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Making the most of your qualities

17th July 1982, Page 18
17th July 1982
Page 18
Page 18, 17th July 1982 — Making the most of your qualities
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

THE PERSON who succeeds in one of the several fields of management in road transport where others fail may be presumed to have qualities which they are lacking.

However, unless he is aware of his qualities he is like an acorn that does not know whether its proper destiny is to be an oak tree or a shrub.

A good question to ask is: "What qualities do I have as a person, and how can I use them to the best of my ability?" The identification and development of qualities needs to be done with patience, vigilance, sagacity and determination. A mature person is always clarifying his ideas, modifying his beliefs, enlarging his capabilities, and adapting his life and career to a changing environment.

Change is inevitable. Those who accept its challenge and adapt will be those most likely to succeed. In the past 200 years the world has seen revolutions in industry, transport and communications, and now we are in the computer and space era. Such changes have special meaning for young people as they prepare themselves to bear their share of the economic and social pressures of our world.

They will soon realise that they need to get busy rowing the boat, which is safer and more healthy than rocking it! Their , happiness depends upon this: that they make the best of what they have, whether it be in transport management or some other endeavour.

The search for identity: A career in a branch of road transport is full of challenge and fun, and those young people who wish to lead a worthwhile life might well consider preparing for

management in this key activity of the economy. Firms and organisations are on the lookout for young persons who have sorted themselves out and wish to commit themselves to developing and improving the quality of the many and various services provided.

Identity with the industry in a proper professional sense is a prerequisite to career progress, and your personal qualities, properly exercised, are the key to your success.

Knowledge the key factor: The key to realistic use of qualities is knowledge obtained by experience, experiment and research. Knowledge gives the only sound basis for confident planning. It is the raw material from which you manufacture right opinions about things.

The ability to discriminate between one piece of knowledge and another with regard to its significance for your purpose can be learned. But you must constantly practise the art, and not be put off by the need, often, to put in week and months of work to obtain what you want.

Getting knowledge is part of continuing education, and must be a lifelong activity. Whatever your age, apply your knowledge thoughtfully and reasonably in terms of what you already are, and use the services of government departments, your professional institutes, trade associations, libraries and similar organisations to help you press on.

It is out of wide knowledge that you develop the quality of making good choices. Such decisions lead to business success, but you must have the knowledge in the first place. You cannot choose something you have never heard of!

Ways of knowing: There are five main ways of knowing: scientific, mathematical, aesthetic, philosophical and religious. Besides these there is also the important business of knowing yourself. A healthy self-examination is needed in order to develop potential qualities and to correct faults.

Scientific and mathematical ways of knowing are necessary for those coming into road transport management in order to cope with the physical and quantitative problems of the business. In the three other main areas, concerned with values, opinions, beliefs, interpretations, the emphasis is in dealing with people. This is an area of great importance too to future managers, and a study of Professor Jeffrey's views may be of benefit.

Another way of knowing is by reading biography, and there are a number of business and transport people who will repay the time spent reading about them.

Getting out of your depth: If you do not ever get out of your depth you will never learn to swim. Most successful people have at some time been thrown in at the deep end. At a critical moment in their lives they have been forced to do more than they had planned to do, or to accommodate themselves to a new situation, and out of their qualities they proved their ability to cope with the challenge Assess your character: Character is what you are when there is no one else about. The corner-stone of character is integrity; it has principles which are qualities of the underlying sort — laws and ideas, controlling concepts and basic facts. They enable a person to play his part with equal elegance whether he is dressed in blue overalls or a dinner jacket.

Character is not summed up in that much abused concept "personality", but it does give charm, a quality that has a wistful appeal which accomplishes more by influence and example than by dominance and force.

Be yourself and maximise your strengths: When you take stock of your qualities you are already ahead of the great mass of the people who never seriously consider what talents they have with which to work. No one can expect the best of himself if he thinks aimlessly about his qualities and selects his quality tools haphazardly. The diesel engineer does not use a sledgehammer to tune a Perkins V8.

No one can guarantee your success in using your qualities, but you can deserve it. What you imagine on a large scale will be realised, perhaps on a smaller scale, depending upon how right your assumptions were about your qualities, how earnestly you try, and how effectively you maximise your strengths.

One who seeks to make the most of his qualities will habitually do well what he has to do. We must all strive "to act, that each tomorrow find us farther than today."

References; 1 Jeffreys, M. V. C., Personal Values in the Modern World, Penguin, 1962.

2 Longfellow, H. W., from his poem A Psalm of Life.

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