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Towards Greater Effectiveness

T.S. Srinivasan*
There must be very few managers, if at all, who do not want to become more effective on their jobs. And
while there is much that can be learnt about effectiveness from books and scholarly articles, even more can
perhaps be learnt from the practice of effective managers.
This paper presents three such practices which I had occasion to observe in three different managers over a
period of time. I knew all the three personally. And, while they were very different from one another, the
common element was that all the three were considered effective in their respective organizations.
Who were these successful managers?
The first of these was the Director (Marketing) of a multinational company in India; the second was the
young, and quite remarkable, marketing vice-president of a large manufacturing company in the Indian private
sector; and the third was the head of a large, and crucial, production department, in an integrated steel plant in
the public sector. They are no longer at these positions, having either been promoted in their respective
organizations, or having moved out to take up larger responsibilities elsewhere.
A quick pre-view of the three practices
For the busy reader, who may not have the time to read the article at one sitting, here is a quick pre-view of
the three practices presented in this paper, with the brackets indicating the manager in whom this practice was
observed :
Practice 1 : Recognizing the multi-dimensional nature of real world problems ( Marketing Director of a
multinational company in India )
Practice 2 Regular upward communication ( the remarkable young marketing vice-president of a large
manufacturing in the Indian private sector )
Practice 3 Total accessibility to people both inside and outside his division (Head of a large manufacturing
division in an integrated steel plant )
The practices as presented in this paper are not ultimate yardsticks to being an effective manager, neither may
these be universally observed in effective managers across all time and space. . It is just that these represent
traits of successful experience and possibly also a world view and a mindset that go with effectiveness. And,
for that reason, these practices might be of some interest to managers in search of ways of improving their
own effectiveness and impact. These have been presented in the form of conversations between the manager (
in each case ) and the author, followed by brief comments from the author.
Practice 1 (as practiced by the former Director-Marketing of a multinational company in India)
This practice is rooted in the recognition that management problems are generally more complex than they
seem at first sight and tend to be multidimensional. The person who shared this practice with me was the
director of marketing of multinational company in the consumer products sector in India. I will now attempt
to describe the practice in the form of a conversation between him and, me, with the term Manager referring
to him and the term author referring to me.
The author is presently Visiting Professor at the Indian Institutes of Management in Lucknow, Kashipur and
Trichy. He was formerly Professor at the International Management at Delhi and Kiev, Ukraine.
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Start of conversation between the manager and the author
Author : Can you talk about a practice that made a big difference to your performance as a manager over the
years?
Manager : Yes, there is one practice which made a big difference, namely, taking a multidimensional rather
than uni-dimensional view of management problems. I acquired this powerful insight in the course of my
participation at the Advanced Management Programme at Harvard. By then I was already a general manager
in the company and I do wish I had learnt this lesson much earlier. I could have benefited much more.
Author : Can you elaborate on this practice?
Manager : Assume, for example, that one of the profit centers reporting to me is falling short of its
profitability targets. Now, a problem of this kind is quite complex. It normally has several dimensions
marketing, sales, pricing, product mix, distribution, financial, human resource, to mention only a few possible
dimensions. It would be a serious mistake to take a narrow view of the problem and jump headlong into
action in just one area. That might fix the problem for a while but, almost invariably, things get worse later.
Author : What is the difference between the way you used to approach problems earlier and the way you
have been approaching problems ever since your training at Harvard?
Manager : Well, the major difference is that when I face, a problem these days, I do not jump headlong into
action, or even diagnosis, for that matter, I sit down and write on a piece of paper the various dimensions of
the problem, the different areas involved. I then establish a priority, not so much for action as for diagnosis, I
then proceed with diagnosis and action in accordance with the established priorities. In contrast to my earlier
practice, I now give a great deal of attention to understanding a problem in all its complexity and interdivisional ramifications, before I even think of diagnosis.
Author : Does it mean that you avoid action?
Manager : Come on, Professor. I have worked in this, a multinational company, for over twenty years, and I
doubt that the company would have promoted me to the Board if I was somebody who preferred thought and
analysis to action. Let me elaborate. Taking a narrow view of any problem leads to ineffective action. It
tends to treat problem solving as a discrete event and not the long and creative process that it actually is. Unidimensional approach to problems can often create a serious imbalance between short-term and long-term
performance, between cure and prevention, between fire fighting and fire safety.
Author : What have been the benefits of this practice?
Manager : It has taught me how complex management problems really are and the kind of sustained
diagnosis and action that they often require. Some of the action could be quite fast and immediate, but others
could be long-term and could take weeks or months, sometimes even years to complete.
Perhaps the most important benefit has been that I no longer regard problem solving as a discrete event, but as
a process characterized by sustained understanding and action. In some areas, particularly in the area of
human relations, just understanding the other persons point of view could often be the action.
The author is presently Visiting Professor at the Indian Institutes of Management in Lucknow, Kashipur and
Trichy. He was formerly Professor at the International Management at Delhi and Kiev, Ukraine.
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(End of conversation between the manager and the author)
It seems to me that one of the most persistent temptations in management practice is to jump headlong into
action without a deep understanding of the many dimensions of even seemingly small problems. An
important cause of such behaviour might well be the general stereotype of a manager as a man of action,
rather than as a man of thought and reflection. Be that it may, the result, often, could be a quick-fix kind of
action that provides short-term relief but can become in itself the cause of many future problems.
The old adage that the solution to every problem lies concealed within the problem might well have
considerable relevance to the practice of management. Investing time, energy and attention in understanding
a problem, in its various dimensions, before one thinks of diagnosis, not to speak of action, might hold the key
to effective decisions. And not just identifying the dimensions of the problem but establishing a priority for
diagnosis and action, both short-term and long-term. Equally important is the awareness that problem solving
is not a discrete event but a process, a journey, if you like, without a discernible destination, a race without a
finishing line.
For example, consider the recent hijacking of an Indian Airlines plane, which kept the whole nation on
tenterhooks for nearly two weeks. With some 180 passengers on board, most of them women and children,
the incident was indeed agonizing and traumatic in the extreme. As a problem facing the government, it had
several dimensions of which the following can at best be an incomplete list :

