of performance, accommodations to problems of growth, and management development. In a later work Jon Gardner reminds us of the
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"mind-forged manacles" which our aging society or organizations have developed as defenses against new ideas.6 Broad-mindedness... appreciation of innovation... stimulation of creativity... all have their rightful place in the portfolio of the modern manager.
What kinds of knowledge are important to executives? David W. Ewing, former Harvard Business Review managing editor, presents one of the most useful answers to this question, electing to use the term "level" in describing each category.7 The first level of importance is methods or techniques, a good example of which is one's problem-analysis of decision-making method or technique. The importance of this technique to successful management is obvious.
The second level of knowledge important to the manager is information about the environment — the realities of the situation surrounding the organization and the manager. This would involve people or conditions or trends perhaps. A fund-raising drive typifies a problem-solving situation requiring efforts to collect knowledge relating to the time that prospective donors are likely to be in a receptive frame of mind, undistracted by tax deadlines, other fund drives, or adverse publicity. The factor of judgment enters at this point, making it a more difficult area in which to test capabilities than the area of problem-solving.
The third level of knowledge has to do with what managers want to happen, conditions they desire, goals they seek. Analytical thinking plays a supporting role to insight, imagination and vision. This area may be more "institutional" than "factual" in nature. An executive, feeling that the climate of supervision in the department is too rigid... too authoritarian... decides to relax the rules and to allow more freedom. This decision resulted from
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reading about patterns of supervision, observing, and talking with people in the department about these conditions. Intelligence and related tests are not useful in evaluating facility with knowledge at this level. Intuition and performance records are more useful as guides here.
At this point our respect for the requirements placed upon the managerial mind as compared with those placed upon the minds of those in other professions and vocations has risen considerably. We can conclude, with Ewing, that administrative requirements for knowledge are not limited to any single type of information, at least three levels of knowledge being involved; that capacity to deal with different levels of knowledge may vary greatly among equally intelligent people — and may vary greatly during one's career; that the quality of executive judgment is related to facility with knowledge at the various levels; that the ability to persuade is more important in relation to knowledge at the third level (goals) than at the first (problem-solving); and, finally, a manager advancing in an institution should find value in kinds of preparation other than formal training programs (through reading, informal talks and reflection).
Auren Uris suggests the following checklists for the executive who wants to keep abreast of change in the management profession:8
1. In your industry have your increased your contacts by —
a. Reading the journals in your field?
b. Increasing your participation in a professional group or association of those who do similar work?
c. Attending conferences and lectures, or interviewing experts, to keep up with changes in
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your industry [author's note — and in Christian organizational activity]
2. Inside your organization have you shown signs of personal growth by—
a. Talking shop regularly with your colleagues?
b. Making changes in your way of handling assignments?
c. Taking on new assignments?
3. In your quest for job knowledge have you —
a. Visited other companies that are now working on problems you may soon be encountering?
b. Kept up with the stream of ideas available in current management literature — for example, Harvard Business Review, Fortune, Dun's Business Monthly?
c. Investigated what's available at local schools?
d. Made suggestions, either to a top company executives or to schools, for studies of interest to you?
4. In pursuit of your professional interest have you —
a. Experimented in the application of new methods to executive problems?
b. Experimented in the development of new methods to complete your daily tasks?
c. Tried as much as possible to substitute method and system for casualness and the impromptu solution?
d. Kept in touch with the kind of thinking going on at Harvard Business School, the University of Chicago's Management Development Program, and so on?
In one sense this entire book is about self-development. In this chapter special emphasis has been given to a few
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concepts which warrant attention. No two management consultants would be in complete agreement on any given management development program for an individual. They would agree that the person who can help the manager most is himself.
Part Three || Table of Contents
REFERENCES:
1. Black, James Menzies, Assignment: Management, Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, 1961.
2. Seminar on "Finance for the Non-financial Executive," Management Institute, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin.
3. Uris, Auren, The Efficient Executive, McGraw-Hill, New York, 1957.
4. "The Pursuit of Excellence," America at Mid-Century Series, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Inc,. 1958.
5. Gardner, John W., Excellence, Harper and Brothers, New York, 1961.
6. Gardner, John W., Self-Renewal, Harper and Row, New York, 1964.
7. Ewing, David W., The Managerial Mind, The Free Press, New York, 1964.
8. Uris, The Efficient Executive.
RECOMMENDED MANAGEMENT PERIODICALS EXHIBIT A
Administrative Science Quarterly, Graduate School of Business and Public Administration, Cornell University Graduate School of Management, Malott Hall, Ithaca, New York 14853.
Advanced Management Journal, Society for Advancement of Management, 2331 Victory Parkway, Cincinnati, Ohio 45206.
Business Horizons, Graduate School of Business, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana 47405.
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California Management Review, School of Business, University of California, 305 Barrows Hall, Berkeley, California 94720.
Harvard Business Review, Harvard Business School, Soldier's Field, Boston Massachusetts 02163.
ASSOCIATIONS EXHIBIT B
American Management Association
135 West 50th Street, New York, New York 10020
The Society for Advancement of Management
2331 Victory Parkway, Cincinnati, Ohio 45206
SEMINARS, INSTITUTES AND CONFERENCES EXHIBIT C
American Management Association
135 West 50th Street
New York, New York 10020
Management Institute
University of Wisconsin
432 N. Lake Street
Madison, Wisconsin 53706
(Write for catalog).
Louisiana State University Seminar
on Taxes, Estate Planning, and Charitable Giving
c/o Robert F. Sharpe & Company, Inc.
5050 Poplar Avenue
White Station Tower,
Memphis, Tennessee 38157
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Louis A. Allen Management Seminar
Louis A. Allen & Associates
3600 W. Bayshore Road
Palo, Alto, California 94303
In addition, query your local colleges and universities for evening management courses and executive development seminars.
