Do you have what it takes to become an effective manager An in-depth self-evaluation - Essay Example

Topic: Effective Management Lecturer: Presentation: My interest in management developed from the motivation Igot from my parents during my child hood. They always encouraged me to take up responsibilities in various society organizations which were dealing with youth matters and promotion of communal responsibilities whereby I always had the chance of playing leading roles which involved allocating duties and supervising my peer mates to ensure that we reached our objectives under the stipulated time. Through these involvements, I managed to attract the attention of rich community leaders who always volunteered to support our activities which involved bush clearing along public roads, clearing drainage systems in our local village as well as helping the aged in tilling their land and landscaping their home compounds for no fee.
I also had the privilege of playing leading roles in high school whereby I was assigned the role of a student leader, which was a challenging task as it required restraint as well as rigidity to avoid conflicts with my fellow students and the administration. This is due to the fact that whereas the administration expected me to report and manage the student’s affairs, the students on the other hand expected favoritism, which I could not accept.
Due to this exposure to leadership, I developed a strong leadership style that makes me confident of my managerial skills and principles, which I am always guided by whenever I am discharging my duties. Through my training period in Human Resource management as well as my Christian back ground, I have always believed that the employees’ interests are as important as those of the firm I am working for. This is because without them, the firm would not be able to achieve its objective of maximizing profit. To achieve this, I believe that employee motivation should be a policy in the management procedures. Through my experience in Human resource management, I know that different individuals have different motivation factors (Mullins 2007 p 259). As such I am able to apply my skills by ensuring for example that the employees are provided with free transport, training opportunities to expand their knowledge at a subsidized cost, rewarding bonuses to the best performers etc. Whereas these priorities may be argued as to cost more expenses to the firm, the overall benefits that can be reaped are worth it.
As a manager, one of my roles is to ensure that there are no conflicts between the employees and the administration (Mullins 2007 p 529). I believe that to achieve this, divide and rule policy should be applied in the management of human resource. To do this, I would ensure that the employees have their representatives, whom they should select to present them in forwarding their complaints to me so as to prevent sabotage which may result from disagreements between them and the management. Once that is achieved, I would use the elected leaders to implement new changes. These leaders should be rewarded with a higher salary and extra benefits so that they would support the management in times of crises.
Time is an important resource and therefore requires effective management to prevent wastage which may result from poor prioritization of activities to be carried out by employees in a day. As a manager, I have the ability to set targets and oversee their accomplishment. To achieve this, I find it necessary to share tasks among employees after which they would be required to finish the tasks within the time limit I would define failure to which they would be required to extend their working hours at no extra cost. To avoid this, it is necessary to divide them into teams since I know that group work can be more productive than individual work and at the same time more economical in time management (Mullins 2007 p 330). I always believe that quality time management is one which produces maximum benefits within a set time frame work thus I would not encourage working for extra hours.
However, I sometimes possess some weak skills which I always try to overcome so as to make sure that tasks are completed. These are for example not being able to challenge my boss whenever he instructs me to assign difficult tasks to employees, which may require additional manpower which cannot be availed by the firm. I am also supposed to protect my employers by limiting contact from employees but due to my weakness, I usually make sure that employees’ complaints reach him. Apart from this, I believe that I possess characteristics that qualify me as an effective manager.
References
1. Jack J. Accountability in Human Resource Management, Gulf Professional Publishing, 2004
2. Management Trainee,” Top 10 Qualities of an Effective Manager,” 29 October, 2009.03 November, 2009
3. Mullins L. Management and Organizational Behavior, Prentice Hall, 2007 Read More