When to Question Instructions.—Any questioning before your men of the wisdom of instructions from higher authority, any grumbling from you about their unfairness, would injure this fine spirit of loyalty and of co-operation in the larger team. It would show you up as unworthy of your responsible position in the organization and thus hurt the men's respect for you. If you have an honest question of the fairness or wisdom of the instructions go to higher authority first and fight it out yourself in the interests of your men, without any question of loyalty. That is part of your business both as guardian of your men's welfare, and as a loyal member of the larger organization. It is a delicate matter, involving your own sense of subordination, and your judgment as to what is really best. It can never be done in a spirit of brag or bluster, but only quietly in a spirit of loyalty, true subordination, and desire for the best interests of the whole. Occasions for such action are happily very rare—if your larger organization is in reasonably good hands.
Receiving Instructions.—When you receive instructions from higher authority be sure you get their true meaning before you begin to act. The subordinate with the quick, cheerful, "Yes, sir," and away to the task, leaves a pleasant sensation until we discover that he has bungled the job because he did not half understand what we wanted. Take time to understand, but do not quibble about little details nor fuss about the way in which the instructions are expressed. You are expected to use your own sense and ingenuity in executing these instructions, so be sure that you have grasped their spirit and purpose, and then go to their execution with an enthusiasm and loyalty which will carry the same spirit to the men.
How to Encourage Suggestions.—We have spoken of the value of encouraging subordinates to make suggestions for improvements, etc., of how they may add to the general efficiency, and how they certainly increase the man's pleasure in his work and thus his personal efficiency through giving play to his constructive instincts and his natural desire for self-expression. The point now is how these suggestions are to be encouraged. Certainly not by superficial methods. For example, an organization which had accepted the idea of the value of suggestions from the men tried simply to buy them off-hand by inaugurating a bi-weekly prize rewarding contest in giving suggestions. It was their notion that for a prize of five dollars some employee was going to tell them how to make two blades of grass grow in place of one. This method missed all appreciation of the fundamental principles involved and of course ended in a farce.
These suggestions we want spring naturally from the interest and partnership you have made the men feel in the organization; from the ideas for improvement which they then evolve as they carry on at their work, thinking how it might be done better or how the team might get bigger results. The only encouragement they need is first this atmosphere of partnership; and second, a boss who has sense enough to give their suggestions fair consideration. The leader who has not the time or patience to listen to suggestions can never get the best efforts of the men, and is doing the enterprise real damage.
Every man should feel sure that his suggestion will be fairly considered and, if his idea has real value, that he will be given full credit all the way up the line to the big chief. And the way to do this is to take the man in person to higher authority and have him personally explain his idea. This makes very real to him and his fellows his importance as a member of the team. If in a big business concern the man were actually called before the board of directors to explain the details of some improvement he had thought out, nothing could do more to establish a sense of partnership in the undertaking. Appreciating their value, you can make as much as you will of every opportunity thus to increase the men's interest in the work and their sense of co-operation.
Advantage of Ambition.—Ambition for advancement is another of the human instincts to be considered by the leader both in connection with his own career and in handling his subordinates. Every one should feel that he may progress as far as his actual ability warrants—and he certainly may, for good leaders are still rare and to be desired and the truest saying of life is that there is plenty of room at the top. But subordinates must realize that selfish ambition cannot win, that it is only by playing for the team and working for the best interests of the whole outfit that one can win his superior's recommendation for promotion. The unselfish ambition of an individual thus improves both his chances for promotion and the work of the team. Industrial progress and individual promotion both spring from individual effort to increase output or to decrease expenditure of energy. It is generally true throughout industry that "the great stream of intelligence, inventiveness and adaptation flows from the bottom up and not from the top down, and that the top is continually being recruited from the bottom," as employers daily graduate from the classes of laborers. This latter is so common a fact that it is frequently overlooked. It is so wholesome a fact, so characteristic of our democratic institutions and so helpful a thought in times of unrest and discouragement, that it should be emphasized and frequently brought to mind.
Never Deny an Earned Promotion.—An earned promotion should never be denied a man when his opportunity does come, simply because his superior feels that he cannot spare this man's services. As unjust as that is, it is often done, and always to the cost of the group spirit. In reality there are very few men in life so important to their positions that they cannot be replaced—and often to surprising advantage. No matter what pains are necessary to train the man's replacement, it is far better to let him go than it is to keep him and thus lower the morale of all by showing that your selfishness or laziness is going to stand in the way of a deserved promotion. This situation is often avoided by the excellent rule that each man in the organization shall always have at least one other who has qualified to take his place.
How to Win Promotion.—It is not practical here to detail the ways to win advancement,—magazine articles are always giving happy suggestions in this field,—but these are general hints: A man does not win by bragging about his abilities, or by anything that smacks of "freshness." The way to get the superior's attention to your merit is to make the merit conspicuous. You may be sure that management is always seeking the man who can produce, and that superior results will soon catch its eye. So go at each task cheerfully, and above all make it clear that your one big interest is the success of the outfit. One thing that so often denies promotion to a keen man is the statement of his superior that "Jones is keen all right, but he thinks nine times for Jones and once for the company." This is too bad, when the same amount of work and ability unselfishly directed might so easily have carried him ahead.
Value of True Merit.—But the saddest thing is to see a man get sore at heart and quit trying because he thinks that his merit is not recognized. Make the merit big enough, and it is sure to win. Someone will find it out, and buy your superior services. Ralph Parlette well explains this in his so human pamphlet, "It's Up to You," in which he illustrates human experience by what happens when you shake a jar containing a mixture of beans and nuts: The little beans rattle down, the smallest to the very bottom, and the larger nuts shake up, the largest to the very top. Thus we find our place and hold it in life's struggle according not to our wishes but to our actual size. Friendly influence may elevate the little bean to high position, but the jolts of experience soon rattle him back to the place he fits without rattling; adversity may have crowded the big nut to the bottom, but the same jolts will see him shaking up again to the top. It is not luck that takes one up or down, it is size—and the answer to ambition is grow bigger. There is so much true human nature in them that a few sentences are quoted: "Everybody wants to go up. But everybody is not willing to pay the price by first growing bigger so that he can shake higher. So many want to be boosted up. Everybody is doing one of three things: holding his place, rattling down, or shaking up. Whatever place we shake into, if we want to hold our place, we must hold our size. We must fill the place, for if we shrink up smaller than the place, we rattle. Nobody can stay long where he rattles. And you observe that in order to hold our size, we must keep on growing enough to supply the loss by evaporation. Evaporation is going on all the time, in lives as well as in liquids. A plum becomes a prune by evaporation. I wish human plums became as valuable when they become prunes."
Joy of Accomplishment.—Akin to man's natural delight in doing things well is the motive for accomplishment, and the pleasure he gets from seeing a thing completed. We all know people who are more or less ruled by this passion, who "get their teeth set" as we say in doing something, and can be interested in nothing else until they have done it. One of America's most successful business men recently replied when asked what he considered the best thing in life, "The satisfaction that comes from accomplishment." This may be enjoyed by every individual no matter in what walk of life, for it means the satisfaction to be had from the accomplishment of the tasks in our own daily life and work. The housewife has it from the contemplation of her glistening shelf of preserves, the farmer gets it from his crops and the schoolboy from his work and play—when he completes a set task, or first swims across the river.