VOL. 52, NO. 1 HEAD OFFICE: MONTREAL, JANUARY 1971

To Become a ManagerTHE QUALITIES NEEDED in management have been thesubject of many books and essays. These, however,have been addressed to the men and women who havearrived at management desks. This Monthly Letterattempts to show that when a person cultivates thequalities day by day on the job he now has he will beready for the managerial job he seeks, whether it bemanagement of a factory, an office, a store, a school,or a home.

Perhaps promotion today is not so easy as it oncewas, but education has advanced and enlarged so asto prepare one to cope. It can be said with truth thatmore is needed than is included in the Horatio Algersuccess formula: a poor but worthy hero who enterslife as a bootblack or newsboy, surmounts impossibleobstacles, and achieves the heights of success. Butcertain fundamentals remain unaffected by mechanical,social and trade revolutions.

To be an efficient manager does not demand higheducation, but it does require common sense, keenintelligence, and qualities of judgment, temperamentand drive. In whatever post you reach you mustwelcome the call to combat the difficulties that prob-lems impose. You hold your post only as a sportsmanholds a challenge cup.

"Manager" is an omnibus term, including men andwomen who hold a great variety of directive and ad-visory positions, but it always implies leadership. Ifyou are not a natural leader whom others instinctivelytrust and obey, now is the time to start cultivating thequalities that will raise you into that class.

The pathway to management rank is much like thehard road followed by a recruit in the armed servicesin search of a sergeant’s stripes. He has to work atmenial tasks; differentiate his left foot from his right;be at the proper place at the assigned time; separatea gun into its component parts, shake them up in ablanket, and put them together again; get along witha mixed bag of other service men, including sergeants;learn to help and to accept help; keep healthy; grouchwith discretion; develop aptitudes; scorn weakness;

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Interest in succeeding is the motive power that willsee you through the drudgery and tribulations. Youhave an end in view, and you accept the means tothat end.

All this apprenticeship is necessary if you are toavoid the misfortune of being placed in a managementposition just because you look the part. Looks countfor little in the hard bargaining of labour relations, inthe tough going of a crisis in production, in the con-tinuing battle to keep the annual financial statement inblack ink.

Ambition

Difficulty is not an obstacle to progress, but a suredoorway to opportunity if you have ambition. Itscreens out the amateur, the playboy, and the lessable. A young man seeking promotion needs someballast to keep him on an even keel, but most of all heneeds a tall mast and a sail.

One element in advancement is strength of purpose.Not all the stop-watch systematization in the worldwill be worth while unless a man’s spirit is blazing withaspiration. This is not made up of a desire to holdpower, but to develop the department into somethingbetter, to see good plans germinate and grow.

Pride of achievement in your present job is a power-ful incentive. Here is something you can tie yourselfto when other motivations have failed or have losttheir strength. If you can learn to live without statussymbols for the time being and rest upon the qualityof your demonstrated worth, you have eliminated ahurdle that many men stumble over.

Like the Emperor Hadrian, let your prestige beyour own, inseparable from your person, and directlymeasurable in terms of achievement. Status symbolswill come, but to you they will be evidences of innerworth, attained by effort to become yourself to theutmost.

Have a programme for your development, andfollow it. Look at these examples of two men whomade good, and reflect upon the features that con-tributed to their success. Dr. Samuel M. Best is a

small-town boy, born in Maitland, Nova Scotia. Heworked his way through the schools, graduated fromthe Massachusetts College of Pharmacy, joined theCuticura Corporation and became its President.Johann Wolf gang von Goethe was trained for thelaw against his inclination. After occupying positionsof increasing importance in the government servicefor thirty years he became director of the ducaltheatre. As additional interests he took up scientificresearch and literature. In the one he made importantdiscoveries in connection with plant and animal lifeand evolved a new theory of the character of light;to literature he contributed ten major works and manybeautiful lyrics, ballads, and love-songs.

Both men developed a sense of direction. Thechances of blundering into success are so slim as notto be depended upon.

