A Lifetime of Learning to Manage Effectively

Ralph Z. Sorenson

Years ago, when I was a young assistant professor at the Harvard Business School, I thought that the key to good management lay in raw brainpower. I graded students on how smart they were, expecting the ones with the highest marks to be the biggest successes in the business world. And I thought the role of business schools was to teach future managers every aspect of business and only business: how to define problems, analyze them, identify alternatives in a clear and logical fashion, and finally, how to make an intelligent decision.

My thinking gradually changed, over years of living and working outside the United States, and by serving seven years as president of a prestigious business school. As I gained real-life, first-hand experience with the multitude of difficulties lying in wait for even the smartest and best-trained managers, I found myself with a growing list of traits and skills that I felt a good manager must possess—and that are seldom taught in business school.

The first is the ability to express yourself in a clear, articulate fashion. Good oral and written communication skills are absolutely essential to effective management.

Second, you must possess that special set of qualities called leadership skills. To be a good leader you must be sensitive to people and be able to inspire them toward the achievement of common goals.

Next I concluded that effective managers must be multifaceted human beings who not only understand the world of business, but also have a sense of the cultural, social, political, historical, and (particularly today) the international aspects of life and society. This suggests that a large dose of the liberal arts and humanities should be part of every manager's education.

Further, a good manager in today's world must have courage and a strong sense of integrity. He or she must know where to draw the line on self-indulgence and quick profits, recognize what's right and wrong and then stick to what's right. That can be extremely difficult. Drawing the line in a corporate setting sometimes involves choosing between what appear to be conflicting "rights." For example, if you have to decide whether or not to close an ailing factory, whose interests should prevail? Those of the owners? of the employees? of the customers? What about those of the community where the factory is located? It's a tough nut to crack. And the typical manager's career is full of hundreds of them.

Sometimes these choices involve simple questions of honesty or truthfulness. More often, they are more subtle and involve such issues as whether to cut corners and economize in ways that may seem positive in the short run but that are not in the best long-term interests of the various groups being served by one's company. Making the right choice in situations such as these clearly demands integrity—and the courage to follow where one's integrity leads.

Finally, one must possess the ability to make positive things happen. It is this trait, more than any other, that makes a truly successful manager. One dependable manager who can make the right things happen in a timely fashion is worth far more to a company than any number of brilliant, highly-educated executives who can plan and analyze to beat the band but who never get anything implemented. The most valuable manager is the one who says "I can do it"—and then does.

Many business schools continue to focus almost exclusively on the development of analytical skills. As a result, these schools are continuing to turn out large numbers of graduates who know all about analyzing strategies and balance sheets but who still don't know how to manage!

As a practical matter, of course, schools can go only so far in teaching their students to manage. Only the school of hard knocks can fully develop the kinds of managerial traits and skills that I've discussed here. Put another way: The best way to learn management is to manage.