Under the circumstances, it is not to be wondered at if your immediate superior is far more interested in retaining your high performance record than in seeing you move on, leaving him with a hole to fill. Many a good man has been stopped cold, not for lack of ability but because of too much. The longer a boss has been in his position, the less he may like to see a disturbance of the status quo, and even the most tolerant of bosses can get irked if he thinks his department is being used as a training ground for the higher-ups. That a boss would want to keep his best men cannot be considered a plot on his part to keep his men down, but a perfectly natural effort to keep his own performance record up. You can't cure this situation, but you can save yourself a lot of worry if you recognize it for what it is and take steps to circumvent it.
Not all good men are kept down because of a superior's desire to retain his most efficient workers. Frequently a supervisor is so concerned with production problems and keeping up with his paper work that his good workers are the men he doesn't have to worry about, and as long as he doesn't have to worry about them, he can forget them. On the other hand, he does know those who are doing a poor job, and he does have to worry and put in a lot of time with them. Thus he slights his most valuable assets-his best men-to concentrate on his substandard workers. So wide-spread is this procedure that a doctrine of management has developed from it called "Management by Exception." Though the procedure is not intended to penalize the good workers, in its concentration on bringing the poor workers up to par, the good workers are neglected in too many instances.
As Irving Wiltse had occasion to discover in a double-barreled way, the boss may know his good men-meaning the men he doesn't have to worry about-and yet remain in complete ignorance of their high qualifications. Wiltse came to us after three years as plant maintenance supervisor, deeply depressed by his "failure" to advance. His first assignment, as was yours, was to make a list of the achievements that had been important in his life. He was in a more optimistic frame of mind when he returned with an impressive list of achievements, two of which concerned contributions he had made to improve maintenance efficiency.
"This is the first time I've ever gone over my life in an organized way," he admitted. "It made me feel good to realize I've accomplished a few things."
On his list Achievement No. 9 had become his greatest. This stated, "I set up a separate maintenance shop in the corner of the plant where we could coordinate the repair work of all departments. We had our own tool crib and repair equipment in one place. Instead of trying to bring the men and the tools to a broken-down machine, we could bring smaller machines to the shop and really do a job."
"Did you think this was an achievement when you got the shop in operation?" I asked.
"Well, not exactly," he hesitated. "Not in so many words. I guess I thought of it as something to make my work easier."
"Did your boss think of it as your achievement?" I continued.
Wiltse bristled at that. "He should have. He was there. He Okayed the plans. He saw me install everything."
"Yes, but you were there, too, and they were your plans, and you saw the machines installed, yet at that time you didn't think of it as anything special." Then I made my point. "If you didn't recognize your own achievement, why should you expect your boss to do so?"
He got that all right, but I wasn't through with him. "What about your own crew of maintenance men?" I asked. "Got any good men there?"
"I sure have," he said with pride. "The best in the plant. I cover for them, and they cover for me."
"And your boss covers for you," I said. "And that's what you are complaining about. You can call it covering, or you can call it smothering. The results are the same."
Wiltse was frankly astounded. "I never thought of it that way," he admitted. "I guess I was so busy troubleshooting for the plant that I never thought others might be having the same troubles as myself."
More to the point, once Wiltse was ready to admit he had done nothing to recognize the superior talents of his men, he had to acknowledge the possibility that his boss might be unaware of his - Wiltse's - potential.
It was another case of a good man's keeping accurate, impersonal records of the achievements of his department while keeping no record of his own progress and development - seemingly because there was nothing to report. In a follow-up session with Wiltse I suggested that he keep a personal record of his development as an aid in the "maintenance" of his own career, reminding him that through his records he knew when to grease his machines, while at the same time he had let his own career run dry.
It is enough for the moment that Wiltse did so, releasing an unexpected chain of events. His boss, in charge of maintenance, plant safety, and special services, had long been held back from promotion to superintendent of a branch factory for lack of a suitable replacement. Wiltse's progress report provided just the ammunition he needed. And you can be sure that Wiltse, having learned from his own analysis of achievements, had brought up one of his best men to succeed him as maintenance supervisor. [None of this being held back for lack of a suitable replacement for him.]
All of which brings up an important point. The higher you go, the broader will be the view of your superiors, until at the top the view is unlimited. That is what makes big executives big. Not for them is the idea that while they are taking six weeks in Florida their underlings are busy in the home office sharpening knives. Confident in their own abilities, and confident in the abilities of those they have left behind to tend the store, they relax and refresh themselves for even greater efforts on their return. You are not apt to encounter this broadmindedness in your first efforts to make a habit of success, but it is a nice thought to keep in mind.