Safety of the passengers and crew on board, and their safe release

Avoiding undue political compromise

Investigating possible lapses in security and intelligence

Building a broad political consensus, within the country as well as outside, on how to respond to
international terrorism

Strengthening safety procedures at airports not only in India but also in friendly countries in the
neighbourhood

Improving coordination between military and civilian agencies

Strengthening arrangements to counter terrorism

Raising the level of public awareness on such matters

Comprehensive action in all the above areas is bound to take several months, if not years. And while some
kind of time-bound action plan will be developed, as part of political posturing, the effective leader knows
that this is really going to be a long haul, a voyage of continuous discovery, rather than just one port of call.
He knows that sustained attention and energy on his part will be required, if there is to be any hope of
The author is presently Visiting Professor at the Indian Institutes of Management in Lucknow, Kashipur and
Trichy. He was formerly Professor at the International Management at Delhi and Kiev, Ukraine.
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meaningful action in all these areas. He also knows that work on complex matters like these might transcend
elected governments and also parties, both from the political right and the left.
A managers willingness and ability to identify various dimensions of a problem, big or small, is an important
signal that he ( or she ) is growing in managerial maturity and potential. It is a signal that the manager is
learning to look beyond the geographical boundaries of his division: and that he is growing in the critical
attribute of general management namely integrating different functions to produce a whole that is greater than
the sum of its parts. A manager imbued with this insight is likely to have less difficulty working with other
departments and divisions. He is also more likely to achieve synergy.
Practice 2 (as followed by the young vice-president of marketing of a large manufacturing company in India)
The person in whom I observed this practice was the marketing vice-president of a large manufacturing
company in the private sector. The company made and sold consumer goods in significant volumes and its
annual sales at the time was Rs 1000 crores. In his early thirties, he was a relatively young occupant of the
post of vice-president in that company. He had proved highly successful, both in terms of his performance
and also in the way he worked with people above, below and sideways. To highlight the young mans
practice, reliance on a conversation becomes handy once again.
Start of conversation between the manager and the author
Manager : Quite early in my career I realized the importance of regular communication with my immediate
superior, whoever that was. I have had quite a few bosses over the years and with each one of them I tried to
maintain a regular flow of purposeful, job related communication. By regular communication, I do not
necessarily mean daily communication. The frequency depended on the situation, and the type of person I
was reporting to.
Author : Why did you consider such communication important?
Manager : I suppose that the practice came to me naturally and for quite some time I didnt even stop to think
why I considered it important. I think it must have been an intuitive appreciation of the reality that without
such a practice there was really no way a manager could be effective on his job.
Just as I expect my subordinates to keep me informed about what is going on in their respective departments,
I guess the people I report to must feel a similar need. Rather than wait for the boss to ask me about the state
of affairs in my division, I like to take the initiative and to tell him, at every appropriate opportunity, about
what is going on.
Author : Can you explain how you go about this business of regular upward communication?
Manager : I ask myself the following two questions every day and I work hard on answers to those questions.