Any person who wishes to become a manager willfind starting opportunities right at his elbow. He is aparticipating member in the success of the firm forwhich he works. His start toward management occurswhen he soaks himself in the facts relating to his joband the managerial job he seeks.

To become a manager you must study the profes-sion of management, learn the lessons, and meettests. Do not be narrow. Learn from many disciplines:from science, psychology, philosophy, engineering,physics, chemistry, mathematics, ecology, and medi-cine, as well as from economics. No matter what lineyou are in, all these have something to contribute toyour wise handling of management situations.

Learn to shift your viewpoint year by year, keepingup with new knowledge and new thoughts. If PlaceVille Marie were examined by a Grecian architect,accustomed to the lines of the Parthenon, he wouldfind nothing but deformity, while nineteenth-centuryJohn Ruskin would see it as stark and unadorned,and would call it "architectural doggerel". Today’sbusiness, like today’s architecture, has new rules andstandards.

Be professional

Once a man embarks upon management he mustcultivate the attributes of a professional. Some of themarks of a "pro" are: he does not accept mediocrity;he continues his education so as to keep his perfor-mance up to date; he accepts the ethical rules of thegame; he keeps looking for better ways to do things;he seeks opportunities to expand and display his skill;he is open-minded, and he is fair in his dealings withpeople.

If a "pro" is not a universal judge of what is good,he has some quite incontrovertible ideas of what isbad--all things shoddy, all pretentious imitations,all second-hand ideas, all gimmicks, and all thingspointlessly decorated. He has a scale of values.

Aim at being a "pro" on the job you have. Thismeans having complete mastery of it. A person canlearn much from books and in well-designed courses

in schools, but he cannot call himself a "pro" until hehas had actual experience, though the experience maybe small-scale.

There is a self-disciplinary cost involved. Refusal tomake personal sacrifices for his job holds back manya man. As Cassius said to Brutus in Julius Caesar:"Men at some time are masters of their fates; thefault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves,that we are underlings."

The manager is one-who must trust his own judg-ment. The "pro" is not one who has to ask advicebefore doing anything important, or who leans onhis boss. A man’s self-confidence measures the heightof his possibilities, and no man ever passes his ownself-imposed limitation.

Self-reliance is not a single attribute but the com-bination of many qualities: emotional stability, will-ingness to face facts and to bear responsibility, practicein making decisions and the courage to abide by theconsequences, the habit of depending on one’s ownresources and ability, and the energy of initiative.

Analyse the situation

One infallible rule for clear thinking in any job willcarry over into wise action in management: analysethe situation. Unless you put a problem into wordsyou do not give it form, and if it is formless it does notexist in a shape that permits solution.

In every crisis, however big or little, get all the cardson the table and recognize the total situation. Takenothing for granted if you can check it. Students inbiology usually start out with the examination of aplant or an animal; they then proceed to dissect it,to take it to pieces and examine these, to see how theliving thing was made up and how it worked. Then it isprofitable to return to the whole plant and the wholeanimal and look at them again in the light of thisknowledge.

Ideas and conceptions which seem utterly chaoticwhen circling and colliding in our minds become clearand separated into orbits and systems when we writethem or sketch them on paper. There is in the very actof taking a pen in hand something imperative whichthe most wandering mind seldom resists.

Keeping records of progress may be a nuisance, butso are many of the other things you have to do inpreparing for a management position. No aspiringyoung man should be content unless his personal book-keeping informs him of his gains and losses. The pathof business is littered with the wreckage of men whomight have been great if they had done a competentjob of cost-accounting.

Get experience

Get experience where you are, and reach out formore experience on the periphery of your job. Ex-perience helps you to do things. When you get to bea manager you will have this point by which to judge

subordinates: do they come to you with decisions ordo they expect you to make decisions for them? Onthe way up you will be judged by the same criterion.Now is the time to practise what you will expect ofothers.

Fortunately for us, we do not need to confineourselves to our own experiences. It would be a dread-ful prospect if every child entering the world had towait and learn by experience the burning quality offire, how to catch and cook his own dinner, and thathe cannot tackle a lion bare-handed.

