Some promotions, of course, are made to fill vacancies or to initiate a new program, but those which are within the regular company structure tend to go to people who have already shown their capabilities in these tasks.
This is so obvious, it seems hardly worth saying. Yet, the fact that there are thousands and thousands of employees who say, "If I were just given more responsibility, I could handle it," shows the need. If you think in this way, you will seldom have any important responsibilities and, therefore, seldom be promoted to any important position.
Moreover, the technique of assuming responsibilities before they are formally assigned to you is the one most important method of attaining executive success.
If you follow all the other advice in this book but do not grasp this one idea, you might as well have saved your energy. On the other hand, every other good business technique contributes to your ability for handling responsibility.
If you want to get somewhere and want to convince others of your capabilities, you must first improve your present job and step by step take on more tasks. The restless employee who does his job well, who adds to it and who can obviously take on more duties is bound to sell himself to the top men. If you are easygoing, inclined to let others have their way, don't care too much about the results and take little pride in your work, you would be wise to settle for a job with little or no responsibility. If heavy responsibility is given you, you will have nothing but misery.
In a survey made by News Front magazine of the difficulties in top management, executives expressed their problems in the following ways:
"Finding the right young people who can take responsibility."
"People making hard work of simple things,"
"People not getting to the point."
"Executive indecision."
"Getting others to gather the facts and take the responsibility."
"Willingness to let problems slide."
"Lack of follow-through."
"Resistance to change."
"Lack of imagination and vision,"
"Keeping the organization motivated and responsive."
Most of these problems relate to the lack of ability of men to cope with responsibility. One president wrote, "Executives in our company grow and assume more responsibility as they prove their ability to manage."
Another said, "When a man is clearly on top of his job, he's ready to tackle a bigger one."
Increased responsibility, then, comes in two forms: more responsibility on the present job or promotion to a more responsible type of job. Both are steps in the right direction, and the first leads logically-in a healthy company-to the second. The technique required in the assumption of duties that will lead to promotions is not something that can be outlined as another office tasks. It is accomplished by your energy, attitude, expansion and resourcefulness. In other words, it is a technique which uses all the other techniques discussed in this book.
The following pointers may be of some help in this regard:
a. Make certain that you give more than is demanded.
b. Add small improvements of your own.
c. Find methods for better record-keeping and for obtaining a smoother organization.
d. Take on special assignments eagerly.
e. Contribute information on these special jobs over and above those requested.
f. Use subtle but clear methods of letting your superiors know what you have accomplished.
In giving more than is demanded, be certain that your independent thinking and your additions contribute. Extraneous detail is irritating and valueless.
Be especially careful in the way you sell your superiors on the quality of your performance. Sometimes you will be taken for granted, and you surely want to avoid that. It is stupid, however, to wander around stressing the difficulty of what you do or to advertize how many jobs you perform that others get credit for. But you can take pride in your accomplishments and make certain that they are seen. A later chapter discusses the specific techniques of showmanship.
Related to the area of responsibility is stature. Stature, or how "big" a man is, covers the aspects of a man's spirit, his freedom from smallness and his grasp of situations. Some men are hard workers who drive themselves at a great pace, but they lack stature. They are too much involved in petty details and seem to miss the principles. They lack the breadth of vision necessary for leadership. "Small" men do good jobs and are valuable in an organization, but their future is limited by their lack of imagination, their pettiness and their indecisiveness.
Part of your stature is the respect you command among all ranks in the organization. If the boss thinks you are doing a good job, but your associates and underlings have contempt for you, your stature is definitely in question.
Vision is also an indication of stature. Vision goes beyond the mere anticipation of needs for the next six months. It involves plans for the future and the improvements you visualize for your job in relation to the development of the company. Various jobs need men of greater or lesser stature. You cannot be a general manager on a foreman's job, but you can prepare yourself for the larger demands. You can stretch your stature to fit the needs of the job ahead of yours.
One difficulty in the assumption of responsibilities is the situation of being under a boss who is so insecure that he won't allow anyone to be responsible except himself. He is a man without stature. He trusts no one. He delegates nothing except leg work; and subordinates, no matter what their titles or salaries are, can end up feeling like office boys.
If, for one reason or another, this man is a real power in the company, his managing methods may offer you an insurmountable problem. You must find subtle ways of taking responsibility and making it seem to him that everything has been his decision. If the projects that you work on seem always to be better executed than those you do not work on, and if there is any perception among the top executives at all, you will be noticed. If, however, everyone in management is as insecure as your boss, the atmosphere is probably fairly stifling in the first place. No doubt, there will be a tremendous turnover among the middle executives, and you may be wise to use that revolving door yourself.
