Acquiring Skills to Be a Good Manager - Example

A report on Management skills abstract This is a report based on my experiences and the learning of acquiring skills to be a good manager. I have done some theoretical analysis and have tried to mingle them up with my experiences. All kinds of comparisons are done to find out how relevant it is to have the theoretical knowledge and practical application. The results are amazing. While doing the paper I have learnt a lot about the skills that needs to be adopted to be a manager. my speculations are both on practical and theoretical groundings. acknowledgement table of contents abstract 2 acknowledgement 3 i. part one 1. introduction 5 2. literary review 6 3. Mr. mathew as New Manager 9 ii. part two 1. Reflection 14 2. Self Audit 15 3. Experiences 17 4. Examples 18 5. conclusion 20 references 22 I. part one 1. introduction The idea of managing a particular company or a particular organisational unit, it is very important to have some adequate and very appropriate skills. In this paper I am going to make an illustration of this particular idea and the levels of acquisition for various management skills. It is here that I have scrutinized many aspects related to the functionality of management skills. The paper has been distributed into two parts. Part I is all about this introduction and the literary review. This part also provides some examples to make the clarification of all the literary reviews as has been sorted out by me. Part II, on the other hand is absolutely about the independent study of the conceptions as I have gathered in the process of my learning made over the management skills. This particular part is dealing with self analytical practices and aspects. There is the discussion over the reflection as comes in the process of applying certain management skills. I have also discovered that the acquisitions of management skills are also very important in order to have self analytical preview. This is the reason that I have discussed the matter under self audit. In order to make the paper more pragmatically authentic, I have also discussed all the theoretical references in terms of my experiences and few examples from practical notions. All the skills and practices are being categorised as per their functionalities. These categorisations are the elementary points for the understanding and application of managerial skills. Matters and skills related to the capacity for organizing, planning, coordinating and leading the company are being the major topics of speculation. The practical usability of all these practices are worth their demonstration and the real application are thus very important to be noticed and followed (Rumizen, M. C. 2001). This paper is thus an elaboration of all the skills that are needed to enhance the position of a manager in the corporate world. This is a paper is that is discussing the efficiency and appropriateness of a manger and his idea of managing the human resources to get the best of the results and to make the company excel in he market. The dominance of his spirits and the capacity to maintain the same makes his position much stronger and thus makes him the leader. This aspect of being the leader needs more intelligent skills than just the knowledge on theoretical groundings. There are lots of aspects that are put on practical foregrounding to get the best one out. 2. literary review There are many research works done in order to identify the basic utilities and characteristics of management skills. As for Mary Parker Follett, management is "the art of getting things done through people". This is a most readily acceptable definition. The skill is to have the ability of getting as much human resources as possible. As to describe the same on functional basis, it is very important to have the action of measuring all kinds of managerial skills in terms of quantity on a regular basis. This is also very vital for the purpose to adjust the whole planning set up. This is usually done from the very initial state. This is the convenient means as found by Schwartz, D, editor (2005), for the assessing the goals of a particular business and that is what is the basis of any skilled management foregrounding. According to Frenchman Henri Fayol any well knitted skill of management must have five functions. These functions are all about planning along with the capacity for organizational unity. The terms of leading the company must be backed by coordination within and outside the periphery of the company. As a matter of fact the sustainability comes in from the act of controlling and thus is very much worth to be well trained in all these aspects. It has also been discovered that this idea is equally interesting and impractical to a great extent. As it is the idea that is exactly a typical follower of the management staff and the whole thing is what the managers do; the efficiency of these managers are thrown in competitiveness. Though it is very difficult to define management, yet it is very important to have well analytical and intelligent people for the purpose. Management under any circumstances cannot be in the hands for people with weak academic records and weak personalities (Gomez-Mejia, Luis R.; David B. Balkin and Robert L. Cardy 2008). As it s matter to administrate the fellows of same age and education, the capacity to be the leader should be made easier. There is always a regular shift in the definitions and the acquired estimations for the determined skills of the managerial practices. These are all very much differentiating with the class and cadre of the corporate hierarchy (Müller-Prothmann, T. 2006). There are some believes that are considers the management skills to be synonymous with the idea of business administration. However it is very