Personal Management Effectiveness - Term Paper Example

Personal and managerial effectiveness BY YOU YOUR SCHOOL INFO HERE HERE Personal and managerial effectiveness 0 Background In order to find success along the desirable career path of marketing, it is necessary to understand the various challenges of each role that will progress throughout one’s career, the potential barriers that could complicate the aforementioned career path, and also research potential competencies and attributes necessary for each role. This report provide relevant marketing theory as it pertains to each job role along the chosen career path, offering a clear career path methodology, considerations of working with international teams, and the provision of recommendations to assist future graduates in their own career planning objectives. 2.0 Defining marketing A career in marketing will entail that a marketing professional understand commercial exchanges that include distribution, advertising and promotion, the importance of pricing strategies, recognising consumer behaviour and attitudes, and how to build a sustainable brand (McCall 2003). Marketing is a form of communication that attempts to illustrate value of a service or product to important consumer constituents with the main objective of selling the aforesaid service or product. Marketing is a social business activity, meaning that the material needs of society are aligned with economics whilst marketers work to satisfy consumer needs, creating relationships and thereby gaining trust and social bonds with the product, service or brand to retain clients and build brand equity (Kotler and Keller 2012). As shown, this career field is multi-faceted, with requirements for marketing professionals to understand human psycho-social factors, tangible business operations (Slack, Chambers and Johnston 2010), public relations, and brand promotion in order to succeed in a marketing role. 3.0 The role of Sales and Marketing Assistant It is highly difficult for new graduates to land a marketing role that is not entry level, due to lack of professional experience in the field. This role is responsible for a variety of different tasks, including (but not limited to) writing web content, working on development of press releases, acting as a customer service agent to clients, data collection associated with marketing research, invoicing, and working collaborative on promotional events management (Indeed 2014). This job role requires direct supervision from marketing managers or executives, serving in a support role as the individual gains important experience about marketing, business operations, and client services management. This job role also requires an individual to work independently, whilst under pressure, and ensure that all deadlines are met, hence an individual with high levels of motivation and ability to effectively manage their time. Excellence in effective communications ability and working with both external and internal clients at multiple levels if also demanded of this role (TotalJobs Group Ltd 2014). Many of the fundamental requirements of this job role have been provided by the London School of Commerce, inclusive of computing, business strategy development and theory, effective communications development, and customer service philosophy. This is not the most demanding career role, but maintains the ability to establish crucial experience about marketing in a variety of domains that will be necessary to advance forward. However, Archer and Davison (2008) iterate that 30 percent of today’s businesses are having difficulty with recruiting graduates that have basic communication skills and the capability to properly function in teams and groups. With the assistance of the college’s excellence in teaching and personal intrinsic motivations for professionalism, communications and time management, it would not be difficult to procure this entry level position immediately post-graduation and readily express these skills through the formal interview to a variety of different employers. As a first SMART career development step, gaining quality interview skills will be necessary to ensure that I present myself both professionally and competently to build a competitive advantage in the job market. I will seek social and academic support in role playing to achieve these competencies. 4.0 Sales and Marketing Associate After gaining relevant experience in marketing and professional operations associated with this function, landing a sales and marketing associate position will be critical to advancing forward on my career path. Typically, this job role requires one year of relevant experience and/or an appropriate degree. Indeed.com (2014) highlights some competencies which are inclusive of comfortableness with web-based software, excellent written and oral communications talents, the ability to multi-task many different obligations, and maintain a team focus. What makes this position more lucrative and interesting is that it provides for less managerial oversight than in the role of Associate and allows an individual to work collectively with potentially hundreds of different clients as part of client service management. In this role, it will be necessary to avoid a phenomenon known as message ambiguity, providing vague dialogue or uncertainties regarding an attempted message desired to be communicated (Gallagher 2013). It is absolutely critical in the business world for a Sales and Marketing Associate to be articulate and concise, especially when working with diverse clients and ambiguity can absolutely serve as a hindrance to effective communication. Many customers in this role will have diverse social and cultural characteristics, such as hailing from cultures where this is high uncertainty avoidance, therefore there would be little tolerance of ambiguity. Since much correspondence in this role is verbal and written (i.e. e-mail), using