Personal Reflection Journal: Leadership and Management Skills

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Assessment 3: Personal Reflection
Journal and Report
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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Findings...........................................................................................................................................4
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................11
Recommendation...........................................................................................................................12
References......................................................................................................................................13
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Introduction
Usually, it has been observed that the business environment is complex and global and
sometimes it is uncertain. A good leader or manager is someone who knows this dynamic
atmosphere, includes new leadership abilities and takes different management abilities for
making use of the opportunities and making the greatest possible use of their employees. Today,
companies need an integral knowledge of current problems and environments to handle and run
in business. In a multifaceted and cross-cultural setting, this expertise focuses on management,
innovation, and interaction. The main aim of the report is to create innovative knowledge and the
fusion of smooth and difficult abilities, capabilities and actions needed as a modern business
manager. A series of different exercise, including a review of a critical event, a case study with
pairs of coaches and private reflection, will help in become more self-aware and understand the
leadership abilities, abilities, and behaviours. Besides this, it will also help in understanding the
different ways of shaping the negotiation and management skills and knowledge and managing
inclusion and diversity.
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Findings
Introduction
A company is growing with complexities over a period of time. The management of the
company has become a challenging job with growing complexity in the business environment.
The need for management has grown enormously in every type of business. Management skills
are the abilities of a manager which is possessed in an organisation to perform certain duties and
responsibilities towards the organisation and employees. It comprises the ability of an
organisation to execute its management functions while avoiding crisis scenarios and resolving
issues quickly. Learning and practical knowledge as a manager and leader can develop
management abilities. The abilities assist the managing director to connect with their employees
and to cope well with his subordinates so that the activity in the organisation can be effectively
accomplished. For any organisation to succeed and attain its goals and objectives, good
management abilities and skills are essential. A manager who promotes excellent leadership
abilities can promote the task and vision of the company or company objectives with focusing on
both the organisational challenges from both inner and external sources (Jones, et. al., 2010).
In organisation management and leadership abilities are often exchanged, as they include
planning, organising, directing, and decision-making, solving problems, interaction, delegation
and time management to accomplish the organisational goal effectively and efficiently. When
there is a good manager in a company there is always a good leader, too. A manager's critical
function is to guarantee, in relation to guiding, that all sections of the company work together.
There can be several problems without such inclusion and failure is bound to occur. For distinct
roles and concentrations of business, management abilities are essential, from top management to
lower management.
From the two studies, it has been analysed that the manager plays a very crucial role in the
management of the organisation. The first study is based on the case study of the manager of
Mike Jeffries and the second one is based on sexual harassment. Both the study describes that
providing security to the employees is a very important activity. Probably an unsafe atmosphere
would create employees feel unrecognized (Cavusgil, et. al., 2017). For example, if the company
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provides inadequate training in operating machinery, allows minors to use heavy machinery or
does not implement a security code, workers may feel that the company is not concerned about
their well-being. This may result in workers being less faithful to the business and finding a job
with firms that better look after their staff. Fewer people are likely to apply for work with the
company, and the most skilled workers are likely to look for work elsewhere. Proper instruction
will assist the staff to feel comfortable with their work.
Healthy staffs who feel secure and comfortable in their workplace are more productive than
staffs that get wounded or ill at the job. Fixing job risks will assist to maintain staff at work every
day, rather than having time off to cure an injury or disease. This is valid for employees and
people who work in employment traditionally regarded to be more hazardous, as a long-term
visit can trigger hazardous health problems each day. Office employees, who are invited to take
brief breaks throughout the day, may feel much better, receive much stronger health advantages
and achieve more than staff staying at their desks (Hodgkinson and Healey, 2011).
Hard and soft skills
It is a great responsibility and an immense honour of the manager to manage people. The change
from a person to a person need to be analysed in an organisation is an essential duty of the
manager to perform. The manager faces various issues and failure because of a lack of
appropriate skills and knowledge. Thus, skills are important for a manager to handle the
organisation that can be gained through effective techniques, abilities, and coaching. The
management of people is relying on two wide classifications which include hard and soft skills.
