Research and Revise

Gather Multiple Perspectives Reading 2C

THE WHIZ-BANG MANAGER So you’re a new manager, eh? I’ll be straight with you. To be a manager in our company, you have to show results—nothing less will do, or else what is a manager for? Results are what our stockholders want, and results are what our managers deliver. Efficiency alone won’t do. Efficiency can run a tight ship, sure, and it can also run a ship aground. Our owners grow impatient with managers who only do things right. They want managers who sniff out the right things to do. And let’s face it, what’s right for the company is right for all of us, whether we profit by salary or by dividend. Give an effective manager a few good people, a little cash, and the right tools, and then point to where you want to go. That manager will get you there. That’s what professional managers do—produce results through the work of other people. Consider it a contract between you and the company. The company has an objective and the resources, and you have the organizational skills. What do you getout of it? A handsome salary and hefty bonuses. But if you fail, you’re out of here. Do right, and we’ll support you all the way, because you make the decisions that keep the company going. Think about it. What does a company have to do to succeed? Good planning, you say? It’s the manager’s job to map out the critical path to objectives. Organization? Talk to our managers, for they bring together the human, financial, and physical resources to meet objectives. Staffing? Again, see management. They hire and train the people best qualified to help the company meet objectives. Communication? Every management position is a veritable hub of information about task requirements, budgets, and schedules. Motivation? The manager deals out rewards and incentives to get the best performance out of the staff. Measurement? It’s the manager who monitors team efforts to meet objectives and takes corrective action where there’s slack. Maybe you’re a manager by education. We have quite a few MBAs around here. Maybe you used to be an engineer or an accountant, and now, after a little training, you want to cross the line into management. I hope you realize, though, no matter how you start, once you’re on the management path for a few years, there’s no going back. Directing the work of other people and meeting ambitious goals time after time is addictive. You begin to dream of what you could achieve given the right people and resources. Always keep in mind that you create the conditions for other people to do the work. Naturally you want men and women who are competent, energetic, and motivated, but it’s you who set the objectives, and it’s they who do the work. It doesn’t matter that you don’t have the skills and intelligence your subordinates have. And forget about charm, magnetism, and all that business about the charisma of a born leader. Your function is pure and simple: make the decisions that improve the performance of your workers. Observe I say “objectives” a lot. Indeed, objectives are the milestones on the road to company success. An effective manager meets objectives—that’s all there is to it. Set the objective, organize the team, motivate the people, and meet the objective. There is no good reason—at any given second, minute, hour, day, week, month, year, or decade— that your crew is not making measurable progress toward making the company richer. That’s what managing is all about. Consider yourself a professional—because that is what you are now, a professional manager. Throw away those technical books on—What did you say you were? An engineer?—and dig into the classics on how to be a good manager. Build a library. Whatever it is—staffing, planning, organizing, staffing, scheduling—there’s plenty of good advice out there. Even the old heads in the company will tell you, when you know all there is to know about managing people, you’ll be ready to retire. Which reminds me: I see we’re flying together to the management seminar in Dallas next week. There’s a session I’m looking forward to, something about what makes people tick.

Questions to Ponder

1. What single element of leadership seems to motivate the Whiz-Bang Manager?

2. How would you like to work for the Whiz-Bang Manager? Why or why not?

3. How do you think senior management and stockholders would receive the Whiz-Bang Manager?

4. Is the importance of “meeting objectives” being exaggerated in the passage, or should meeting objectives and goals be the primary purpose of a manager?

5. How would you describe the relationship between the Whiz-Bang Manager and his or her subordinates?

6. What ethical concerns do you have regarding the Whiz-Bang style of leadership, if any?

Sources

That source, in turn, drew heavily from Drucker, Peter. Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices. New York: Harper & Row, 1973.