important to have a clear vision of both these categories. Application of administration is far more different than the capacity that holds for the sustainability of human resources. Administration is the systematic approach and the way of managing all those whoa re into the periphery of corporate existence. The capacity of business administration is for the purpose to gain the idea for public and the external sector of the company. This is, on the other hand is more elaborative and maintain less terms within the company. Management skills however are more concerned about the management within the company. The matter is all related to the technology, work, processes, people, etc. and are all related to in house administration. Management is a far broader word and is a kind of consolation that needs to be there is every important twists of the company. Realistically all the managerial aspects are related to the organizational unity and are very much a process to maximize the effectiveness of the industry in the market. It has been discovered that the university departments that are into the education of management are referred as business schools. The terms like business, management and administrations are all used on the same platform. As a matter of at the acquisition of knowledge about business and administration is management. Rumizen, M. C. (2001), is of the view that the capability to make the execution of this knowledge into business and administration is Management. Management is all about that particular hierarchical level that counts on the administrative and the functionality of making the business run in a smother way. Gaining profit is one of the chief targets and to manage the whole resource is the basic identity or the managerial skills. Corporational administrative structure is as tough as it can be and it is very vital to maintain the uniqueness and the dexterity in it. There are lots of things that make the manager skilled enough to cope with day to day practical hurdle. The most essential of all is of course discussed by Gomez-Mejia, Luis R.; David B. Balkin and Robert L. Cardy (2008). It is the matter of making people aware of the fact that their existence is directly proportionate to their performance and as such the Corporation too is very much dependent on it. The skills of a manger get rated only when he proves to be better than the crowd he is standing in between. The proficiency and the credibility in managing oneself and in sharpening the skills makes the job much tougher than what is usually expected to be. 3. Mr. mathew as New Manager In order to apply the above mentioned discussion I would like to mention here about the positioning of a manger in a firm. This particular company was dealing with BPO that is the business promotion operation sector for lots of other companies. It was more like a call centre. It is here that Mr. Mathew was appointed as a manger over a group of CRs that is Customer Representatives. Being a fresh manager the application of all his skills was theoretical. The initial days were very heavy for him. He was unable to manage the spirit of being a manger above so many people. The initial reactions were warm but he was more aggressive. This gave a negative reaction to the group of CRs. The initial days for Mr. Mathew were enormously stressful and he was unable to schedule his duties. At some point of time he was even cursing himself for making this choice. Management as a study was quite amazing there were lots of stresses but they were all related to the enjoyment of learning. In this practical field Mathew was really feeling out of place. He felt as if whatever he was studying was not worth this place. All his theories seem to fail. As a matter of fact Mathew was unable to apply all the theoretical assessments into his work place and that was making him go more frustrated. The causes are simple the study as has been made by Mathew lacked absolute training and he was the one who is at a stake on practical field of managing people for better results. All his hopes are shattered and he was facing regular demoralization. Mathew is an expert in the technical field but now he needs to deal with live people not over any bunch of machines. He was always appreciated for his technical expertise and was promoted on that basis. It was with this proficiency that he was living in a world of confidence. But as he is into this section of HR he is still very confusing and all his expertise is proven to have no worth. His confidence is gone and he was in desperate need of absolute guidelines. Added to technical expertise he feels the need of managerial expertise to overcome the situation, in order to perform. The foremost thing that he needed is the understanding of maintaining professionalism with his subordinates. As per his analysis and experience, he always felt that his subordinates are not worth what they are earning. Added to these types of notion he felt that they are not in a position to understand and follow the superior. This is again a very complicated situation that Mathew was dealing with. In order to solve Mathew’s problem and to give him an absolute solution there are some policies and skills that are needed to be acquired by him. He must feel that his subordinates are experts, however he is little better than them and thus in charge of managing them. Under any situation he should not look down upon them and at the same time maintain his position too. Mathew was well aware of the fact that he is an expert in his field. The only thing that he needs to realize is that there should be an accurate and adequate understanding between him and his subordinates. Without this mutual attitude it is just next to impossible to manage so many people. As per the acquisition of management skills, it