Management Skills

Week 1: Management skills

Describe

The view of management has progressed from controlling of resources to one that is collaborative and adaptive in nature (Samson & Daft, 2015). Today's managers need both the technical competency and interpersonal skills to effectively manage a team, as highlighted during class discussions.

Interpret 

Reflecting on past experiences of working with different managers and now being a manager of a small business myself, I agree interpersonal skills are imperative in managing a team. All the managers I have worked with in the past were technically competent. However, one whom I felt was most competent, was very encouraging and open to other people opinions and we felt that our efforts mattered. This collaborative relationship between her and the team is one which I aspire to foster in my own workplace.

Evaluate

From the article, “Becoming the Boss” by Linda Hill (2007), I learnt that an effective manager should lead others by empowerment and motivation rather than control and formal authority. The manager should have the ability to influence and inspire rather than command the team to get things done. The focus should be on the team as a whole, rather than individual relationships.

This insight is useful because being in a small business, I am often faced with the difficulty of finding a balance between managing the team and building good relationships with individual members. There is greater opportunity to know each member on a personal level and this can hinder decision making.

Plan

I realise my need to please everyone around me have undermined my decision making in fear of offending others. Also because of this fear, I tend to have a higher tolerance for poor performance. In order to do the right thing, I need to be decisive and assertive when required. My focus needs to be on the team as a whole. In the coming week, I will suggest setting up weekly feedback sessions at work. This will allow me and the team to address issues of concern openly, discuss solutions and ideas in a collaborative environment. I plan to have this implemented by mid-March.

Reference

Hill, L. (2007). Becoming the boss. Harvard Business Review, 85(1), 48-57.

Samson, D., & Daft, R. L. (2015). Management (Fifth Asia Pacific Edition). South Melbourne, Victoria: Cengage Learning Australia.