Hard skills are skills which are related to particular occupational fields, like engineering,
advertising, finance or building. They are called difficult abilities because they are concrete,
particular and often observed (Malik, 2015). Compared to those soft skills are less concrete and
not profession-specific. It includes skills, such as strategic thinking, issue solving, scheduling,
organization, self-control, reading, collaboration, and effective communication. They are about
how individuals believe more essentially than what they do. In both soft and hard abilities, the
general output of people is determined, but one is generally regarded as more significant than the
other (Kim, 2014).
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It has been analysed that soft and hard skills of manager help in managing the organisational
aspects. There are three skills essential skills of manager which is used in the organisational
context to manage the people.
[Source: Simon and Kumar, 2011]
Technical Skills: Technical abilities include abilities that enable executives to use a range of
methods in order to attain their goals. These skills include not only working on systems and
hardware, manufacturing technology and other components of machinery, but also abilities to
increase revenue, design and market facilities and products for distinct kinds of goods and
services. Technical skills can be gained through training that is provided by the organisation and
experience. It is a soft skill which helps the manager in acquiring the objectives of an
organisation effectively and efficiently (Augier and Teece, 2018).
Conceptual Skills: Manager needs understanding and capacity to think and formulate various
strategies which are based on conceptual skills. The manager can view a whole idea, evaluate
and diagnostic an issue and come up with creative alternatives. This enables the manager to
predict obstacles or the whole company efficiently. An organisation is having various activities
and functions to perform such as sales, marketing, finance, manufacturing, etc. Even totally
opposed objectives, all these company aspects have distinct objectives. The different manager of
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a different department is needed to consider the different concepts in order to accomplish the
main organisational objective. The conceptual abilities assist the manager to look beyond the
objectives of their department. They will, therefore, make choices that meet all company
objectives (Parayitam and Guru, 2010). For a top manager, conceptual abilities are less critical
and not essential for the mid-level manager and first-level executives. The significance of these
abilities will increase as it moves from the bottom to the top of the management hierarchy.
Human or Interpersonal Skills: Knowledge and capacity to work with a manager are shown by
human or interpersonal leadership abilities. Working with individuals is one of the most
important leadership duties. The presence of leadership and executives will not be necessary
without individuals. These abilities will allow executives to become leaders and encourage staff
to achieve better results. They will also assist them to utilize human potential more effectively in
the business. They are simply vital for a manager’s abilities for the management. For all
hierarchical levels in the business interpersonal leadership abilities are crucial.
These are the three necessary skills required for successful management as a process. Some
authors also mention other skills related to management skills. But, when I think about, they are
simply part of these three types of primary skills (Grant and Pennypacker, 2016).
Other than these above skills I also learned about other management skills from the two studies
which are important. The first one is controlling which is only be a method or an organizational
function rather than a skill. Managers control the interpersonal management abilities of their
staff. The manager needs to control all the activities of the department and compare with the
actual one and find out the deviations if any. It develops strategies to come up with these
deviations. Other abilities I discover in theory include decision-making. Decision-making again
is a method, not the skill. Manager will take and implement better choice or decision if it has
conceptual abilities. In addition, it will create a better technical decision if it has technical
abilities. I believe that abilities as technical, conceptual and interpersonal management abilities
are the prime qualities that all managers need. Better leadership abilities will generate greater
business potential energy in the company. These three kinds of abilities are therefore in the
company elements category that can boost corporate capacity (Bharadwaj, et. al., 2018).
Career plan for manager
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A career plan provides a key tool for a manager to develop, satisfy his or her work and
demonstrate his discipline dedication. My long-term objective is to be a manager leading an
entire company. However, I need a solid foundation in order to get there. I need to focus on the
three main contemporary skills of management which includes technical skills, leadership skills,
and interpersonal skills. From the case study of Mike, I learned about the importance of these
skills. The manager of the Mike Company commits mistakes, including public criticism of the
number of his supervisor and the lack of the necessary organizational alliances. Finally, he
sacrifices the business for short-term gains his long-term career opportunities. From instances
such as this, I can learn a lot. The best executives that I saw can remain open to new data and
experiences, but also show strengths such as empathy, research, and emotional regulation
(Shams and Solima, 2019).
