Charles Schwab had a mill manager whose people
weren’t producing their quota of work.
“How is it,” Schwab asked him, “that a manager as
capable as you can’t make this mill turn out what it
should?”
"I don’t know,” the manager replied. “I’ve coaxed the
men, I’ve pushed them, I’ve sworn and cussed, I’ve
threatened them with damnation and being fired. But
nothing works. They just won’t produce.”
This conversation took place at the end of the day, just
before the night shift came on. Schwab asked the manager
for a piece of chalk, then, turning to the nearest
man, asked: “How many heats did your shift make
today?”
"Six."
Without another word, Schwab chalked a big figure
six on the floor, and walked away.
When the night shift came in, they saw the “6” and
asked what it meant.
“The big boss was in here today,” the day people said.
“He asked us how many heats we made, and we told
him six. He chalked it down on the floor.”
The next morning Schwab walked through the mill
again. The night shift had rubbed out “6” and replaced
it with a big “7.”
When the day shift reported for work the next morning,
they saw a big “7” chalked on the floor. So the night
shift thought they were better than the day shift did
they? Well, they would show the night shift a thing or
two. The crew pitched in with enthusiasm, and when
they quit that night, they left behind them an enormous,
swaggering "10." Things were stepping up.
Shortly this mill, which had been lagging way behind
in production, was turning out more work than any other
mill in the plant.
The principle?
Let Charles Schwab say it in his own words: “The
way to get things done,” say Schwab, “is to stimulate
competition. I do not mean in a sordid, money-getting
way, but in the desire to excel.”
The desire to excel! The challenge! Throwing down
the gauntlet! An infallible way of appealing to people of
spirit.
Without a challenge, Theodore Roosevelt would never
have been President of the United States. The Rough
Rider, just back from Cuba, was picked for governor of
New York State. The opposition discovered he was no
longer a legal resident of the state, and Roosevelt,
frightened, wished to withdraw. Then Thomas Collier
Platt, then U.S. Senator from New York, threw down the
challenge. Turning suddenly on Theodore Roosevelt, he
cried in a ringing voice: “Is the hero of San Juan Hill a
coward?”.
Roosevelt stayed in the fight - and the rest is history.
A challenge not only changed his life; it had a real effect
upon the future of his nation.
“All men have fears, but the brave put down their
fears and go forward, sometimes to death, but always to
victory” was the motto of the King’s Guard in ancient
Greece. What greater challenge can be offered than the
opportunity to overcome those fears?
When Al Smith was governor of New York, he was up
against it. Sing Sing, at the time the most notorious penitentiary
west of Devil's Island, was without a warden.
Scandals had been sweeping through the pristine walls,
scandals and ugly rumors. Smith needed a strong man to
rule Sing Sing - an iron man. But who? He sent for
Lewis E. Lawes of New Hampton.
“How about going up to take charge of Sing Sing?” he
said jovially when Lawes stood before him. “They need
a man up there with experience.”
Lawes was flabbergasted. He knew the dangers of
Sing Sing. It was a political appointment, subject to the
vagaries of political whims. Wardens had come and gone
- one had lasted only three weeks. He had a career to
consider. Was it worth the risk?
Then Smith, who saw his hesitation, leaned back in
his chair and smiled. “Young fellow,” he said, “I don’t
blame you for being scared. It’s a tough spot. It’ll take a
big person to go up there and stay.”
So Smith was throwing down a challenge, was he?
Lawes liked the idea of attempting a job that called for
someone “big.”
So he went. And he stayed. He stayed, to become the
most famous warden of his time. His book 20,000 Years
in Sing Sing sold into the hundred of thousands of copies.
His broadcasts on the air and his stories of prison
life have inspired dozens of movies. His “humanizing”
of criminals wrought miracles in the way of prison reform.
“I have never found,” said Harvey S. Firestone,
founder of the great Firestone Tire and Rubber Company,
“that pay and pay alone would either bring together
or hold good people. I think it was the game
itself.”
Frederic Herzberg, one of the great behavioral scientists,
concurred. He studied in depth the work attitudes
of thousands of people ranging from factory workers to
senior executives. What do you think he found to be the
most motivating factor - the one facet of the jobs that
was most stimulating? Money? Good working conditions?
Fringe benefits? No - not any of those. The one
major factor that motivated people was the work itself. If
the work was exciting and interesting, the worker looked
forward to doing it and was motivated to do a good job.
That is what every successful person loves: the game.
The chance for self-expression. The chance to prove his
or her worth, to excel, to win. That is what makes foot-races
and hog-calling and pie eating contests. The desire
to excel. The desire for a feeling of importance.
