Among the many roles that a manager assumes with his job is that of teacher. He must show new employees how things are done in his office or plant and demonstrate new ways to older employees. He continually moti-vates, oversees and judges performance. He passes along company and departmental policy, answers questions and helps solve problems. Possibly, he is among the busiest teachers in the land.

Since teaching is so large a part of your job, it follows that the more proficient you are at it, the more effective a manager you will be.

Your main responsibility, remember, is to get things done through people. Adding to their skills, knowledge and self-confidence—in short, teaching them—is one major way of accomplishing that.

Fortunately, it is easier to be a good teacher than a bad one, for teaching is a logical process, with a distinct beginning, middle and end. Many of its techniques are based on common sense. And it is efficient.

Give the Big Picture
Since it is easier for a person to learn something when he understands it than when it is meaningless to him, you can dramatically increase that understanding by offering your student a bird’s-eye view of the material you will be covering before you actually begin your lesson.

If you are instructing a group of people, you might pass out a one-page outline of what you will be covering. If you are speaking to an individual, you might encapsulate in an informal way what you are about to tell him. (For example, “I’m going to show you what to do if the aluminum strip ever jams the machine.”) The important thing is to help your audience see and understand, with one sweeping view, where you—and they—are going.

When you can, therefore, sketch the big picture for your people before filling in the details. Then—

Break it Down into Digestible Parts
Once you have outlined your material for your student, dissect it for him. Lead him by the hand, so to speak, through the various parts that constitute the whole. This approach offers two advantages:

1. It gives him a chance to absorb gradually what you are teaching and such learning sticks far better than knowledge that is crammed.
2. It enables you to pinpoint those areas that are unclear and giving him trouble.

One vital point: your job is to break your material down to make it more easily comprehended. This means that your units must be entities in themselves; each part by itself must make sense to the student.

If, for example, you are trying to explain a new ordering process to an employee, you might divide the subject into (a) how the old ordering process worked; (b) shortcomings of the old process; (c) how the new ordering process will work; and (d) why the new process is an improvement over the old.

Maintain a Logical Sequence
Since learning is based largely on memory, your success as a teacher depends on your ability to present your material in the most memorable fashion possible.

A logical arrangement helps you do that. By establishing connections and relationships between points, it adds meaning to them. And what makes sense is most easily remembered.

Here are three ways to impose logic on your material and make it unforgettable.

1. Start at the beginning. Many managers discourage their people from learning by plunging too deeply and too suddenly into their material. They omit a vital first step or basic idea either because it is so basic (to them!) or because they’ve neglected to identify it in the first place. If you really want to get your knowledge across, ask yourself, “What’s the actual beginning of my lesson?” before you open your mouth. Then start with that.
2. Move from the simple to the complex. By starting with what’s easy, then moving on to the more difficult, you not only make your lesson simpler to grasp; you give your student all-important confidence in his ability to master the subject.
3. Explain why. “You must always depress the pedal before extracting the mold because it opens this clamp. If you don’t step on the pedal, the mold will shatter when you remove it.” “Make sure your memo has been signed off by both Jones and McGuire before you send it out. If they both don’t okay it and there is some sort of problem with it after it circulates, there could be significant legal repercussions.” “Take two salt pills during the heat cycle. They’ll prevent heat exhaustion due to excess perspiration.” Give reasons why what you are saying is so, show the connection between facts or ideas, and your student will remember what you have told him—because he understands it.

Accentuate the Positive
The human brain is a delicate—and tricky—mechanism. It doesn’t always listen the way we’d like it to. And it is far from infallible. Tell it not to do something and, in the process of transmitting the prohibition to the rest of your body, it may activate the very muscles that ought to be relaxed.

Anyone who uses a computer keyboard is familiar with this kind of mental short circuit. Type a word incorrectly and, as you are deleting it, you will think, “I mustn’t repeat that error.” No sooner do your fingers begin to move again than—lo and behold!—you repeat the error in five cases out of ten.