language and terminology that avoids conflict, contradiction or uncertainty is a critical competency, especially in a larger-sized organisation. Again, in this career role, my effective communications skills and ability to work with diverse individuals will be a critical advantage. From a personal perspective, I have a strong desire to work with minimal supervision and in a challenging and independent work environment. To be committed to this job role, and achieve satisfaction, I will require more autonomy. Emery and Barker (2007) support this stating that satisfaction stems from a professional being able to work independently outside of management control systems. If I am to succeed in achieving the ultimate goal of becoming a marketing consultant (which is usually a self-employed position), the competencies necessary will include advanced time management capabilities, diligence in meeting deadlines without managerial intervention, effective communications skills, and the ability to work collectively with various internal and external persons to build strong social and professional relationships. As a second SMART development plan step, I will consult with relevant business and sociological journals to strengthen knowledge on team development and conflict management. 5.0 Client Services Manager Client Services Management has a primary goal of guaranteeing client retention levels and providing for revenue growth for the company. This role requires very strong relationship development competencies and the ability to work in teams with management personnel at all organisational levels. This role requires being a direct point of contact for all customers and the provision of first-class business-to-business experiences. In essence, this is a managerial role of accounts manager who ensures that client needs are respected and considered and serves as a liaison between sales teams and the client (Honeycutt, Ford and Simintiras 2003). Indeed.com (2014) again describes responsibilities of this role that are inclusive of analysing key metrics, training, knowledge of search engine optimisation and other relevant marketing efforts online, and assisting customers in gaining maximum value associated with their B2B investment. The credentials of this role, as opposed to being an Associate and Assistant, include three years of marketing experience, supervision skills, and higher levels of computer proficiency which should have been gained in the role of Assistant and Associate with relevant marketing-based technologies. Generic soft skills such as communications skills, professional attitude development, and self-motivation are also requirements in this managerial client services role. The main advantage of gaining a position as Client Services Manager is to give more experience and knowledge of working with diverse clients with very diverse needs and expectations that will be fundamental in the future role of Marketing Consultant. Outside of familiarisation with certain marketing activities, such as online digital marketing, the ability to network with customers will be critical for gaining word-of-mouth that is important in a self-employed consultancy role. When serving as a salesperson, as a method of creating relationship value, the representative must use active listening talents, ask strategic questions that illustrate a legitimate concern for client needs, and show genuine concern for coming up with solutions for the customer (Manning, Ahearne and Reece 2012). The problem in this role is that relationship development requires high levels of constant interactivity with clients, the ability to sell products or services directly (face-to-face), and using strategies to build trust and client belief in competency to retain their long-term business revenues. One in a sales role must also act as consultants regularly (Manning et al. 2012), which will provide valuable experience in client management for the role of future Marketing Consultant. To fuel greater knowledge of sales strategies as a third SMART goal, I will, within the next sixth months, interview relevant professionals serving in sales roles to gain real-world insight on consultancy and sales strategy. 6.0 Marketing Director Once building the hard and soft skills necessary in the role of Client Services Manager, moving into a more direct managerial position will be crucial for leading people and organising operational activities throughout an entire business model. None of the aforementioned career roles provide for more rigorous managerial skills at the internal level, hence being a Marketing Director will provide the necessary skills to take on the role of self-employed executive that will ultimately require assistance and support from a variety of subordinate employees. The competencies required of the role of Marketing Director are inclusive of the ability to coordinate events, serve as a public relations representative, develop relevant advertising, and supervise all creative content production associated with client needs (Arnold and Tomlinson 2008). What this position offers is the ability to become more engaged with the fundamental aspects of promotional strategy development and serve as a managerial presence for subordinate employees responsible for these projects and activities. This role also provides more experience with financial systems and metrics development, such as finding return on investment for advertising expenditures as aligned with budget and operational capacity to carry out the promotions (Arnold and Tomlinson 2008). This role determines a relevant pricing structure for products and services in consultation with executives, production management, procurement and operations, ensuring that profit expectations are achieved and that costs do not overrun established budgets. This role will require more executive-level competency, regularly working with information technology management, public affairs representatives external of the company, human resources, legal and finance divisional managers, and higher-level executives. Furthermore, the ability to lead peers in management and subordinates requires one who has knowledge of fundamental leadership ideology and effective hard management strategies to align resources with capacity. 