超人老闆,可能嗎

One striking feature of the world of 1970s newspaper publishing, lovingly recreated by the film The Post , is the single-minded devotion of the Washington Post’s owner Katharine Graham to her family’s company and its flagship product.

電影《華盛頓郵報》(The Post)真實地再現了上世紀70年代新聞出版業的一個顯著特徵，那就是《華盛頓郵報》的老闆凱瑟琳?格雷厄姆(Katharine Graham)對其家族企業及旗艦產品全心全意的付出。

Graham had other interests, and the film makes clear she cultivated a highly active social circle in the US capital. But the paper was her focal point.

格雷厄姆還有其他興趣所在。影片也展示了，她在華盛頓打造了一個高度活躍的社交圈。但《華盛頓郵報》是她工作的焦點。

The news organisation’s current owner, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, wants to emulate the Graham era. According to the New York Times, he intends to host “salon-style dinners” at the house in Washington that he is renovating. But Mr Bezos’s peripatetic life is a stark contrast to Graham’s focus. He must juggle his ownership of the Post with the fortunes of Blue Origin, his space start-up, his philanthropic interests and the ever-expanding ambitions of Amazon. The complexity makes the linear world of 1970s business look as out of date as the report-type-print-repeat workdays of old-school newspaper journalists.

這家新聞機構如今歸亞馬遜(Amazon)創始人傑夫?貝索斯(Jeff Bezos)所有，而貝索斯想重現格雷厄姆的時代。據《紐約時報》(New York Times)報道，他打算在其位於華盛頓的正在翻新的宅子裏舉辦“沙龍式晚宴”。但貝索斯到處奔波的生活方式與格雷厄姆的專注形成了鮮明的對比。他不得不在《華盛頓郵報》與自己一手創建的太空公司Blue Origin的命運、慈善事業、以及亞馬遜不斷擴大的野心之間做出權衡。這種複雜性令20世紀70年代的線性商業世界看起來就像老派新聞記者彙報選題-撰寫文稿-印刷出版-周而復始一般過時。

Mr Bezos is not the only one stretched across multiple interests. Many entrepreneurs, executives and directors presume fulfilment can be found in the pursuit of a plural existence. I wonder how they do it.

貝索斯並不是唯一一個橫跨多重利益關係的人。許多企業家、高管和董事都認爲，可以通過身兼數職來獲得成就感。我想知道這要怎樣才能實現。

Plenty of authors and consultants are on hand to answer my question. In roughly descending order of usefulness come Morten Hansen’s research-based “do less, then obsess” mantra (which I wrote about here last month), and Dan Pink’s suggestion, in his book When , that we should synchronise our tasks with the most fertile parts of our working day: “If you have even modest control over your schedule, try to nudge your most important work?.?.?.?into the peak [period],” he counsels. Get more sleep is Arianna Huffington’s suggestion. The media entrepreneur told me last month she could trace all the mistakes she had made — mainly hiring the wrong people — “to being tired, to running on empty”.

很多作家和顧問都已經給出了答案。其中最實用的意見就是莫騰?漢森(Morten Hansen)基於研究提出的“精而專”的策略（上個月我在本專欄裏寫過）。其次是丹?平克(Dan Pink)在其所著《When》中給出的建議，即我們應該根據工作日中最高產的時間段安排任務：“但凡你對自己的日程安排能有些許控制，試着將你最重要的工作安排……到效率最高的時間段。”多睡一點是阿里安娜?赫芬頓(Arianna Huffington)的提議。上個月，這位傳媒企業家告訴我，她可以將自己犯的所有錯誤——主要是所託非人——歸咎爲“太累了，身體要透支了”。

Meanwhile, others persist in wanting to stuff more into the same timetable. In his odd book Principles — part business bible, part autobiography — Ray Dalio, the hedge fund manager, suggests one key to doing more than we think we can is to “recognise that everyone has too much to do”. He writes that “creativity, character and wisdom” differentiate people who can do a lot from those who cannot.