is very important to have the capacity to manage oneself. It is necessary to understand the inner spirits and the capacity to utilize them (Harman, C. and Brelade, S. 2000). The matters related to company have got the process of acknowledgement from individual contributor to the manger in charge. A company cannot grow without the mutual understanding between the two. As everyone is placed in a company as per his capacity, there cannot be any room for individual survival. Each person survives and knows the way to it. This is individual talent that every single individual has got and the manger must understand it. As for Mathew the practical application of managerial skills started with his initiative in calculating his own work of hours. Mathew started keeping track of his working hours per week. He soon realised his contribution to the company. At the same time there was this strong realisation that unlike machine human beings are stuck with all kinds of formalities and hurdles. However he also made an effort in understanding the fact that the existence of human being makes the company more reliable than what it is. In the process he become conscious on something that is visible in the first place is not always out of hand. With little effort, one can very easily gain to be the one with managerial capacities. The next level of Mathew’s transformation was in his means to understand his own signs and stresses. It is indeed a tough job as you really cannot count your stress and frustration when you are really into it. For this purpose one needs to have comprehensiveness about his mindset and there has to be the space to accept and negate your own attitude. Mathew proved to be very strong in making his assessments. He was very calm and quite in counting down his weaknesses. It was tough for sure, but Mathew did it. He understood the way to come out of stress and depression. He also became proficient in anger management. As a matter of fact when you understand the way to come out of a particular situation, you automatically become capable to do the same all over again and again. This helps in gaining the energy to be what you are. Mathew also got a mentor to guide him down through all the hurdles. All kinds of impossible situations were handled in far better way now. The performances got generated on broader perspective. The need of a supervisor or an understanding boss is really very important to mould the career of a new manger. He is the one who needs to be on the side of the making this new guy about all kinds of practical possibilities. This is not easy. However the new guy too must have enough patience and humbleness to follow the mentor. This is mostly a common corporate scenario where the big boss teaches the newcomer to be the boss. The strategies are all collected from the practical fields and there comes in the need for better administration and proper speculation. The system of being a manger demands enough tolerance and patience. There is the mandatory need to learn to be delegate. This is an act to represent the potentiality and to have the leadership quality. Mathew learnt to delegate and as such the CRs were all in better position. They became more open and the communication was more transparent. As such Mathew became more reliable on his subordinates. He started giving them all kinds of task and all sorts of responsibilities. It was highly appreciated and all the subordinates became enthusiastic to perform. Mathew became more confident and there was no actual bar to stop him now. He got the key to make his subordinate believe him and to perform as per his instructions. ii. part two 1. Reflection Being a manager needs to have some basic functionalities, so that the position gets the right advantage. Through proper planning, absolute organizing capabilities, with enormous proficiencies in leading and motivating the human involved in a particular task; the manager must have the boldness to control and to manage his subordinate staff. This is the acquisition of the basic functionality that must have the skills to get followed. The manager is the deciding head of whatever is needed for the future of the particular task or of the company as a whole. He is thoroughly responsible in planning the steps that are supposed to be taken by his authorisation in the time to come. There is this act of execution of orders that is very vital for a manger. Sometimes after managing and planning everything the company fails to follow the preconceived instructions. This is what; again is the responsibility of the manager to look after and to be a part of every particular follow up. The act to implement the enlisted instruction needs an extra domain to conquer. Extreme intelligence and the capacity to implement the thought is what get vital under all circumstances. The success gets counted only when there is this visibility in the manager and the dominance over the implementation of the same. The management also needs to have the keenness in job analysing, recruitment and in hiring exact people for the absolute solution. The act of leading and motivating skills reflects very genuinely over the staff and that is a progressive characterisation for the same aspect. The corporate world demands for excellence and that can only be attained when there is this amalgamation of skills with motivating capacities ( Polanyi, M. 1967). The effectiveness of all these skills lies in achieving the assorted plans. It is very important to have a look at the major differences of dominating a hierarchy and to have professional skilfulness sin making the target more possible. The task is to create the willingness in the staff to perform and to give the best. These are the kind of motivations that has to be very much clear and strong. Nissen, M.E. (2006) stated that the duty of a manger is not only to control and to monitor his subordinates but is also to participate in the activities sorted by them. A simple participation is a matter of great motivation. It instigates and inspires the staff to follow the boss. The inspection and the speculations need to be on the basis of all kinds of modifications based on feedback. This is the key for the formation of business policy for the company. The purpose is very much obvious and is backed by the act of futuristic determination. The role of the manager is to have al the details and the organisational understanding in order to reflect the best of the kind of results. 