7.0 The dream job – Marketing Consultant By the time one is able to land a job as marketing consultant, they have accrued approximately 10 years (minimal) experience in management, client services, technology utilisation, relationship development at the client level, budgeting and finance, and collaborative managerial team development necessary to facilitate a self-owned business model. The role of Marketing Consultant is to utilise their expertise and experiences in marketing to assist clients in reaching their marketing objectives effectively. Rather than being constrained to working on one brand, consultants are able to engage with multi-faceted marketing problems and solution development to further companies’ marketing objectives. Consultants take on the responsibility of scanning internal and external market trends, consumer behaviours, and cost/competitive risks and then further make a series of paid-for recommendations based on research findings. This role requires all of the competencies described in the other four aforementioned career positions, however all of the activities of client management and financial organisation are independent of managerial controls, in most instances. Therefore, self-motivation and the ability to effectively market the consultancy business are critical to gaining clients and retaining their revenues. Direct marketing, such as face-to-face meetings and direct mailings are two fundamental methods by which Marketing Consultants gain business and expand their expertise and brand. The services of Marketing Consultants are procured because they have a reputation for knowledge in multiple domains of marketing, ranging from research to solution implementation in the face of client marketing problems. Customers generally pay high wages for these services as oftentimes services are procured when advertising agencies and other relevant industry experts have failed to bring return on investment for a brand. Therefore, the relationship quality and professionalism in this role are absolutely critical to finding success as a consultant. As a fourth SMART goal in personal development, within two years, I will seek out and interview an active and successful Marketing Consultant to gain perspectives on client management. 8.0 Potential obstacles in all five career positions In a managerial role, resistance to change stemming from subordinates is commonplace and serves as a high-risk barrier to achieving new organisational and client-based objectives. Ford, Ford and D’Amelio (2008) assert that when change is demanded within an established operational model, it is common for managers to be inundated by irrational psychological responses from employees for a variety of reasons both professional and personal in employee groups. Therefore, to be an effective leader and gain willingness and motivation from employees to embrace and accept change, knowledge of social systems and psychology will be necessary from a theoretical perspective. There is a variety of literature in psychology journals and sociological journals, coupled with business leadership ideology in relevant journal-based studies, which must be understood to avoid change resistance. Changes common in marketing management positions include new technologies, new best practices, and even job role consolidation requiring employees to multi-task. Grieves (2010) states that change must be negotiated in order to implemented successfully. Therefore, softer skills related to human resources will be critical to ensure that change resistance is reduced and that employees are respected and consulted with as valuable contributors to the organisational model. I will have to review many ideologies and strategies of leadership, conflict management, and negotiation in order to establish trust in my leadership competencies in the role of Client Services Manager, Marketing Director (especially) and as Marketing Consultant. Trust, according to Starnes, Truhon and McCarthy (2010), a fundamental aspect of leadership, evolves over time and begins with reciprocal acts between management and employee that ultimately lead to high affection, respect and willingness to follow change directions. Lack of knowledge through consultation with theory and established studies on leadership, employee psychology and negotiation tactics will minimise the ability to gain followership that is necessary for aligning human talent with resources effectively. Yet another obstacle, from a personal level, will be adaptability within a subordinate role during entry level experience with the role of Marketing Assistant. Because I am intrinsically motivated to be a multi-tasking individual, able to work independently, and also competent in meeting deadlines, I will likely have difficulty working under autocratic management systems that attempt to control job role functions. I will likely need to consult with relevant psychologically-based texts and journals to identify proper coping strategies whilst moving along my career path in subordinate-based positions. This will minimise stress in this situation and avoid conflict between self and management, something I will be highly capable of producing as a result of subordinate level frustrations and lack of consultation within a decision-making system. In some hierarchical, centralised structures, it is not acceptable for employees to attempt to break down levels of power distance between employee and management. As a final SMART goal, I will examine, proactively, the system known as emotion-focused coping, which directs