RECOMMENDED SELECTIONS WITH WHICH TO START YOUR "BASIC MANAGEMENT BOOKSHELF."
Crosby, Phillip B., The Art of Getting Your Own Sweet Way, Second Edition, McGraw-Hill, New York, 1982. Crosby analyzes key situations people find themselves in. This is a very effective tool for determining both the kind of situation you are in and the best plan for getting out of it.
Dayton, Edward, Tools for Time Management, Revised Edition, Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids, 1984. This is a "toolbox" of both techniques and principles is arranged alphabetically to allow the reader to either follow through the complete logic or dip in whenever appropriate.
Drucker, Peter F., Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices, Harper & Row, New York, 1974. This is Drucker's magnum opus. Its very size (839 pages) may intimidate some people, however this is a well laid out exposition of Drucker's thinking and is a must for anyone intensely involved in the tasks of leadership and management.
___, Managing in Turbulent Times, Harper & Row, New York, 1980. This is another of Drucker's stimulating
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contribution. His grasp of management economics, sociology and history join together to paint a picture of tomorrow's organizations and the changes necessary in current management styles.
Engstrom, Ted W., The Making of a Christian Leader, Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids, 1976. This is a distillation of one Christian leader's 35 years of experience leading Christian organizations. The author discusses the spectrum of leadership — from its biblical basis to the leader's roles and activities.
___, The Pursuit of Excellence, Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids, 1982. Excellence is a precious goal for Christian leaders. Here the author deals with the qualities of the Christian leader that will guide him or her toward that "move excellent way."
___, Your Gift of Administration, Thomas Nelson, Nashville, 1983. This practical handbook for Christian administrators distinguishes between two kinds of leaders — the "elected" and the "born." Those elected, or placed, in administrative roles will learn about the skills required to become more proficient. For those born with the talent of ministry, the author offers suggestions for strengthening and developing existing abilities.
___, Engstrom, Ted & Dayton, Edward, The Art of Management for Christian Leaders, Word Books, Waco, 1976. This is a tightly packaged management handbook designed so that the reader may "dip in" at his or her point of need.
___, The Christian Leaders ' 60-Second Management Guide, Word Books, Waco, 1984. This deals with the personal side of management and addresses issues that challenge Christian leaders and managers daily. Topics discussed include: competence, integrity, conflict management,
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the anguish of change and the tools necessary to control your job.
___, Strategy for Living, Regal Books, Glendale, 1976. The authors suggest that a framework of personal management by plans, goals and priorities can be applied to all of life. There is a need, they attest, for both leaders and non-leaders to integrate family, recreation, personal goals, and organization into the whole of life. This book presents in a package the first day of the Engstrom/Dayton "Managing Your Time" seminar.
Engstrom, Ted & Juroe, David J., For the Workaholic I Love, Fleming H. Revell, Old Tappan, 1979. Formerly titled The Work Trap, this book explores the problems and implications of excessive work, the underlying causes and the practical solutions. The authors define different types of workaholics and explore the different reasons for excessive work. Very useful if you feel you're overworked (or your spouse does!).
Gangel, Kenneth, Competent to Lead, Moody Press, Chicago, 1974. Here Gangel expands upon concepts he discusses in So You Want to Be a Leader. This is a serious attempt to integrate biblical theology and management.
Kellogg, Marion S., What to Do About Performance Appraisal, Revised Edition, American Management Association, 1975. This is an A.M.A. handbook chosen by its President's Association because of its excellent handling of this most demanding of the executive skills. Appraisal is essential to promote or fire, counsel or criticize, coach or transfer employees. This is a practical "how-to" book with many pluses.
Mackenzie, Alex, New Time Management Methods for You and Your Team, Dartnell, Chicago, 1975. This is an indepth analysis of top time concerns for managers worldwide.
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It includes a detailed approach to taking and analyzing time logs, measuring managerial effectiveness, and making time management work at home.
___, The Time Trap, American Management Association, New York, 1972. Managing yourself is a key to managing your time. Here the author expands upon this concept and includes an excellent section on working with your secretary.
Mackenzie, Alec and Kay Waldo, About Time: A Woman's Guide to Time Management, McGraw Hill, New York, 1981. Whether your are working professionally, at home, or as a volunteer, this books stresses the conditions, perceptions, expectations and needs that affect women at work in special ways. Highlights include sections on the "Superwoman Syndrome," managing crises, saving time through assertion, managing your home, letting go of stress and taking time for pleasure.
Maslow, Abraham, Motivation to Last a Lifetime, second edition, Harper & Row, New York, 1970. Maslow's pioneer thinking on his now-famous "hierarchy of needs" was first published in book form in 1954, and has been adapted to assist in the understanding of the relationship between personal goals to motivation. This second edition develops Maslow's "grumble theory" in which he observes that when we meet a need or reach a goal we experience only temporary happiness which, in turn, tends to be succeeded by another and higher discontent. We tend to take for granted the blessings already received. Only by setting higher goals and straining and stretching toward those do we feel fulfillment. It is in the striving— rather than the achievement — that we find our life.
Peters, Thomas J. & Waterman, Robert., In Search of Excellence, Harper & Row, New York, 1982. This highly
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acclaimed book examines a number of America's "best-run companies." The authors found eight basic practices to be characteristic of successfully managed companies. Though much of this is "common wisdom," the authors grant us tremendous insight into a number of the dimensions of management not customarily included in management books.
Schaller, Lyle E., The Change Agent, Abingdon Press, Nashville, 1972. Schaller discusses planning from the viewpoint of the Christian organization, most particularly that of the church. Highly recommended for any pastor or Christan leader who desires to be an agent of change in his or her church.
