The Executive Profile

The Executive Profile

by Philip B Crosby
Chairman, Philip Crosby Associates II Inc.
reprinted with permission, from the introduction to "LEADING The Art of becoming an Executive"

Executives determine what is going to be run; managers do the running. Learning to become a manager is a worthwhile effort that provides a great deal of personal satisfaction. Without managers there could be no world worth living in. Without managers very little would happen. But without executives the managers would have nothing to manage.

The executive thinks up the venture; the executive determines what has to be done; the executive delegates the jobs necessary to achieve the desired result. The executive establishes the requirements. The executive also makes most of the money and leads the league in opportunity to accumulate wealth. But having a sign on the office door or carrying a well embossed business card does not make one an executive. One is if one does. one is not if one does not. Yet it is possible to learn how to become an executive. Most of it is conceptual; a lot is energy; the majority is direction.

Executives must always keep their eyes on the real objective, while being up-to-date on what is really going on "out there." It is like taking a boat up the Amazon, working on a convincing welcoming speech to the head-hunters, and at the same time assuring that someone is making certain that the river-depth machine is performing.

The producer of a motion picture is an executive. He or she has the responsibilities of finding the script, digging up the money, determining the talent, laying out the promotion and distribution plan, keeping the director within budget, soothing the stars' feelings, causing theatres to be clean, and keeping peace on the sets-all while appearing confident that everything is going to work out.

The executive sees the need for each of these components of the project, and assigns them to someone to manage-under direction. Every task is original even though many are a traditional part of the business. Managers learn how to set up budgets, obtain proper approvals, and measure the progress of work. The way the executive sets up and directs the managers of the project predetermines the degree of success. All components have to work, both individually and in concert, for the whole scheme to be accomplished.

A wonderful script can be ruined by inappropriate actors. Adequate financing can be drowned by cost overruns. A negative advertising campaign can produce empty seats. Poor relationships can poison the entire project. The opportunities for problems are limitless, yet there are few new ways to fail.

Someone has to keep all of this in hand. Someone has to be aware of sounds and silences. Someone has to know when it is time to do something that no one else is aware of. That person is the executive. Well-informed, confident, possessed of interpersonal skills, not a super-person, usually not even exceptionally gifted-the executive hears all, sees all, and feels all.

Leadership Can Be Learned

One can learn to be an executive: in fact, that is the way executives are made. I was a manager for several years and assumed that I was an executive. I had a budget, a staff, a work force, meetings, problems, and a full schedule. What else was necessary? There were several hundred persons in my department, and people were yelling at us all the time, so I must have been an executive.

One day as we sat around waiting for the boss's staff meeting to begin, someone said, "What is the difference between a program manager and a program director?" Before anyone could answer, the personnel director said, "About $15,000 a year. "We all laughed and the world went on, but the comparison stuck in my mind. My total compensation at that time was about $20,000 a year as a program manager.

I worked for a project director, and he worked for the general manager. The general manager worked for corporate headquarters, and they had lots of people up there who never got yelled at. It was beginning to occur to me that my view of the business world was somewhat limited. I needed to know more, and I needed to get to an organisational level where there was a lot more latitude of movement and a lot more opportunity to be properly rewarded for my efforts.

I already knew that those who did the hardest work did not necessarily make the most money. (Watching my lawyer earn five hundred dollars for a couple of hours work taught me that.) I also knew that demonstrating the ability to get the impossible done in a manager's job just meant that even more impossible tasks would soon be coming my way. Those in the higher organisational levels usually did not recognise a great accomplishment when they saw it. Most of their measurements were ineffectual, which meant that the effective and the sloppy looked much the same to them. They went on personality more than anything else when it came to evaluating people.

A Most Useful Vow

My first vow as an "executive-to-be" was that I would not forget what it was like to be on the lower levels. ("I used to be an enlisted man myself, son.") That turned out to he a useful vow. People relate to someone they recognise as having an understanding of life in the working lane, and who they feet has empathy for the pressures and frustrations that exist there. They help make those executives successful, just as they help make those who do not relate to them unsuccessful.

Most executives would not recognise that their subordinates might be deliberately working against them. Senior executives are sometimes baffled by the successful pattern of some leaders and the failure rate of others. It never dawns on them that the pieces on the chessboard are fixing the game in favour of those who appreciate them. I saw a lot of this during my military career in two wars.

All my time was spent in the enlisted ranks. We had our own rules, and we responded to those officers who responded to us. We made some of them very successful, and we let others fall to their natural level.

Some of our leaders pretended to relate and some actually did, We could always tell the difference. It is not possible to fool the people for very long. Once in a while they are wrong in judging those who are given authority over them, but they catch on very quickly.

email: d.kwok@onaustralia.com.au