Household The manager who can, by sheer force of character and ability, diffuse a sense of ordered calm and of planned progress is assured of a loyalty and esteem which leaves far behind that race of obsequious 'anything for the peace' characters who, seemingly inevitably, line up behind the bullying autocrat to whom the word 'compassionate' must sound naive and unreal. Having generalized in this way, we must examine in greater detail some of the qualities that are sought in management. A proper assessment of at least some important management qualities gives an opportunity to make a kind of reckoning to equate, so to say, the ideal and theoretical with the practical, and to train the mind to a proper appreciation of much that is seldom appreciated. It is no alibi merely to say that there are no golden rules. A toprating management quality is, of course, the ability to think clearly. A muddled mind creates muddles around it. Management is largely a question of decision, and decisions cannot be properly taken unless the mind is clear about objectives and priorities. To achieve that clarity of mind calls for a form of concentration which is in itself a vital discipline. Confused orders and delayed action are signs of a management that is incapable of decisive thought. It is generally true that the inability to think clearly stems from an inadequate appreciation of what management objectives and priorities are. A manager does not need to possess a huge intellect to do his job properly. What he needs far more urgently is a clear comprehension of what he is aiming at the 'object of the exercise' from which he is able to issue clear and unequivocal instructions because he is in no mental doubt about the purpose of his management task. Once the objective is defined, it is remarkable how the 'thinking clearly' quality develops. Verbal or written instructions come forth loud and clear from the manager's lips or pen and, even if wrong actions or wrong decisions sometimes result, subordinates know where they stand. Bad decisions can often be better than no decisions at all. It is perhaps the commonest complaint today of many just below management level that there is so much obscurity in the conveying of a manager's intentions. 'Tell us clearly what you want us to do and why you want us to do it, and we'll get on with it' is the plea of far too many who are the victims of the manager who is plainly unclear about what or why he is managing. Thinking it out is the only solution, and it should be education's highest object to train the mind to learn how to think. In this technological age there are very few management tasks that do not call for a general understanding of technological operations. The questions are: how far should technical knowledge qualify for high management responsibility, and to what extent is the management function weakened (or perhaps enriched) by too much technical background? These questions today form part of a great debate. Financehome