Ted also ensured that his managers transmitted the content of
these meetings down to first line supervisor level. And the latter
were encouraged to meet their sections regularly. He empha-
sized throughout the need for teamwork and demonstrated his
commitment by ensuring that at inter-departmental meetings
problems of lack of cooperation or poor communications were
given priority. The only time he was ever seen to express anger
was when work suffered because of feuds between departments.
Elwyn Jones
Elwyn Jones was the HR director of a large conglomerate in the
food industry with over 80,000 employees. The firm had grown
fast by acquisition and was highly decentralized. Staff were
deliberately kept to a minimum at headquarters and Jones had
only four executives responsible directly to him. He was,
however, also responsible for the implementation of group
personnel policies in each of the divisions and on these matters
the divisional personnel directors were responsible to him.
Jones was not in a position to dictate to divisions what he
wanted them to do. He could only influence them, and he felt
that he had to get genuine acceptance for new policies before
they could be introduced. He therefore had to consult on any
changes or innovations he wished to introduce and, in most
cases, he had to solicit cooperation on the testing of new ideas.
With his headquarters staff, Jones adopted a highly informal,
almost permissive approach. He gave them broad guidelines on
how they should develop their ideas in the divisions but en-
couraged them to think and act for themselves. He never
called a formal meeting. He was more likely to withdraw to
the local pub, where, under the watchful eyes of ‘big fat Nellie’
behind the bar, he consumed pink gins with his colleagues and
discussed strategies on entirely equal terms. He adopted
precisely the same approach with the divisional personnel direc-
tors, although once or twice a year they all got together in a
country hotel (one recommended by the Good Food Guide, of
course) and spent a pleasant couple of days talking generally
about their mutual interests.
James Robinson
Jim Robinson was the managing director of a medium-sized
How to be a Better Leader 127