The man who depends upon his own experiences hasrelatively few materials to work with. That is whytrade papers, textbooks and biographies are useful --to make available to us knowledge of the techniquesand practices used effectively by others.

The managers of departments are expected to pushtheir specialties, but in a rapidly changing world ver-satility is a priceless asset. Too early specialization canbe hampering. Instead of concentrating on many factsabout one subject, learn a few important facts aboutmany subjects. To be a manager you need knowledgeand sensitivity in a broad field.

Knowledge and expertness are not the completerequirements for management. The manager is moreof an effective dreamer than a perfect machine. Hehas to originate, to think creatively.

This is something that can be learned on the mosthumble job. If you are a creative pace-setter in yourpresent work you have the makings of a creative-coachin a managerial job.

To be creative means finding means to improve thejob and your part in it. From there you will go on tomake trial runs beyond your daily job. You willimagine a problem that might arise in your work -- orin your boss’s work--and solve it. This is far andaway better than finding faults and pointing out diffi-culties.

The most degrading poverty in a human being, andthe greatest obstacle in the way of the person whoseeks promotion, is poverty of the imagination. Toraise new questions, new possibilities, requires creativeimagination and marks real advancement. Do not beafraid of allowing your mind to take flights of fancy.

Communicate clearly

The person aspiring to management level must--and it is an imperative must- develop his effective-ness in communication. This includes ease, clarityand appropriateness of what he says and writes andthe thoroughness with which he listens.

In The Pyramid Climbers, a novel by Vance Packard,the report is given of a group of college seniors whowere about to go into corporations as managerialtrainees. Every man who scored in the top quarter invocabulary while still in college became an executivewithin five years, while not one in the bottom quarteron vocabulary reached that rank.

Faulty communication has much to do with thedisorder in offices and factories. It is not communi-cating if you merely tell something so that it can beheard. The language and depth of thought must beadapted to the receptive system of the hearers.

You have the obligation to be intelligible. If reasonsare needed, here they are. (1) For efficiency: unlesspeople understand what you are driving at theycannot respond in keeping with what you desire.(2) For courtesy: you have no license to talk in suchobscure words or in so low a voice that peoplemust strain to get what you are trying to convey.(3) For your personal satisfaction: if you are muffled,either as to sound or language, your instructionsand even your jokes -- will fall fiat, and that is alwaysdisconcerting.

Make no mistake about this: every communicationa manager makes does two things: it conveys ideasand it generates feelings. The reader’s feelings, needsand motives must be considered as well as his literacylevel.

Listening is important. By listening, we reducemisunderstanding, argument and conflict. We alsodraw, to our advantage, on the experiences and opin-ions of others.

Proper communication is part of co-operation.Every person should develop his capability to walkalone if need be, but he should guard against makingself-dependency an obsession. Co-operation withinyour group, your office, or your workshop, is vital toyour survival as a manager and to the success of yourenterprise.

There have been many examples of shocking failuresand disasters that resulted when people were nottuned in on one another. One was the escape of theGerman battleships from Brest through the narrowEnglish Channel to a home port. It is told about indetail in John Deane Potter’s book appropriatelytitled Fiasco. The British navy, army and air force werejealously hugging their secret information to theirbreasts, shutting their ears to warnings, and closingtheir eyes to evidence.

Three good qualities

The aspiring manager will profit by cultivatingpatience, modesty and enjoyment of work.

Impatience can tear holes in any plan. Plutarch,who wrote a monumental biography of twenty-threeGreeks and twenty-three Romans, declared that "itseems to be without doubt that Brutus might have beenthe first man in the Commonwealth, if he had hadpatience but a little time to be second to Caesar."

Patience in business includes being big enough tosee your suggestions pulled apart by a committeewithout becoming upset; waiting for an idea whichseems clear to you to take hold in a superior’s mind;

going back to a discarded plan to see what can besalvaged, revised, or revitalized; and listening withoutobvious petulance to a colleague whose contributionto a discussion is incoherent and confused.

