Skills of an Effective Administrator II

This approach is based not on what good executives are(their innate traits and characteristics), but rather on what they do (the kinds of skills which they exhibit in carrying out their jobs effectively).

The quest for the executive stereotype has become so intense that many companies, in concentrating on certain specific traits or qualities, stand in danger of losing sight of their real concern: what a man can accomplish.

It is the purpose of this article to suggest what may be a more useful approach to the selection and development of administrators. This approach is based not on what good executives are (their innate traits and characteristics), but rather on what they do (the kinds of skills which they exhibit in carrying out their jobs effectively). As used here, a skill implies an ability which can be developed, not necessarily inborn, and which is manifested in performance, not merely in potential. So the principal criterion of skillfulness must be effective action under varying conditions.

ACTION POINT: Understand the difference between potential and performance.

Skills of an Effective Administrator

...a top manager needs good judgment, the ability to make decisions, the ability to win respect of others...


Although the selection and training of good administrators is widely recognized as one of American industry's most pressing problems, there is surprisingly little agreement among executives or educators on what makes a good administrator. The executive development programs of some of the nation;s leading corporations and colleges reflect a tremendous variation in objectives.

At the root of this difference is industry's search for the traits or attributes which will objectively identify the "ideal executive' who is equipped to cope effectively with any problem in any organization. As one observer of U.S. industry recently noted:


The assumption that there is an executive type is widely accepted, either openly or implicitly. Yet any executive presumably knows that a company needs all kinds managers for different levels of jobs. The qualities most needed by a shop superintendent are likely to be quite opposed to those needed by a coordinating vice president of manufacturing. The literature of executive development is loaded with efforts to define the qualities needed by executives, and by themselves these sound quite rational. Few, for instance, would dispute the fact that a top manager needs good judgment, the ability to make decisions, the ability to win respect of others, and all the other well-worn phrases any management man could mention. But one has only to look at the successful managers in any company to see how enormously their particular qualities vary from any ideal list of executive virtues.


ACTION POINT: Examine the qualities of the successful managers in your organization.

The Problem Solving Process

Being conscious of what is going on around you, so you can spot problems early.

The right decisions at the right time are needed to solve problems when they arise. The following 5 steps provide direction for the process:

• Identifying - Being conscious of what is going on around you, so you can spot problems early.
• Defining - Making a careful analysis of the problem to be solved, in order to define it as clearly as possible.
• Making the decision - Evaluating the alternatives and choosing a course of action that will improve the situation in a significant way.
• Implementing - Setting your action plan in motion, by creating a schedule and assigning tasks and responsibilities.
• Following through - Monitoring the progress, to ensure that the desired outcome is achieved.

ACTION POINT: Use the five steps above to asses and solve problems.

Finding Solutions

Establish criteria for measuring success, then track progress and take corrective actions when necessary.

Problem solving involves closing the gap between what is actually taking place and a desired outcome. Once you have identified a problem that needs to be addressed, start by analyzing the problem and defining it as clearly as you can. This is a key step: the definition you generate will have a major impact on all remaining steps in the process. If you get the definition wrong, all remaining steps will be distorted, because you will base them on insufficient or erroneous information.

Definition is important even if the solution appears to be obvious--without full assessment you may miss an alternative resolution that is more advantageous. Gather as much information about the situation as you can. Try to understand the goals of all of the parties involved, and clarify any aspect of the problem you are unclear about.

Once you are satisfied that you have full understanding of the issues, develop courses of action that could provide a resolution to the problem. There is often more than one way to solve a problem, so it is critical to consider all possible solutions and arrive at several alternatives from which tho choose.

Your decision will provide you with an action plan. However, this will be of little value unless it is implemented effectively. Defining how, when, and by whom the action plan is to be implemented an communicating this to those involved is what connects the decision with reality.

Your involvement should not end at implementation, however. Establish criteria for measuring success, then track progress and take corrective actions when necessary. Try to develop and maintain positive attitudes in everyone involved in the implementation process.

ACTION POINT: Define problems clearly and connect their solution to reality with an action plan.

A Homing Instinct

Heaven means not just a pleasant place but our place, not just a good place but a good place for us. Peter Kreeft - 1980

Let's explore our blessing. Let's open our strange present and play with it a bit. What does it mean?

Alienation is the opposite of being at home. If the Bible is not wrong when it calls us "strangers and pilgrims" (1 Pet 2:11), then that's why we feel alienation: We feel what is. When any organism is at home, there is an ecological fit with its environment, a harmony, a rightness. If the environment does not supply this, that environment is not its home.

A fish has no quarrel with the sea. Yet we have a lover's quarrel with the world...

We have a homing instinct, a "home detector," and it doesn't ring for earth. That's why nearly every society in history except our own instinctively believes in life after death. Like the great mythic wanders, Like Ulysses and Aeneas, we have been trying to get home. Earth just doesn't smell like home. However good a road it is, however good a mote it is, however good a training camp it is, it is not home. Heaven is.

1 Peter 2:11

Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul.