PAPERmaking! FROM THE PUBLISHERS OF PAPER TECHNOLOGY Volume 2, Number 1, 2016
Then, the third element is the communications system by which ideas pass from the top right through every individual in the whole organisation. Now, the job of the top man or the board is really to make decisions and, having made those decisions on high matters of policy, it is an awful pity if they waste their time doing things that are not important. Having made their decision on it, it is their job to see that it is clearly expressed and it is very funny how well our education is alleged to be increasing. I really believe that our command of plain, simple, easily understandable English is growing less and everybody who sets out to be a leader, in any walk of life, wants to be able to express himself plainly, shortly, and clearly. Now, beginning at the top with our commander or leader or chairman or board, one of the first things that they have got to do is to get themselves known. It is a very distressing thing, but in a great many firms and organisations the head man can go around his organisation and, unless he is trailed around by a lot of other people, the ordinary fellow on the workshop floor won't know who he is. Now, a general or the head of any organisation ought to be able to go into any camp, barrack, bivouac or any workshop, office, in his organisation, and be recognised as the top man. That is, I think, the thing in which the Army is rather better than a good deal of industry. I think we in the Army usually achieve that. I know I used to walk into somewhere, unannounced, and I would hear the whisper go around, 'Here's the old bugger, what's he doing now?" Well, it was much better to be recognised than to be popular, and also, soldiers, and I think workers in all walks of life, have a habit of using words beginning with "b" almost as a term of endearment. But the head man must be known because he can't know everybody. But they must know him. And never laugh at a general who wears a pair of breeches and puts two patches on them, because he is fulfilling one of the outstanding requirements of leadership. He is getting himself known to the men he leads. The temptations that assail the head of any organisation to remain at your desk are increasing because the problems pile up and you have to keep in the centre of things; but do not let that become too strong. Get out and about. After all, if you are running the show properly you will have somebody that can take your place. If you have got a really good organisation, it will run quite well for a week without your being there. If it runs as well when you are away for a month or more, well then you may as well stay away. The second element in the exercise of leadership is the subordinate commanders, all the managers and the heads of areas, or whatever your organisation has. Now, what they want, first of all, is a clear directive of what they are supposed to be doing. They ought to be fully in the mind of the top man or top board and it is necessary that they should understand very clearly what his object is, what he is trying to do. Now, I have had an immense number of orders and directives sent out in my name and those of you who remember the military order, there is one thing in it which is called the "intention". It is usually the shortest paragraph in the order and I had a lot of very, very good Staff Officers who could write orders much better than I could, but I always wrote the intention paragraph myself. It was usually the shortest in the order, but I think it is the most important because if the intention of the directive is known, then you can allow your subordinates a great deal of flexibility and a great deal of room in what they do to obtain it, so long as they keep well within the bounds of the directive. We are a little inclined to breathe down the necks of our subordinates and when we do it is, very largely, for one of two reasons: (1) because we are not quite sure we have chosen the right man, and that is our fault, and (2) we have not really made our intentions to him clear and we are not quite sure that he will keep within the bounds of the intention.
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Article 12 – Leadership (Field-Marshall Slim)
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