2. Self Audit The rank to maintain a good position as a manger needs a broader inspection over the self. It is meant to be the best way to get the best out of others. In the periphery of human resources, it is mandatory to have a very instinctive identification of the self. This is possible when you are competent enough in making an impartial analysis of your self. This is a big compromise with the ego and is the only way for self realisation. It is the means to identify all the key competencies in ones own individuality. The target of self audit is to highlights skills thus demands the scrutinization of strengthening and in helping in the plan of one’s own self motivating and skill development. It is equally worth the assessment as can be made for the placement of self realisation and understanding of every step for interpersonal developments. It is the source to identify evidence that can be used in marketing the acquired skills to respective employers of the business domain. The determination of the self also needs to be maintained for the memberships in all kinds of professional organizations. O'Dell, C. and C. J. Grayson Jr. (1998), finds that it is obvious that the act of self audit will place a manager at the top of all kinds of possibilities. In order t maintain this position it is equally important to be updated in all respect. The manager has to be very much acquainted with the new technology and trends. This will position his self esteem in a better level and that will make the corporate world efficient enough in making the decision on his favour. To meet the competition in the market the manager has to be very much popular and efficient in his field. There should be regular strikes of innovative ideas and profitable substitutions under his domain. The purpose to have a good self audit can only be attained by keeping the track of former colleagues. These personalities are the best ways of making you realise how to cope up in all possible instance. For an all round development, one needs to subscribe industry publications. This will create space for the self analytical ideas and is the correct means to enhance the skills in the management in the business domain. Added to this Richard Barrett, (2003, p51) finds the act of consultation with the supervisor or the fellow colleagues, the managerial skills can further be enhanced. The idea is to have proper combination of volunteer involvement and the target meeting qualities. 3. Experiences As to make a practical analysis of the whole matter, I would like to discuss few of my experiences in the field of managing and acting as a worker in public relation sector. I worked as a sales representative for a credit card company and at the same time worked in a restaurant as a part timer. Though my experiences are limited, yet I have learnt a lot in making the difference between a manger and a follower. I was lucky to be a part of the credit card company. Here I have seen the extremes of professionalism. The manger whom I need to report was a wonderful person. He used to stress me a lot in making more profits to the company. However I never felt that he is imposing something on me that is out of my capacity. Rather after every meeting with him I always tried to extend my routine and try to get best of the customers. My performance was highly appreciated, but for the same I owe to the manager. With him I have realised that it is not easy to be a manager. The act of motivation that he used to put in me was tremendous. I always realised that I am performing for myself and for my position. When I was appreciated by senior managerial positions, I can say that it was an achievement. This achievement was no doubt nurtured by my immediate manager. Now I realise every skill of his and his way of motivating me to meet the target that has been set by him. I really am grateful to this manger of Credit Card Company. The second experience was with this restaurant where I worked as a part timer. The image of the manager from the credit card company was further elevated when I met the manager of this particular restaurant. I have realise that this man was nowhere in comparison to my former boss. The manager of the restaurant was an opposite characteristic to my former boss. He was the one made me stress my capacity with mental tiredness. Right from screaming at me to the unnecessary cuts in my pay, he did it all. In spite of all these I never could obey him. I was turning more rebellious to him and was very much in opposition to my capabilities. I was not performing at all. The simple reason was that I did not like my boss and was not at all enthusiastic about the same. 4. Examples The matter of self audit is very vital to be a good manager. There can be few of the examples. As per Research Councils' Joint Skills Statement, self auditing needs to be a continuous process1. In this you can analyse and understand all the weaknesses and the strength of your being. I here would like to mention about my friend Thomas, who is working as a manager in an educational institute. He is supposed to be dealing with the most educated staff of the society. However