Firstly, what do I tell my boss today?, and

Secondly, how best do I tell that to him (or her)?

The author is presently Visiting Professor at the Indian Institutes of Management in Lucknow, Kashipur and
Trichy. He was formerly Professor at the International Management at Delhi and Kiev, Ukraine.
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Quite often, answering these questions would require collection of data from within my division as well as
outside and I dont shirk the effort. My experience tells me than time and energy devoted to meaningful
upward communication earn a disproportionately high rate of return in terms of impact and performance on
the job.
Author : Can you elaborate a bit more on the two questions that form the basis of your upward
communication?
Manager : Yes indeed. Let me take up the first question first, namely What do I tell my boss today? This
question always forced me to look at my job the way it looked to my boss at a given point in time. In other
words, the question forced me to experience accountability on a daily basis. It also helped me figure out the
kind of help I needed from him to do my job well enough at a given point in time.
Answers to the above question will naturally vary with the type of job and the specific situation at a given
point in time. However, there could be some common headings, as follows :

Feedback on all major aspects of the managers areas of responsibility.

Problems faced by the manager and the help he needs from his superior in solving those problems.
Suggestions for improvement, and lastly, and perhaps the most important.
Potential problems in his area of responsibility, problems that are not visible yet, but which, if not
anticipated in time, could have serious repercussions.

Author : How useful has this practice been to you?