and manages one’s emotional responses to high stress situations (Weiten and Lloyd 2010). It will take a high degree of emotional intelligence to avoid verbalising inherent responses to frustration over management controls that could have negative consequences for building respect in my professionalism and competency necessary to advance to a non-subordinate role. 9.0 Challenges of working with international teams Cultures such as Japan and Brazil, in the professional environment, have high levels of uncertainty avoidance. Many multinational marketing companies work with international clients which alters strategy for providing client services as compared to the UK where risk-taking is common and considered acceptable. Clients hailing from many Asian nations want very detailed reports and contingencies developed when implementing new marketing strategies, sometimes even demanding in-depth feasibility studies before accepting a new strategy, such as in Japan (Hofstede Center 2013). In order to work collectively and manage diverse client accounts, it will be necessary to review literature on risk management that will be critical to generating such reports since retaining clients is so paramount for revenue growth and the reputation of the firm in the minds of these customers. Having in-depth knowledge of cultural characteristics of individuals from European nations, Asian Nations and North American countries will be necessary to effectively build social relationships critical to the role of Marketing Director and Marketing Consultant (especially). 10.0 Career Map As illustrated, it is anticipated that progression from entry level Marketing Assistant to the dream job of Marketing Consultant will take approximately 10 years to procure the necessary competencies, experiences and reputation critical to gain high revenues and profit in the role of consultant. The following is a career map illustrating the progressive steps: Figure 1: Career Map Model and Timeframe 11.0 Recommendations for future graduates As illustrated by the research, the domain of marketing is a multi-faceted and complex career path requiring multiple competencies to be successful. It is recommended that future graduates do not just rely on their actual curriculum lessons learned in college or the university, but be more diverse in self-managed and self-motivated research to find out multiple learning regarding employee socio-psychological characteristics, leadership ideology, customer service, and even strategic management accounting. This can be performed through secondary and primary research independent of tutor instruction. These competencies are critical even in early career level planning and job roles and it is unrealistic to believe that the educators can touch on all of these subjects and domains of knowledge that are inter-dependent in the organisational environment. Further, students must find out what their strengths and weaknesses are and then seek knowledge to overcome these factors or enhance them effectively. It is necessary to be self-managed and intrinsically motivated to achieve success in marketing without reliance on external support and rewards for learning about various positions. References Archer, W. and Davison, J. (2008). Graduate employability: what do employers think and want?, The Council for Industry and Higher Education. [online] Available at: http://www.cihe-uk.com/docs/PUBS/0802Grademployability.pdf (accessed 28 February 2014). Arnold, T. and Tomlinson, G. (2008). The marketing director’s handbook: the definitive guide to superior marketing for business and boardroom success. Buckinghamshire: The Marketing Directors Ltd. Emery, C.R. and Barker, K.J. (2007). The effect of transactional and transformational leadership styles on the organisational commitment and job satisfaction of customer contact personnel, Journal of Organisational Culture, Communication and Conflict, 11(1), p.77. Ford, J.D., Ford, L.W. and D’Amelio, A. (2008). Resistance to change: the rest of the story, Academy of Management Review, 33(2), pp.362-377. Gallagher, K. (2013). Skills development for business and management students: study and employability. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Grieves, J. (2010). Organisational change: themes and issues. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Hofstede Center. (2013). What about Japan? [online] Available at: http://geert-hofstede.com/japan.html (accessed 1 March 2014). Honeycutt, E.D., Ford, J.B. and Simintiras, A.C. (2003). Sales management: a global perspective. London: Routledge. Indeed. (2014). Marketing Assistant – Business and Legal Resources: Old Saybrook, CT (Job Advertisement). [online] Available at: http://www.indeed.com/cmp/BUSINESS-AND-LEGAL-RESOURCES/jobs/Marketing-Assistant-e1432a7c121f83a8 (accessed 1 March 2014). Kotler, P. and Keller, L.K. (2012). Marketing management, 14th edn. London: Prentice Hall. Manning, G.L., Ahearne, M. and Reece, B.L. (2012). Selling today: partnering to create value, 12th edn. Pearson Education. McCall, K.L. (2003). What’s the big dif? Differences between marketing and advertising. [online] Available at: http://www.marketingprofs.com/print.asp?source=%2F2%2Fmccall5%2Easp (Accessed 1 March 2014). Slack, N., Chambers, S. and Johnston, R. (2010). Operations Management, 6th edn. Financial Times: Pitman Publishing. Starnes, B.J., Truhon, S.A. and McCarthy, V. (2010). A primer on organisational trust, ASQ Human Development and Leadership. [online] Available at: http://rube.asq.org/hdl/2010/06/a-primer-on-organizational-trust.pdf (accessed 1 March 2014). TotalJobs Group Ltd. (2014). Marketing Assistant: Speedwell, Bristol. [online] Available at: http://www.totaljobs.com/JobSearch/JobDetails.aspx?JobId=58914123 (accessed 2 March 2014). Weiten, W. & Lloyd, M.A. (2010). Psychology Applied to Modern Life: Adjustment in the 21st Century, 8th edn. UK: Wadsworth Publishing. Read More