Successful Managerial Roles - Must Have. : Successful Managerial Roles - Must Have. Dr. H. Kwame Afaglo
©2010
Successful Managerial Roles - Must Have. : Successful Managerial Roles - Must Have. Much as management is experiencing increasing demand from both consumers and shareholders and in a recessive yet competitive environment, managers need to be knowledgeable in other to respond positively to the demands for survival.
It is commonly said ‘Not everyone can be a Manager’, however with today’s scientific managerial requirements, ‘Anyone interested can learn to be not just a Manager but a successful one’.
Successful Managerial Roles - Must Have. : Successful Managerial Roles - Must Have. Besides the presentation titled ‘Today’s Management Functions and Roles’ by the same author, that guides in appreciating the functions of contemporary management, the skills needed to accomplish the task is the discussion in this presentation.
Mintzberg did a good foundational work on skills needed by a manager. He did
Successful Managerial Roles - Must Have. : Successful Managerial Roles - Must Have. group the skills into three (3) as:
Technical – Good subject knowledge is a required skill in specialised areas or departments such as finance, engineering, legal and marketing among others. That of management is an equally important one, and one has to go through formal education and on the job training.
Successful Managerial Roles - Must Have. : Successful Managerial Roles - Must Have. Human – Since managers will interact with colleagues, it is imperative they have or develop good inter-personal skills.
Conceptual – Managers are expected to think analytically and be able to draw relations with events and trends for decision making.
Successful Managerial Roles - Must Have. : Successful Managerial Roles - Must Have. Much as Minzberg’s work is appreciated, there are more other skills that recession prone managers must have. These are:
Strategic planning – Although a manager’s role is day-by-day s/he must do well to have a team responsible for long term planning of the future direction of the enterprise. Else, no sooner will s/he be rolled out of job for not having a future operational plan that is in harmony with the organisational plans.
Successful Managerial Roles - Must Have. : Successful Managerial Roles - Must Have. Scenario thinking – ‘What if’ thoughts and actions must be in place and ready to be implemented when needed. A bank manager must have on his or her desk a set of products awaiting to be unleashed onto the market as a precautionary action and in some cases holding approach. If the banker keeps waiting for directives from headoffice whiles loosing clientele
Successful Managerial Roles - Must Have. : Successful Managerial Roles - Must Have. without any remedial action is most likely to loose the job and may cause the bank to fold-up. Directors dislike managers who have no scenario plans in place, Shareholders distaste for such managers are extremely high because they are bad for investment. Customers also hate managers who do nothing to reverse their failing businesses.
Successful Managerial Roles - Must Have. : Successful Managerial Roles - Must Have. Target achievement – Since recession management is skewed towards attainment of targets within agreed time frame, a manager be it for-profit (fp) or not-for-profit (nfp) must ensure s/he is measuring activities and work towards surplus and eschew deficit. Therefore, line managers and supervisors are expected to break the departmental target for individuals and group for a collective achievement. Here, monitoring (day-to-day
Successful Managerial Roles - Must Have. : Successful Managerial Roles - Must Have. checks of performance) is vital, with the aim of accumulating for evaluation (six or yearly accountability) and meeting organisation goals and production targets.
Insightful – A manager must be able to identify the most suitable resources (both materials and human) at least cost and derive the optimum results through effective
Successful Managerial Roles - Must Have. : Successful Managerial Roles - Must Have. leadership styles. Example of Arsenals manager Asene Wenger who spots and buys football talent in their youthful ages for next to nothing, and trains them into top world class footballers. After working with the players for a while, he sells them in millions of pounds sterling to another football club when they are about to decline from their peak performance. He still keeps the football team winning.
Successful Managerial Roles - Must Have. : Successful Managerial Roles - Must Have. This is what competitive management is mostly about.
Insightful managerial skills can be attained through training of staff from all levels. This way, employees act responsively.
Also outsourcing is become an important component of business for surplus in
Successful Managerial Roles - Must Have. : Successful Managerial Roles - Must Have. recessional times as today. Retail chains as Wal-Mart, Sainsbury’s and Tesco have identified and strengthened their supply chain system of which accounts for a significant portion of profit. It is a managers responsibility to look globally for materials of high quality yet comparatively lowest cost. This explains profit or surplus per the equation below:
Returns = Revenue generated - Cost
Successful Managerial Roles - Must Have. : Successful Managerial Roles - Must Have. Both nfp and fp managers are expected to reduce cost to the minimum and combine it with innovation, increased consumption that will eventually lead to surplus or profit respectively.
