MANAGEMENT: Presidential Worries

To the outside world the corporation president is the embodiment of sleek self-assurance, but to those who know him best he is a hagridden worrier with an "almost masochistic capacity for self-criticism." So says Lyle M. Spencer, himself a president (of Science Research Associates) and personnel expert, in a report in the current Harvard Business Review on the results of a three-year quiz of the more than 950 members of the Young Presidents Club.

Of "the ten problems that worry presidents," Spencer found that several are such common things as securing working capital, negotiating with unions, determining the corporation's course. But most of the biggest worries, says Spencer, are personal and psychological. For example, presidents worry about using their time effectively. Beset by the feeling that they are wasting precious minutes, some of them affect a "crispness of action" that verges on rudeness. Others go in for an "almost adolescent experimenting with time-saving devices," set up a "Rube Goldberg assortment of mechanical memory joggers, electronic communication systems, push-button desks." They are deeply concerned with self-improvement, e.g., 66% want to better themselves in public speaking, 57% want to improve their memories and 46% want to do more reading.

Most presidents got to the top by winning a reputation for getting things done. Spencer found that, although they know their role has changed, they now find it hard to stop being "doers" themselves and to learn to work through others.

The need to make crisis decisions also plagues presidents, says Author Spencer, but he feels this can be all to the good. A crisis can shake the president out of his business-as-usual paths, force him to "reexamine what he has been doing and explore new routes to improve his business. It is in times of crisis that presidents are most apt to prove again why they became presidents."