Management Skills - [website] Published: 9th of May 2011 by: (c) Debbie Engelbrecht
In business today, developing management potential means
paying attention to the necessary knowledge, skills (technical and soft) and attitudes a manager needs to have. With generational differences and stringent deadlines impacting on the corporate bottom line, being a manager simply gets more complicated every year. Laws, constitutions, labour unions and courts, protect both employees and employers , but also frustrate the easy implementation of new systems and can necessitate inordinate amounts of paperwork. The frustrations of bureaucracy is not new to any of us. Ultimately this could cause a manager's focus to be diverted from his primary goal and mandate.
The development of goal setting and good time management must then rank high on the list of management attributes.
In addition, the internet has created a generation of employees impervious to age. Gone are the days when a manager is respected simply for the title or office he holds, or the amount of time spent in an industry. If any of his skills are lacking, these shortcomings can become huge issues in a very short period of time as social networking now gives all individuals the power to speak from a platform with a ready-made audience. No person, organisation or body is immune to this changing vista.(The Woolworths South Africa Christian Magazine debacle being a perfect example of this.) The greed and avarice of corporations and governments are also, of late, very prominently highlighted and much of the workforce view their own employers and governments with distrust. (Simply google the role that the internet played in toppling Mubarak the Egyptian President from power, and likewise the pressure that Nestle clients have put on the corporation regarding the plundering of forests for palm oil)
Being a manager is thus very dependent on your ability to “sell” certain ideas and procedures to your teams, then be able to ensure cooperation and continued buy-in throughout the entire production or project, while meeting deadlines and targets. As you can appreciate this demands clear vision, good communication skills and balanced decision making. In some countries there are added pressures of multi-cultural influences and approaches that play a role. In short the major if not equally essential requirement for a leader or manager focuses on their soft skills/emotional quotient.
Ironically, while our reach and influence has expanded geographically and put additional pressure on our need for good communication and cultural awareness, so cellphone and other digital technology has brought with it brevity and speed. The latter are not necessarily concerned with the etiquette and niceties of communication. It would, for example, be acceptable to reply “k” as an abbreviation for “of course that is okay” , leaving the tone of the message to seem curt. In a working environment this perceived lack of respect is one of the main reasons for conflict and a potential leader will have to recognise the need for different approaches to employees, not only when it comes to personality profiling for example Myers-Briggs Type Indicators and preferred methods of communication, but also within the parameters of age, gender and cultural differences.
In XYZ, The New Rules of Generational Warfare, by Michael Grose it has become abundantly clear that having 4 generations in the workplace places strain on management from not only a communication viewpoint but also from a situational management (Hearsey and Blanchard) point of view. A leader who recognises and addresses demotivation in an employee is paramount to a teams' successful performance. Knowing your team well enough to know what form of motivation to use is a life skill.
In the 100 Things you need to Know, Best People Practices for Managers and HR By Robert W Eighinger, Michael Lombardo and Dave Ulrich , it is clear that previously successful people can and do fail at management primarily because they have been exposed to a new situation that has required a skill not previously needed. Should the manager remain open to feedback and learning at this point, the failure can be averted. And never before have managers skills sets been stretched quite this far.
“Fairness and consistency ” has traditionally been rated as one of the top management requirements by employees … but both these attitudes rest on a pillar of information and knowledge, as the more informed you are, the more capable you are of making a well balanced decision. And the knowledge? This comes from having a strong team! Circular isn’t it? It stands to reason then that developing young managers, supervisors and team leaders is as much about developing emotional quotient and stability as knowledge and technical skill. And the higher the management position goes, the more the pendulum swings to the Emotional Intelligence side. For example, the CEO of an oil company does not necessarily know exactly what percentages and volumes are required to produce petrol grades.
The transition into management can be particularly difficult as not only is the individual in a learning curve, often this new manager must cope with resistance from other team members. This resistance may arise for a variety of reasons, but almost always when there has been promotion from within a team, there is room for conflict. Typically this conflict will manifest as a passive aggression or resistance. This can be most awkward for a new manager and requires much confidence and tact to bring it into the open.
It is not surprising then that schools have implemented life skills programmes to promote these very skills that we need for leadership and management roles, also keeping in mind that in countries of diverse cultures, what seems to be good etiquette in one culture can indeed be seen as rude in another. Television abounds and our kids are exposed to many and varied multi- cultural influences on a daily basis. Result? Confusion regarding the rules of etiquette – as etiquette in itself is only a set of norms dictated by the culture in which one dwells.
In reality this means that we need to adapt to the giving and accepting of criticism on a much more impersonal level and see criticism as a path to growth and not as an onslaught against which to defend ourselves. For most of us this can be rather difficult to do. It stands to reason then that the development of managers and leaders needs to start at a much younger age.
Further tools and knowledge that can assist an individual wanting to understand him/herself better in an attempt to increase his own management ability include the Johari Window, (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johari_window) and Edward De Bono's 6 hat thinking (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_Thinking_Hats) . The latter especially useful for critical thinking skills.
