GETTING ON IN LIFE.

Press, Volume LVIII, Issue 17633, 9 December 1922, Page 18

GETTING ON IN LIFE.

must be anj extreniely difficult fcaatter to pick and choose between the various employees who are fit for promotion when yon have so many smart young people working for you," I ref siarked the other day to the head of a'big business.' He smiled sadly and shook his head. /.'Broadly speaking," he said, ',' there *re" two types of men in business — , those who can plan a course and those who cad follow a course that 1b planned ; lor them. Needless to say, the former afeiscarco, and, strangely, their ability v" does not necessarily depend on the ex* ' r tent of their knowledge of the trade. o •VIW instance, one of my depart- •■ taexttal managers knows three timeß as much about the technicalities of the • business as I do. He is a walking encyclopedia of facts about quantities - and value's. But—he has not the abil- , ity to plan ahead* so he will never rise much higher than he is now. ' **Don*t think I am disparaging that type of man. He can probably carry out my instructions a lot better than ' I could myself, and, within his limits, he is invaluable.' 1 "Then there is the question of

nerve," he went on. "Plenty of men •' can buy and. Bell in hundreds, but when incomes to hundreds of thousands they '/get frightened. Finally, there is the essential quality of being able to make , quick decisions. ■ -"I have to detect at least the germs 1 of/all those talents in a man before him 'down, for promotion to a , responsible-goaition. And there are -o#wr things. - * ''Employees seem to think that the <i»nly time the chief notices them is " f when BO is actually speaking to them. ", A roan who is smart enough to run a business has eyes all over him. Sup-riifa-I rush through a room on my ' xHy from one department to another. Ont of the corner of my eye I notice - - that Smith's desk is an untidy litter -of jpapers, or"that Jones has his coat onlxeady to go home twenty minutes before the proper time. ""I don't wy anything to them—it's not .worth it, and I haven't the time. But next time I am-mentally reviewing my staff fox promotion a picture cf Smiths , untidy desk rises beforo J' »e, and I'decide'that Smith is not ~sunicienUy methodical. ■■ Or that Jones is a clock-watcher. So they miss projriotfon. "But in the- main promotion is a question of realising your limitations, and then going all out for the best job ' within the limits of your abilities. , "You may be cheap at £SOOO a year as *>»-,» aubordtnate, and dear at any price feias.a ladder."—By Barnaby Moore, in hmaim "Daily Mail*" «>«' * >*,.