Manager : It has been very useful to me, so much so , that I would even describe this approach as being by
far the most pivotal part of my management practice over the years. I must have worked with five or six
bosses during my career so far. And, while I enjoyed a much closer rapport with some of them than with the
others, I do not recall having serious difficulty with any of them. My approach ensured that I kept all of them
fully informed about what was going on in my area of responsibility, including quite often the bad news.
Which means that, even the more difficult among them, who might not have rewarded me as generously as the
others, must have found me reliable.
(End of conversation between the manager and the author)
Readers who have gone through Stephen Coveys best-seller. *The Seven Habits of Higher Effective People
, would recall that the first of these seven habits is to be proactive. Highly effective people, according to
Covey, are proactive. They do not wait for things to happen. They take the initiative and try to make things
happen.
In my view, the young vice-president of marketing, whose practice we have just reviewed, must have been
highly proactive. Quite apparently, he never waited for the boss to ask him how things were going in his
division. All the time, he seems to have tried to look at his division from the standpoint of his boss, looking
critically rather than favourably, at his own performance. In other words, he was experiencing managerial
accountability on a daily basis.
The author is presently Visiting Professor at the Indian Institutes of Management in Lucknow, Kashipur and
Trichy. He was formerly Professor at the International Management at Delhi and Kiev, Ukraine.
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It might be equally educative to look at the above practice from the standpoint of the boss, any boss for that
matter. We might ask what is the most important thing that a manager expects from his immediate
subordinates? The answer to this question will most likely be: to be kept informed by subordinates about
whats going on in their respective areas. No surprises please, keep me informed about things going right,
things going wrong, and anything else that you consider worth my while to know, might well be the
unspoken need of most bosses.
Failure to establish regular upward communication with ones boss can have some serious implications for the
manager. Firstly, he will soon find himself without a basis, a foundation, for effective performance. This is
for the reason that the boss has a major role in determining what constitutes effective performance on the part
of the manager. Secondly, the relationship between superior and subordinate deteriorates in quality in the
absence of regular upward communication. Sooner than later, fantasy triumphs over reality. The boss begins
to wonder whether the subordinate is playing some games and the latter begins to wonder why the boss is not
positive towards him any more.
How much to communicate, in what ways and how frequently are all questions for which there can be no
standard answers. Situations differ, as do styles and personalities, and it can be quite unwise to look for
simple answers. Particularly relevant, in this context, is the young vice-presidents second question: How
best do I communicate with my superior?
Superiors differ vastly in their styles, world views and needs; and it appears from the foregoing discussion that
the young vice-president took pains to find out how his boss (in fact quite a few over his career) worked,
precisely what kind of information he needed, in what form he wanted it, and how frequently he wanted it. As
Peter Drucker has pointed out in his prolific writings on the practice of management, some bosses are readers
and some are listeners. And these are just two of the many possible differences among bosses.
It seems to me that the practice that we have just reviewed can, in a fairly short period of time, make a
quantum difference to a managers performance and potential for growth. As its key ingredients are a
proactive mindset and a willingness to experience accountability on a continuous basis, this practice should
make its votaries look more useful and promotable. Conversely, managers who are content to assume that
their bosses are mind readers who do not need any regular upward communication from subordinates, are
likely to drift out of their bosss mental orbit. The ultimate losers in this process would often not be the bosses
but the managers themselves.
Practice 3 (as followed by the head of a large production department in a public sector steel plant)
The person (we will call him M for ease of reference) who told me about this practice was the head of a large
production department (we will call it Dept. A, again for ease of reference) in a public sector steel plant. He
had worked in the plant for a number of years, not in production but in research and development. He came to
head Dept. A by accident, rather than by intent, as cam be seen from the following paragraph.
When his predecessor in Dept. A retired, he left behind him a department that was not just a critical link in
the production chain, but a very weak link at that. Production was down to 40% of capacity, staff morale
was low and inter-union rivalry was at its peak. When senior management was looking around for a
replacement, they located M in the research and development department, a low priority area in those days.
M accepted the new assignment rather reluctantly, although his subsequent performance surpassed all
The author is presently Visiting Professor at the Indian Institutes of Management in Lucknow, Kashipur and
Trichy. He was formerly Professor at the International Management at Delhi and Kiev, Ukraine.
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expectations, Within six months, he had turned the department around. Production was close to 90% of
capacity, staff morale improved significantly and industrial relations in the department became quite cordial
and constructive.
There must have been quite a few qualities in the man, which helped him bring about such a remarkable
turnaround in Dept. A. But our focus here is on one particular practice of this manager, namely his total
accessibility, to people inside and outside his department.
Quite naturally, a turnaround of this kind tends to arouse a larger interest in the man, his style, his worldview,
his habits, his practices and perhaps many other things. But we will have to leave that curiosity very largely
unsatisfied. I will now attempt to describe Ms practice of accessibility in the form of a conversation between
him and me.
(Start of conversation between the manager and the author)
Author : Can you talk briefly about how you achieved the dramatic turnaround in your present department?
Manager : Well, there must have been a number of factors at work. My training in R & D had taught me not
to rush to conclusions but to pay a lot of attention to understanding problems, before even attempting a
diagnosis, leave alone action. I had also learnt the importance of a policy of firmness with fairness,
particularly in a situation where there were a number of competing unions to deal with. But a practice which
proved most valuable to me in terms of understanding and diagnosing problems and shaping a strategy to deal
with multiple unions, was accessibility, almost total accessibility, to people both inside and outside my
department.
Author : Can you elaborate on this practice of yours, of being accessible to people?
Manager : Within a couple of weeks of my assuming charge of this department, it became clear to me that
one of the major problems facing the department was the near total lack of meaningful two-way
communication between management and employees. And this lack of communication was exploited by
clever unions. I figured that one of my major priorities was to set this problem right. And I began to devote a
lot of time and attention to this aspect. Apart from my regular rounds of the shop floor every morning, I tried
to make additional rounds whenever possible.
Author : And what was the purpose of these rounds?
Manager : I had a dual purpose. Firstly, to see for myself the complex and constantly changing reality that I
was called upon to mange. And, secondly, to be accessible to people, to listen to them and to find out whats
on their minds. This practice helped me locate grievances before they spiraled out of control and recognize
problems before they degenerated into crises. Quite often, it also helped me to tap the creativity of my
people.
I dont quite know how, but at some early stage in my career in the plant, I realized, the enormous importance
of being accessible to my team members, I saw the strong connection between accessibility and employee
morale. The fact that I was by nature a fairly good listener must have been of some help.
The author is presently Visiting Professor at the Indian Institutes of Management in Lucknow, Kashipur and
Trichy. He was formerly Professor at the International Management at Delhi and Kiev, Ukraine.
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Author : Are there any other ways in which you practised accessibility?
Manager : Yes indeed, in at least two other ways. Firstly, I soon let it be known that anyone in the
department, even the least little bit, could meet me with relative ease. They could just walk into my room.
The only condition was that the problem they wanted so see me about was one on which they did not get a
satisfactory response from their immediate superiors.
The second way was, in my view, a bit unusual. Being head of a very critical department in the plant, I saw
my office as the place of last resort for any one (in my 5000-strong workforce) with an unsolved problem or
grievance. I figured that at all working hours, my office should be manned by someone senior enough to be
able to deal credibly with employees.
With this idea in mind, I worked out a procedure. Whenever I had to be out of my office for whatever reason
(say, meetings with superiors, colleagues, outsiders, unions) almost automatically, my second-in-command
would walk into my office and sit there (not on my chair, but on another chair) until my return. If, as
happened sometimes, he also had some work outside the department, the person next to him in the
departmental hierarchy, would man my office until the return of either myself or my senior deputy. I had also
arranged that either one of them was free to take decisions that in their best judgment were required in the
situations that came up in my absence. I trusted their discretion not to make decisions with strategic
implications.
Over time, I think the above practice produced two results. Firstly, it strengthened the bonds between our
large workforce and our team of managers and supervisors. Secondly, the unions who were indeed quite
clever (I do wish they had been more constructive in their overall, plant-wide approach to industrial relations)
began to see that my two senior deputies and I formed a strong, unified team. And that, while we had
empathy with individual employees and their problems, we could not, as the departments supervisory team,
be pushed around. I guess there was a bit of steel hidden away in all the three of us and the unions soon began
to see that we could not be forced into wrong compromises. In my view, this change in perception, more than
anything else, was the beginning of the departments turnaround.
(End of conversation between the manager and the author)
Behavioural scientists have known for a long time that accessibility is a motivator and the accessible manager
motivates. Not a phony kind of accessibility but a genuine one. Not just an open door with a closed or
preoccupied mind but an open, attentive mind that is free of all preoccupation.
Some of the more important reasons why accessibility proves so motivating could be :