Doing more than you are required to accomplish in your present job is important, whether climbing within the company is possible or not. The extra things you do in the present situation will help you in any future job, even if it is with another company. Moreover, they will add to your stature.
In the final analysis, hard, clear-thinking work is the best route to new status. There are few short cuts or formulas in the assumption of greater responsibilities. The energy, enthusiasm and resourcefulness you use will go farthest toward getting you an executive position. The easy way is the way of insecurity and precarious leadership.
Experts on Responsibility
A wise prince will seek means by which his subjects will always and in every possible condition of things have need of his government, and then they will always be faithful to him. Machiavelli
The real secret of success is in expecting pressure yet learning how to take it without losing emotional balance. Promotions in most cases come because of a subordinate's sympathetic understanding of his superior's problems. Possessed of this quality, instead of excessive self-centeredness, the successful candidates for promotion have developed their boss's confidence in their ability to take increased pressure at the next higher level. Walter E. Elliott
If you want to succeed you should strike out on new paths rather than travel the worn paths of accepted success. John D. Rockefeller
Undertake something that is difficult; it will do you good. Unless you try to do something beyond what you have already mastered, you will never grow. Ronald E. Osborn
I've never known of an instance in the history of our company where an executive unloaded responsibilities and duties on one lower in the ranks, that he did not find himself immediately loaded from above with greater responsibilities. Arthur F. Hall
A duty dodged is like a debt unpaid; it is only deferred, and we must come back and settle the account at last. Joseph Fort Newton
All problems become smaller if you don't dodge them, but confront them. Touch a thistle timidly, and it pricks you; grasp it boldly, and its spines crumble. William S. Halsey
In a sense a foreman, department head, superintendent, sales manager or officer of a company has many of the responsibilities of a president or the owner of a business, even though the area of responsibility is smaller. As an individual, to be successful he must employ the same basic principles that are necessary for success in the job he has; also in preparation for the promotion he would like to achieve. And this is true of a salesman, office employee or laborer. W. Clement Stone
I think luck is the sense to recognize an opportunity and the ability to take advantage of it. Everyone has bad breaks, but everyone also has opportunities. The man who can smile at his breaks and grab his chances gets on. Samuel Goldwyn
There is a single reason why ninety-nine out of one hundred average business men never become leaders. That is their unwillingness to pay the price of responsibility. By the price of responsibility I mean hard driving, continual work... the courage to make decisions, to stand the gaff . . . the scourging honesty of never fooling yourself about your-self. You travel the road to leadership heavily laden. While the nine-to-five-o'clock worker takes his ease, you are "toiling upward through the night." Laboriously you extend your mental frontiers. Any new effort, the psychologists say, wears a new groove in the brain. And the grooves that lead to the heights are not made between nine and five. They are burned in by midnight oil. Owen D. Young
I discovered at an early age that most of the differences between average people and top people could be explained in three words. The top people did what was expected of them-and then some. They were thoughtful of others, they were considerate, and then some. They met their obligations and responsibilities fairly and squarely, and then some. They were good friends to their friends, and then some. They could be counted on in an emergency, and then some. A RETIRED EXECUTIVE
We are told by some that we are slaves. If being a slave means doing only what we have to do, and then most of us are in truth slaves, but he who does more than he is required to do become at once free. He is his own master. How often do we hear it said, "It was not my work" Too often we fix our minds almost entirely upon what we are going to get and give no thought at all as to what we are going to give in return. A. W. Robertson
As you move up the administrative ladder, you will find that you first deal primarily with things; then as you get more responsibility you deal with people and things; and finally you deal only with people. Accordingly, matters that involve human motivation, interpersonal relationships, human communications, become of greater and greater importance. Edward J. Hanley
The first attribute of leadership is sensitivity. By sensitivity I mean the disposition to take cognizance of different points of view, either of individuals or groups. The sensitive leader realizes that every individual, by virtue of his back ground and experience, has various needs and wants, and that there are no rigid absolutes that can meet these variables. . . . The second attribute of successful leadership is... a well-developed sense of responsibility. . . . The balance between sensitivity and responsibility is an exceedingly fine delineation. To be sensitive to one's followers but, at the same time, to assume the responsibility of embarking upon unknown and untried paths of thought and action is the hallmark of a true leader. To do less is to abdicate the role of leadership. B. C. Gross
The man who has the answers for the people who ask the questions is the man who becomes powerful. There is only one catch; they must be the right answers, or events must prove them right, or, if wrong, unimportant, Martin Panzer