Thus, if you say, “Charlie, don’t throw the lever if the light goes out,” it’s even money that Charlie’s brain will erroneously associate throwing the lever with the extinguished light. He’ll pull a blank on the restriction. It is far more effective to say, “Charlie, throw the lever only when the light flashes on.”

So, if you want to avoid errors and misunder-standings, keep your instructions positive.

There is far more to effective teaching, to be sure—things like demonstrating what you mean when possible, providing practice, and encouraging questions—but these few essentials should help you appreciatively improve your teaching skills.

Make Paperwork Disappear This Simple Way
The most common cause of paperwork “buildup” is indecision. We sit on letters, notes, memoranda, and requests for information far too long. The simple truth is, the average manager should be able to make an immediate decision on about 80 percent of the items in his “in” box.

Typically, he won’t know a scintilla more about the subject tomorrow, or several days from now. The individual who trains himself to make decisions right off the bat will discover that, by and large, they are as good as though he had agonized over them for two or three days. And then he has to reread them to refresh his memory.

There are two principal benefits to be derived from quick decisions. You gain time. And you have more time to correct the occasional decision that was wrong. As you postpone a decision, you get to a point of no return. When you finally make it, it’s too late to change—and the risk of being wrong is enhanced.

So learn to trust yourself. In the over-whelming majority of cases, you will find that you are wiser than you think.

Control That Interview
As the economy improves, you should be prepared to interview job applicants.

When interviewing a potential employee, it’s important to control the meeting. This is not to suggest that you act like some Grand Inquisitor while the interviewee meekly answers your questions. Rather, it is to suggest that you structure the interview to serve your own interests—to determine whether the applicant is the person for the job.

The skill most required here is skill in asking questions.

They should be questions that make the applicant think and respond in some detail: “How do you feel about your present job?” “Do you consider your progress on the job representative of your ability? Why?” “How would you describe your chief responsibilities in your last job?”

Avoid questions that in any way carry a suggestion of the answer you are seeking—such as, “You enjoy solitary work, don’t you?” or “I imagine you left Consolidated for more money?” If you ask such questions, you will only hear what you want to hear, not necessarily what the interviewee truly believes is the answer.

Your questions should elicit answers on such general subjects as how the applicant feels about his current job, his attitudes toward people, his job objectives and his own assessment of himself as a worker and human being.

Hot To “Play Well” With Others
No manager is paid for being liked, but the unassailable fact is that people will work harder and more cheerfully for a manager they like than for one they dislike.

That being so, it makes sense to take steps to be a likable human being. If you want your people to be favorably disposed toward you:

1. Recognize the dignity of others. Frequently, this boils down to the simple realization that others have much the same desires and needs as you—especially for an appreciation of their worth as human beings. Rank on the economic, social or educational ladders has nothing to do with it. In many ways, a shipping clerk is every bit as important as the president of his firm. Since respect has a way of becoming mutual, you will find that an honest appreciation of others will result in an honest appreciation of you.
2. Listen to others. There are few better ways of winning the regard of people than by listening—really listening—to what they have to say. It proves that you are interested in them, respect their opinions, feel they have something worthwhile to say. Nobody considers himself a fool—including fools—and there is little to be gained from being the one to break the news to him. Who knows? In the process of listening to everyone, you may learn something.
3. Put yourself in the other person’s shoes. You like appreciation for a job well done…a favor conferred…a thoughtful gesture. So does everyone else. You don’t care to be made the butt of a bad joke…ridiculed…denigrated behind your back. Neither does anyone else. Empathy is as old as the Golden Rule and works as well today as it did 20 centuries ago.
4. Keep your sense of humor. The ability to laugh with others and, sometimes, at yourself is an essential ingredient of the likable personality. No one cares for a sourpuss, regardless of his other attributes.
5. Maintain a sense of proportion. Recognize that some things are not worth making a fuss over, while other things merit all the fuss you can muster. The man who expends as much energy in calling attention to a small mistake as to a large blunder is suffering from critical myopia. It is neither wise leadership nor good human relations.