It facilitates two-way communication which, as behavioural scientists have pointed out, improves
the quality of work and performance.
It acts as a channel for grievances to reach people who can do something about them
By giving attention to people, regardless of where they are placed in the organizational hierarchy,
accessibility can often be therapeutic. It seems to me that most organizations induce, over time,
mild forms of mental sickness in their members.

The author is presently Visiting Professor at the Indian Institutes of Management in Lucknow, Kashipur and
Trichy. He was formerly Professor at the International Management at Delhi and Kiev, Ukraine.
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On a more conceptual plane, the accessible manager has a much greater chance of understanding the complex
and ever-changing reality that he is called upon to manage. He is more likely to pick up early warning signals
and take pre-emptive action to ensure his units survival and stability. He is also more likely to enjoy the cooperation of people outside his department and to bring in the synergy, that comes from harnessing diverse
points of view on a given problem.
Concluding Comments
This paper has been about three managerial practices that might be of interest to practicing managers. Behind
each one of these was a manager who had followed that practice with considerable impact throughout his
career.
These three managers were as different as any three people can be in terms of their family background,
academic preparation, culture, and their career paths. But they had one thing in common they were
considered effective in their respective situations.
As I have pointed out, these three practices are by no means the last word on managerial effectiveness. Nor
might these be common to effective managers. across all time and space. It is just that each one of them
comes from someone in the real world who has tried it with considerable benefit. It other words, each one of
them comes from the fire of managerial experience in complex situations. And that might be an important
reason why you might wish to reflect on these practices and see whether they make sense to you in the light of
your own unique experience.
( End of Paper )
(Paper published in the April June 2000 issue of the management quarterly, JIMS 8M )

The author is presently Visiting Professor at the Indian Institutes of Management in Lucknow, Kashipur and
Trichy. He was formerly Professor at the International Management at Delhi and Kiev, Ukraine.
9