The Farmington times. (Farmington, St. Francois County, Mo.) 1905-1926, 1917-05-04
GETTING RESULTS

/ u dilllHB anu GENERAL dDlllCy nave u
work so awfully hard for mediocr,
results, the subordinate positions il
life, while others, who don't seem t.
know any more or even as much, man.
age to scramble to the top of things
Is it luck or selfishness or character?
ITS largely difference in execu-
tive ability" my husband said
thoughtfully. "Both know how to do
the same thing well, but the one man
knows how to get good work out OF
those under his direction, while the
other one exhausts his efforts and
strength attending to all the detail
himself. He sacrifices vision to
thoroughness, while the ADLER man OBJ
talns his results through Others"
But it doesn't seem fair" / pro-
tested. "The man who has the skill to
do things ought to be more successful
than the one who merely gets some
one else to do it for him."
Perhaps" my husband answered,
but it takes real brains to command,
you must remember, as we'll as to do.
And the man who has to carry out
every detail himself, who can't teach
others how to do it, who can't turn
to his own ends other peoples ener-
gies and methods, doesn't succeed in
modern life"
81 believe a lot of women are like
that" l said. 81 don't know but |
am myself. 1t seems to me that when
ever anything in the house goes wrong
| have to pitch in and see to it in ad-
dition to all the regular tasks | have
to do. l know I'm fountain of en-
ergy, but sometimes l want desper-
ately to stop and sit down.. And |
can,t-the wheels won't go round"
Yes they would, too" retorted my
husband, "if you would put some of
that energy into greasing them in
stead of turning them by hand, so to
speak
1.-The trouble with all you women is
that you have never grasped the mean
ing of executive ability. Doing ev-
cry blessed thing yourself isn't good
management - it's drudgery. The
mother is the administrative head of
the household and the rest of the fam
lily are her subordinates. We must
train them to contribute properly to-
ward the total result What you and
lots of other selfish wives don't see
is that you've got to take the people
around you with all their limitations
and make the best use of them YOU
can.
when one of the children wants to
help, you don't give him the task and
suggest a method and then let him
work it out for himself, but if he
doesn't do it exactly as you would do
1t, you grow impatient and take it
away from him. Perhaps his way of
or wrong-side-to or ineffi-
most children, like most
yrown-ups, learn more by experience
han by advice.
"Give him the benefit of your
but let him work out his
'wn methods if he can. At least, it
will teach him to respect your way of /
loing it, if it proves to be better.
I'm the Government service, for in |
tance, we can't pick and choose our |
ubordinates, as a business man can,
r discharge them for partial i1compe- [
ency. The Civil Service system pre- a
ents them to US and we've got to take
hem as they are and make them do u
ur work.
Its the man who uses what ma n
erlal he has among his assistants
nd develops their talents ingeniously s.
Or his own needs who has the best Of h
ce and shows the greatest executive a
ollity. It's the power to get things e
one and get them done right-not do e.
g them yourself-that constitutes ef-
cient management" b
l was utterly astounded at the We s;
emence of my husbands outburst.
C is ordinarily a meek man at home, 81
Tough bristling with efficiency in his A
lice. My vanity was little piqued, F
10, for | quite prided myself on my R
on my self-sacrifcing,
lergetic motherhood, and | didn't feel NJ
lat his attack was quite justified.
Outwardly our household was re-
arkably smooth-running, clean and
derby. | made it my chief business A
see that this was so. Beneath the 81
rface, however, we seemed to be all Fl
llllng away from each other, and the q,
ment that should have bound us di
ose was apparently dissipated rath- ST
than strengthened by my indefa- 81
gable vigilance against dirt and dis T
der. IT
was interested in what any ed
e else was doing. The children got st
they could out of us and then went lii
;ewhere to find some satisfaction in pa
e. Father spent his free time nod
ng over his paper or deep in some ag
ok | hadn't time for. | kept my of
ending basket constantly at my side, of
symbol of perpetual slavery We nj
yer discussed ideas, because no one M
t father had any.
am gradually changing all that, to
t it takes time. The children are pr
} deeply grounded in their careless err
lys to reform overnight. But by Ri
wing my physical strength more | ca
d have more moral energy to COM GU
their natural lapses, to resist the Ell
nptatian to do everything myself br
cause can do it much better and TO,
re quickly. fo,
Father and oldest son have agreed
keep cellar and garden in better tel
Ter. One daughter gets up an hour
'lier to dust and "redd up" the liv- INF