與此同時，另一些人則堅持要把更多的事務塞進一張日程表裏。在他的奇書《原則》(Principles)——一半是商業聖經，一半是自傳——中，對衝基金經理雷?戴利奧(Ray Dalio)認爲，做得比我們想象得更多的關鍵之一在於要“認識到每個人都有太多事情要做”。他寫道，“創造力、個性與智慧”將能做很多事的人和做不到的人區分開來。

Personally, I doubt busy bosses have time to read these tips. One director I know has two secretaries, who prepare a colour-coded printout of her electronic diary, which they index by location and function into paper folders filled with briefing sheets.

在我看來，那些忙碌的老闆們恐怕無暇閱讀這些建議。我認識的一位董事有兩名祕書。她的電子日程表被這兩名祕書用色彩標註後打印成冊，按位置和功能索引分放到裝滿簡報的紙質文件夾中。

In any case, the problem with time management advice is that not all businesspeople have control of their schedule and few are born prioritisers. This is why their overseers have to resort to other tools.

無論如何，時間管理建議的問題在於，並不是所有商界人士都能控制自己的日程，而且很少有人生來就會區分輕重緩急。這就是爲什麼他們的監督者們不得不求助於其他工具的原因。

Lately, for example, investors and governance advisers have started to red-flag directors’ “overboarding”. The nautical echo is accidental, though appropriate. It refers to the fear that directors with mandates at multiple companies will drown in the paperwork board membership now entails, perhaps dragging down others.

例如，最近，投資者和管理顧問們開始對董事“在過多公司掛職”發出警告。這種情況是偶然的，即使並無不妥。這反映出了一種擔憂，即在多家公司擔任董事會被淹沒在董事會的海量文書中，也許也會把其他人拖下水。

ISS, the proxy adviser, suggests investors withhold votes from directors who sit on more than five public company boards. In the UK, holding three or more chairmanships puts a target on the back of any chair.

代理顧問公司ISS建議投資者們不要讓在五個以上上市公司董事會任職的董事參與投票。在英國，在三個或以上公司擔任董事會主席，會讓自己每一個位置都淪爲靶子。

These are blunt instruments. ISS has a rule of thumb that one chair position equals two non-executive roles, for instance. But unexpected events — a takeover, a disaster, or the unexpected loss of a chief executive — can turn a straightforward part-time position into a demanding full-time job.

這些手段都很生硬。例如，ISS有一條經驗法則，即一個主席職位相當於兩個非執行董事。但一些突發事件——如收購、災難、或意外失去一位首席執行官——可能把一項簡單的兼職工作變成一份要求很高的全職工作。

Successful businesspeople may have more than “modest control of their schedule”. They appoint lieutenants to run the major operations of their businesses — as Mr Bezos has at Amazon. Some, like my director friend, have the money to employ multiple assistants, the patience to handle a complex calendar and the upper body strength to carry around what is in effect a mobile filing cabinet, to meet the demands of a plural portfolio.

成功商人對自己的日程安排也許不只是“些許控制”。他們指派副手去經營主要業務——就像亞馬遜的貝索斯那樣。有些人，比如我那位董事朋友，有錢僱用多個助理，有耐心去應付複雜的日程，還有驚人的臂力隨身帶着一個移動文件櫃，以滿足身兼數職的需要。

But who really knows how close they are to being overwhelmed? To assess how good people are at managing their time and maintaining focus without distraction requires the assessors to have unlikely telepathic powers.

但誰又真的知道這些人是否頻臨崩潰呢？要評估人們有多擅長管理自身時間及保持專注，要求評審者擁有不現實的心靈感應能力。

In the 1950s, before the corporate fitness drive, it was similarly assumed that business leaders were superior physical specimens. Doctors opined that they would not have risen to the top if they did not enjoy above-average health. Then CEOs started dropping dead from strokes and heart attacks.

上世紀50年代，企業健身浪潮尚未興起，人們同樣以爲商界領袖都有過人的身體素質。醫生們認爲，如果這些人的健康沒有高於常人，就不可能達到事業上的巔峯。隨後，首席執行官死於中風和心臟病發作事件開始頻現。

The wise, prioritising superhumans Mr Dalio applauds are a rarity. His principle that everyone has too much to do should be read by overstretched titans and overboarded directors as a warning, rather than a consolation.

戴利奧稱讚的那些睿智、拎得清輕重緩急的超人實屬罕見。他所說的每個人都有太多事情要做，應該被那些超負荷工作的企業領導人和在過多公司任職的董事們解讀爲一種警告，而不是一種安慰。