With internet as a vehicle, outsourcing for most industrial activities including accounting, health, goods and services provision is become relatively easier to access and at a competitive price. Recession managers must have territorial expansion
Successful Managerial Roles - Must Have. : Successful Managerial Roles - Must Have. philosophy, strong mental make-up and have the ability to operate in the global marketplace. This way, they can make the expected profit and drive the firm into market leadership position.
Motivation – Managers been leaders are expected to motivate colleagues to give their best in their activities. Motivation of staff for a transactional leader is pegging production
Successful Managerial Roles - Must Have. : Successful Managerial Roles - Must Have. targets with bonus schemes, a transformational leader adapts the verbal rewards scheme as ‘good’ ‘brilliant’ ‘thank you’ technique whiles promoting staff based on output. A dictatorial leader expects colleagues to give off their best and punishes when s/he slips including cut or freeze in wages or salaries and even dismissal.
With an effective motivation based on the most suitable leadership style , cost effective
Successful Managerial Roles - Must Have. : Successful Managerial Roles - Must Have. management results into high staff retention and less litigation.
Communication – Communication is a two way cyclical flow with the intension of receiving and sending message that will yield maximum returns in production. The act of listening is the most important
Successful Managerial Roles - Must Have. : Successful Managerial Roles - Must Have. aspect of communications yet the least acted upon. Some if not most line managers opt to be heard by their subordinates and instructions followed according with less or no comment. Listening is a virtue in communication and non-verbal speech is a powerful tool for managers.
Oral and written communication should be simple and in clear language or short and sweet. Mind you, workplace do not cherish long essays. Long essays are for academic work.
Successful Managerial Roles - Must Have. : Successful Managerial Roles - Must Have. Value - Since managers are a symbol of the enterprise(s) they run, their personal value system becomes the unwritten culture of the workplace. So, they must not only be honest, confident and emphatic, but ensure they integrate fun as part of the work load. Individuals must work in a friendly environment whiles achieving targets. Managers though serious individuals must have some room
Successful Managerial Roles - Must Have. : Successful Managerial Roles - Must Have. to exhibit their humorous side. This encourages colleagues to easily integrate and lifts staff retention rates up.
Managers must do well to entertain colleagues with periodic outings and games.
Preferably, the workplace setting should have games room or a gym.
Successful Managerial Roles - Must Have. : Successful Managerial Roles - Must Have. Further, workplace settings could accommodate family, especially nursing mothers who are also colleagues or just visitors.
Spatial arrangements that accommodate fun and family tends to motivate the worker to work at his or her optimum.
Irrespective of the closing time for work, it
Successful Managerial Roles - Must Have. : Successful Managerial Roles - Must Have. evidential to find some employees still working and not necessarily for overtime payments but for the accomplish of task in an enabling environment. Poor workplace setting or regimental managers supervise colleagues who work strictly by the rules say 9:00am to 5:00pm and it is evident in staff rushing out at exactly 5:00pm.
Successful Managerial Roles - Must Have. : Successful Managerial Roles - Must Have. Fun as an integral part of a job value system does not breed contempt , instead motivates staff to accomplish the task as though it was their personal asset.
Team playing – A successful manager is one that employs a suitable team, motivates them to achieve above the expected targets, without s/he necessarily knowing the fine
Successful Managerial Roles - Must Have. : Successful Managerial Roles - Must Have. technical details of the process. Upon team attainment of target(s), the team is rewarded for their performance and the manager takes all the overt glory. In other words, a manager does not necessary need to be a technocrat but must harness success from motivating a suitable team, then reward the team accordingly.
Successful Managerial Roles - Must Have. : Successful Managerial Roles - Must Have. Reference
Mintzberg, H. (19 ) Functions of Managers Available from http://www.clifsnotes.com/study_guide/topicArticled-8944.articled-8848.html Accessed on [13th October 2010]
Thank you