As to modesty, wear every promotion lightly. Aman may ruin his prospects by throwing his weightaround when he is given a little authority. Take delightin effective action rather than domination, and do nottry to cut too wide a swath. Lord Beaverbrook, whenadvising young people, said: "This rule is the mostimportant of all. Many promising young men havefallen into ruin from the neglect of this simple prin-ciple."

The manager must be a doer of things, a worker. Theopportunities he sees from his executive desk have nomeaning unless they are buttressed by his activity.A man may have talent and knowledge and the wishto progress, but these are futile unless he has drivingpower.

Have an open mind

The manager needs not only an open door policybut an open mind. This is not something that is pickedup the day you are promoted: it has to be cultivatednow.

Being receptive to other people’s opinions andbeliefs does not mean being complacent about thethings that matter. Tolerance distinguishes what isessential and what is not. It enables you to extend yourknowledge over great stretches of life so that you arebetter able to understand the small part that fallswithin your jurisdiction.

When a man has managerial responsibilities hemust not allow himself to be diverted by side issues,however attractive they may be to him. This is aquality that should be cultivated on the way up, so asnot to be side-tracked by things that are of no con-sequence in your programme.

Many successful men in the business and technicalworld today are men who have made the most ofonly average ability by keeping their eye on theirobjective. They did not carry excess baggage; they didnot let promotion and prosperity grow fatty tissuesaround their ambition.

They did have boldness to use their imagination.Man would never have stood erect had he not shat-tered the shackles of precedent in a great experiment.One must have the spunk to stand on his own twofeet. He is not of managerial rank if he declines toundertake anything unless he has positive assuranceof success.

We recall that in Sir Walter Scott’s KenilworthQueen Elizabeth gave Walter Raleigh a diamondring, with which he wrote on a window pane: "Fainwould I climb, but that I fear to fall." The Queencompleted the couplet: "If thy mind fail thee, do notclimb at all."

Postage paid in cash at third class rate.Permit No. 10005 in bulk-en nombre.

Have a philosophy

Single-minded ambition should not be allowed todeprive you of the colour, flavour, poetry, passion andthe infinite variety of life. Even the most hard-headedmanagers need philosophy, art, literature, and ethicsin order to be human.

Philosophy is not an ivory tower diversion. It isengaged in penetrating to the principles and meaningsof things, and these are of pre-eminent value to amanager. Philosophy teaches you how to tell truthfrom falsehood, fact from opinion, the phoney fromthe real, and the beautiful from the tawdry. It providesyou with criteria enabling you to use life in a way thatgives inner peace, and the ability to act out in lifeyour own ideals for yourself.

On reaching maturity

A man’s emotional maturity determines his abilityto work effectively with other people. There is nocredit due you for being old in years: that is somethingthat just happens. But to be mature in thinking is acredit to you because you have worked toward it anddeveloped it. Maturity is a state of mind, not a dateon a calendar.

One sign of maturity is that a man is not cock-sure.There was a hunter in the Musquodoboit district inNova Scotia who shot a moose. He leaned his rifleagainst a tree and went to look at his trophy. Themoose, merely stunned, leaped up and charged him.

A manager is only as good as his actual performanceproves him to be. As a worker you are tackling onejob at a time and coping with one problem at a time.When you become a manager you will be at the focusof many jobs and many problems.

Some of the precautions observed by the managerwhen entering upon an enterprise are like those takenby a military commander: enter no undertakingwithout reserves; make your base secure, so that youhave a strong fixed point around which to manoeuvre;take account of your strength honestly, and discountheavily your estimate of the stupidity of your oppo-nent.

When you are seeking promotion to managerialrank your life consists of activity, planning, aspiring,doing, and pressing on. You will become sensitive toproblems, fluent with ideas, flexible as to means, andrestless for results.

Not all men are so eminently qualified that they canreach the very top of the managerial tree. But anyonecan rise to a better job in which he will be makingthe most of his talents. The path is never an unbrokenseries of successes. There will be disappointments andreverses that must be met staunchly.

After all is said, the way to win success was put asclearly as need be by a little boy. When he was askedhow he learned to skate he replied: "Oh, by gettingup every time I fell down."

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