Advancement is applied initiative. Don't imitate. Initiate. B. C. Forbes
We are as big as the responsibilities we accept. We are as large as the task we are willing to undertake and to carry through. Alden Palmer
The technical progress of industry has been a reflection of our ability to apply increasingly accurate methods of measurement to material things. The art of measuring psychological human dimensions is relatively undeveloped. To all of the complexities of management we must bring to bear infinite patience and persistence, consistency and complete sincerity. Louis Ruthenburg
Luck means the hardships and privations which you have not hesitated to endure, the long nights you have devoted to work. Luck means the appointments you have never failed to keep; the trains you have never failed to catch. Max O'Rell
Failure is only postponed success as long as courage "coaches" ambition. The habit of persistence is the habit of victory. Herbert Kaufman
There is more to management than efficiency and production. There is also the question of how it affects the managers themselves. A grave responsibility follows from the fact that most of the productive energies of managers for most of their productive years are under the guidance of the company; there is a tendency for those who hold the more responsible positions to carry much heavier burdens of work than those in less responsible positions. Charles A. Nelson
The wayside of business is full of brilliant men who started out with a spurt, and lacked the stamina to finish. Their places were taken by patient and un-showy plodders who never knew when to quit. J. R. Todd
It is not enough to begin; continuance is necessary. Mere enrollment will not make one a scholar; the pupil must continue in the school through the long course, until he masters every branch. Success depends upon staying power. The reason for failure in most cases is lack of perseverance. J. R. Miller
It has been said that power corrupts and that absolute power corrupts absolutely. The tragedy of this adage lies in the fact that power too often stirs the desire for greater power-power for no reason other than a perverted desire to exercise it. The hunger of some men for power seems never to end. Seneca epitomized it when he said, "He who is too powerful, still continues to aim at that degree of power which is unattainable." It is reasonable to assume that when a man thus seeks power for its own sake he will not be concerned with decency in its employment. Martin Panzer
The only way in which any businessman can hope to achieve anything remotely approaching lasting success is by striving constantly to achieve success in everything he at tempts, and by building new and greater successes on the foundations provided by old ones. J. Paul Getty
I believe the true road to preeminent success in any line is to make yourself master of that line. Andrew Carnegie
Man must work. That is certain as the sun. But he may work grudgingly or he may work gratefully; he may work as a man, or he may work as a machine. There is no work so rude, that he may not exalt it; no work so impassive, that he may not breathe a soul into it; no work so dull that he may not enliven it, Henry Giles
Great men suffer hours of depression through introspection and self-doubt. That is why they are great. That is why you will find modesty and humility the characteristics of such men. Bruce Barton
Within us all there are wells of thought and dynamos of energy which are not suspected until emergencies arise. Then often we find that it is comparatively simple to double or treble our former capacities and to amaze our selves by the results achieved. Quotas, when set up for us by others, are challenges which goad us on to surpass our selves. The outstanding leaders of every age are those who set up their own quotas and constantly exceed them. Thomas J, Watson, Sr.
The man who will use his skill and constructive imagination to see how much he can give for a dollar, instead of how little he can give for a dollar, is bound to succeed. Henry Ford
Under normal periods, any man's success hinges about five percent on what others do for him and ninety-five per cent on what he does, with emphasis on the does. The years that lie ahead will be no bed of roses for any business man. No matter how high the tide of prosperity may rise, no business man will share therein who does not gear himself and his business to a new tempo to meet changing conditions and the problems and difficulties that await our solution. James A. Worsham
Worry and responsibility are part of the price of power. Real power does not lie in documents and memos outlining terms of reference and areas of jurisdiction; it lies in what can be achieved in practice. The boss's secretary can wield great power, like the King's mistress, without any real authority at all. Equally, the head of a big division or company can be powerless, just as Lear was powerless, despite any number of theoretical powers. Power lies in the acceptance of the chiefs authority by others; their knowledge that if they try to resist, they will fail and he will succeed. Anthony Jay
Responsibilities gravitate to the person who can shoulder them; power flows to the man who knows how. Elbert Hubbard
To know the pains of power, we must go to those who have it; to know its pleasures, we must go to those who are seeking it: the pains of power are real, its pleasures imaginary. C. C. Colton
Ideas to Remember
Assuming responsibilities before they are formally assigned to you is the one most important method of executive climbing.
Improve your present job and take on more tasks.
When a man is on top of his job, he is ready for a bigger one.
The technique of assuming responsibilities uses all other techniques discussed in this book.
Give more than is demanded.
Stretch your stature.
Don't let yourself be taken for granted, but don't hard-sell your accomplishments.
The easy way is the way of insecurity.
