STB-FE88
THE MASTER AS MANAGER
We would like to thank Brother Donald G. Grabar,
W.M. of Reedville Lodge #321, A.F. & A.M. of Reedville, VA, for this month's Short Talk Bulletin. Brother
Grabar has compared the Master of a Lodge with an
industrial counterpart in a most interesting and informative way. This article was prepared from a paper
Brother Grabar presented to the 9th Masonic District
Educational Conference in Virginia in October, 1987.
What are management tools?
They are simply techniques a person uses in
dealing with people and problems when he is in
charge of a group activity. Some of these techniques, or tools, are:
Money control--Salary and bonuses
Recognition
Delegation
Hire, fire, pro
Job descriptions
Decision participation
Goal setting
Scheduling
These are some common management tools.
Notice that most of them are people oriented,
because interaction with people is the most important aspect of any manager's job.
How can these tools be used by the Worshipful Master?
Money Control
First let's take care of the one tool in the list
that he can't use, money control. This immediately suggests that the Wor. Master has a tougher
job than his industrial counterpart, because
money is one of the most powerful motivations
in existence. Actually this is not the handicap it
might appear, because the people he deals with,
principally his officers, are already highly
motivated or they wouldn't be there. In lieu of
salary and bonuses, the Wor. Master can, and
should, substitute recognition, the second tool on
the list.
Recognition
This is a technique used in industry, not always
of necessity, but because it is SO much cheaper.
Have you ever noticed how many vice presidents
there are in a bank? Or a brokerage firm? Used
in a positive manner, recognition can be one of
the Master's most effective tools! For example,
when someone in the Lodge helps you out, or
does a good job on some project, that effort
should be recognized. A minimum recognition
is a sincere thank you, but a public statement of
gratitude and complimenting him on his deed in
open Lodge is much better. A good many of us
would work just as hard without it, but it's sure
nice to know that our efforts are appreciated by
someone.
For outstanding performance special mention
can be made at significant occasions such as an
annual Ladies' Night Dinner. Also there are certificates of merit available, which put in a frame,
make a very nice presentation. Some Lodges
honor a "Mason of the Year" annually with such
a presentation. For really outstanding contributions to a Lodge there is the tribute of making
the man an honorary member.
Don't underestimate the importance of
recognition as a motivating force. Management experts will tell you that there are many men for
whom money alone is insufficient compensation
for their work. Without recognition a company
might well lose their services no matter what their
salary, and so might a Lodge lose a good worker
if his contributions are not recognized.
Delegation of Responsibility
Without extensive use of this tool the Wor.
Master can become extremely frustrated, and find
himself "doing it all"; or at the other extreme,
may fail to accomplish anything. As an example
of delegation, the Wor. Master can make a
meeting much more enjoyable and with benefit
to his Lodge, if he will delegate someone--
perhaps the Senior Warden, or some other
officer--the task of checking arrivals at the
Lodge before the meeting. This will have the
benefit of determining whether all the chairs will
be filled by their regular occupants. If an officer
is missing he can round up someone to "pro
tem", and allow the Wor. Master to greet visitors,
and take care of other pre-meeting chores.
Delegation makes any manager, including the
Worshipful Master, more productive, a very
popular "buzz word" in industry; and rightly so,
because there it means profits. In the Lodge it
means a more profitable or efficient use of the
Wor. Master's time and energy.
Hiring, firing, promoting
At first reading these tools might not seem to
be available to the Wor. Master, but they are--
although not in the same way as they are for his
industrial counterparts. He hires in the sense that
he has appointments to the officer line. Likewise,
he can promote and fire by either appointing or
not appointing officers to the next succeeding
chair. It has been my observation that one of the
most common problems facing our own and
other lodges, is one of maintaining a strong and
continuous line of succession to the East. It is
also my conviction that the most important thing
a Wor. Master can do to insure an unbroken line
of succession to the East is to be ruthless in hiring, firing and promoting his officers. He must
exercise the utmost care in selecting his appointments. Try them out in the appointive line and
if they do not perform satisfactorily there, they
need not be "promoted" any further. In this way
almost all "firing" can be done at a lower level.
Interview
There are also management tools available to
assist with the selection process. It has been my
observation that many men who accept a Chair
in the lodge do not really know what they are doing! Some are only dimly aware of what is involved in meeting the responsibility of the Chair
they have accepted, and even less knowledgeable
as to what might lie ahead of them. This is
especially true when the new candidate for office is a recently raised Mason, which is becoming more common these days than in the past.
Before offering an office to a member an interview should be conducted with him. It should
be explained to him exactly what the lodge will
expect from him as an officer, and ask for his
commitment to these obligations. If he
understands from the beginning exactly what is
expected of him he is much less likely to be a
"dropout" from the line at a later date when
dropping out creates a real problem for the lodge.
Two principal points should be covered in the
interview:
1. Taking his first office in the lodge is taking
his first step toward becoming the Master of the
lodge. Promotion to the next chair is almost
automatic unless he demonstrates an inability or
unwillingness to proceed. If he decides along the
way to drop out he will create a significant problem for his lodge, and do a real disservice to his
fellow officers. Tell him, "Don't start unless you
intend to continue!"
2. He should be made aware that he will be
called upon for some additional tasks in addition to taking part in the opening and closing of
the lodge.
Job Description/Distribution
One way to assign additional tasks is to get the
officers involved with the operation of the lodge.
Ask each officer to accept a collateral assign-
ment, in addition to his duties as prescribed by
the BY-LAWS. By giving each officer specific
assignments, not really very time consuming for
any one individual, you will instill the idea that
the lodge has a variety of tasks which need to be
done, and how they can be distributed.
Decision participation
Means consulting with your officers before
making decisions. This must be done with discretion, however, because most decisions should be
the Wor. Master's, and not made by popular vote.
Nevertheless, input from the officers can be
valuable in arriving at a decision, and can give
the officers a feeling of being part of a team.
Goal setting
Can be very productive, particularly if you can
involve the officers. Most effective is for the
manager--the Wor. Master--to set a broad goal
or set of goals, and to ask each officer to set his
own goals in support of them. It is much more
effective if you can get the officers to put their
goals in writing.
Scheduling
Scheduling of course is an indispensable tool,
and the most important thing to be said is, "Start
early!" The Wor. Master's term is going to be
much more productive if he has his entire year's
program laid out prior to the beginning of his
term of office. Then, after he takes office, he
need only think about executing his plans. The
biggest breakdown in the analogy I've been
creating here is that the industrial manager
usually has his job for more than one year, while
the Worshipful Master is usually limited to that
time frame. If he doesn't plan that year well in
advance the Wor. Master has little chance of
achieving any goals he might have.
In summary this has been a sampling of the
tools used by a manager in industry. Like many
"ideas" that come from a business administration text, many are recognizable as the common
sense type of thing that you should do in managing your lodge. However, these common sense
type of things often benefit from being considered in a structured manner and I hope by doing so your thinking along these lines will have
been stimulated to some degree.
Finally, I would like to leave you with a bit of
advice I once received from my boss, which has
stayed with me for years. He told me that
sometimes the best way to lead is to get behind
and push! Good advice for the Wor. Master to
remember!
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