I find him making lots of complains about the teachers the staff and the researchers. According to Thomas these people can have best of the qualifications but are no way administratively disciplined. They are more concerned about their careers than the careers of their students. The better the qualifications are the more they are out of station. Some of the batches hardly meet the highly educated faculties. As I talk to Thomas I analyse his contributions as a manager. We discuss about his personal and professional experiences and how sometimes they get intermingled. I have discovered some of his general skills and some very interesting specific skills as a manager. Like most of the professional managers he too maintains a great relation with every one he is dealing with. The speciality about him is that he has got this extraordinary dominance over his staff. Most of the time, his staff could not ask him for a leave. This makes the institution and the students gain some better classes. These types of attitude makes Thomas unpopular, but he very skilfully understands how to get the best of everyone under him. He appreciates every small contribution made by his staff and that neutralises all the grudges in them. One more example I would like to forward here. It is none other than a friend of my father. I have known this person from a long time. I never realised the fact that he is my father’s boss. This particular friend of my father is a very professional man. He is friendly with my father and is equally the one who commands him. His behaviour and nature is very much cooperative. He supported my father in every personal matter but as said by my father he is a task master. I really admire this friend of my father. Who is an absolute manager and is a hard core professional and at the same time a great support in personal life. The realisation that I have discovered about this particular manager is that, all the people who had worked with him are inclined to do anything for him. For me he is an ideal manager who is equally concern about his company and the people working for it. 5. conclusions Keeping all the experiences and the examples in one side and the theoretical knowledge on the other side, I have discovered that the application of theories in the practical life is not that easy. However, it needs personal speculations. All these expertises come in through the theoretical knowledge and so are very important. Still I feel that personal involvements are very important and there are all kinds possibility of getting messed up with practical problems and the knowledge acquired. I have realised that a manager must have the hold over emotional intelligence of his. This is the means to manage the psychology of the staff he is dealing with. Added to the act of organising every inch of his professional set up he must make a proper coordination within himself. A well organised manager can only organise the staff that he has got. Active participation in career development and in leading oneself in all aspects is some of the inevitable part of being a good manager. You have to be the most active participator in managing your group. Keeping track of every possible improvement and incident is the root cause of making you the one among many. Being the boss is definitely to be in the hot seat, but it is the best place to be and that makes you the one who is meant to make all the commands and the decisions. Of course in the course the maintenance of superiority needs to be handled more professionally then personally. The proficiencies in time management, balance between life and work are very important. This stands for the accountability in a personality of being a manger. The participation of all kinds is very important. I have realised that the motivation part plays a very vital role in making the staff work as per your idea and plan. As the target is to gain lots of profit, it is thus the only motive that needs to be served to every individual of the particular task. The manager must be an efficient worker by himself and must be well versed in every aspect of the job he is into. It is equally very important to have a proper speculation over the fact that you need to be the boss. After all it is his expertise works as the paving way for his staff and the more polished it is the more it will be followed. references Administration industrielle et générale - prévoyance organisation - commandement, coordination – contrôle, Paris : Dunod, 1966 Gomez-Mejia, Luis R.; David B. Balkin and Robert L. Cardy (2008). Management: People, Performance, Change, 3rd edition. New York, New York USA: McGraw-Hill, 20. ISBN 978-0-07-302743-2. Harman, C. and Brelade, S. (2000), Knowledge Management and the Role of HR, Financial Times Prentice Hall, London, ISBN 0-27364456-4 Müller-Prothmann, T. (2006): Leveraging Knowledge Communication for Innovation. Framework, Methods and Applications of Social Network Analysis in Research and Development, Frankfurt a. M. et al.: Peter Lang, ISBN 0-8204-9889-0. Nissen, M.E. (2006), Harnessing Knowledge Dynamics: Principled Organizational Knowing & Learning, IRM Press, Hershey, PA, ISBN 1-59140-774-5. O'Dell, C. and C. J. Grayson Jr. (1998), If Only We Knew What We Know: The Transfer of Internal Knowledge and Best Practice, Free Press, New York, ISBN 0-684-84474-5. Polanyi, M. (1967), The Tacit Dimension, Doubleday, Garden City, NY, ISBN 0-385-06988-X. Richard Barrett, She can also describe management as philosophy. Vocational Business: Training, Developing and Motivating People - Business & Economics - 2003. - Page 51. Rumizen, M. C. (2001), Complete Idiot's Guide to Knowledge Management, Alpha, ISBN 0-02-864177-9. Schwartz, D, editor (2005), Encyclopedia of Knowledge Management, Idea Group Reference, ISBN 1-59140-574-2. Read More