Beside this, it is important to gain other managerial skills which include communication and
motivation skills, organisation and delegation, strategic thinking and forward planning, problem-
solving and decision-making, commercial awareness, and mentoring. It is essential to be multi-
qualified in order to become a good manager. Through a number of operations such as
participating student societies, this skill can be learned, improved and developed. Experience in
management positions can be achieved easily while at university so that all possibilities are taken
benefit of. I must work with the ranks and become a class team captain or register to lead a pre-
existing club. Other businesses include internships and voluntary work based on the degree and a
professional internship in the sector. They look good in my resume and give an idea of what a
team is like. In addition to building abilities and trust, internships provide a range of helpful
contacts that can assist secure a job in the future. Management and management abilities can also
be developed through part-time jobs with the leaders and supervisory roles of teams and
departments. All knowledge is important, particularly if an individual is in a responsible position
(Gunasekaran, et. al., 2017).
Challenges faced by the manager
Challenge Management is caused when there is an increasing demand for executives and a
greater rate of failure among new manager. The Management Challenge offers new managers a
platform to explore, exercise and receive significant feedback before making a critical error with
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a direct report. This experience readily integrates into the philosophy and frameworks of the
organization. In the fast-paced, worldwide focused economies of the globe today, companies
face many difficulties. One of the largest and most difficult to resolve is how to efficiently
handle the different tasks of a company without micromanagement and without causing
unnecessary delays or disputes. From the two case studies, I analysed some major challenges that
are faced by the manager in the organisation.
Effective Communication: Building efficient communication with staff will provide a solid
basis for a managerial position. The challenge has always been effective in organisational
communication. And while technology has developed exchange techniques, the difficulties
continue to exist. Regardless of whether you overload your e-mail, lack of feedback or an
increasing number of remote workers operating beyond inner control, some issues have
worsened still further. In order to optimize strengths and find methods to enhance weaker
regions, it is essential to comprehend team communication dynamics (Malik, 2015).
In a case study of Mike, the manager faces a tough situation in lack of communication.
Challenges faced by the manager include immediate changes and stock crumbling of the
company due to the wrong image. These are caused by improper communication to the
employees and consumers. The manager of Mike does not communicate the values and
objectives of the organisation effectively to the employees. Lack of communication arises due to
lack of a plan, not understanding consumers and audience and their communication needs, a
confused or unclear purpose to communication, poorly structured content, poor audience
engagement and failure to evaluate communication effectiveness to gather lessons learned.
Protect employees: One of the most widespread problems for managers is fair and consistent
employee treatment and employee protection. A manager may allow some staff to ignore policies
and regulations and not others or may overlook employment measures. Scaling up the laws for
certain staff can create a variety of future liabilities and perceptions of favouritism and partiality
that have adverse impacts on the workplace. The entertainment, political and media sectors have
been plagued by sexual harassment. To begin to tackle harassment, an employer must create,
implement and implement a null tolerance policy and ensure that it is included in the staff guide
(Kim, 2014).
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Thus, Poor leadership and management abilities have long-standing impacts and can infect a
whole company. Toxic, erroneous management findings reach far and wide. Under leadership,
organisations have closed their doors permanently. Poor management leads to elevated employee
turnovers, recruitment and training costs become prohibitive and can affect the capacity of the
company to continue activities.
Bad management can lead to low staff morality in your organisation. When employees complain,
do their job with minimal effort, or fail to finish their jobs on time or at all, they may be
unmotivated by a supervisor who has no relationship to the employees. Employees may feel that
some co-workers are being treated unfairly and that they are favoured or that they have no
leadership to maintain them on the job. Furthermore, a bad manager may not address employees
requirements, such as equilibrium between job and private life or training (Simon and Kumar,
2011).
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Conclusion
From the above information and data, it has been concluded that capacity-based policies are
focused on the assumption that the company provides a long-term profitability strategic platform
for inner assets and key capacities that derive from unique capacities. Research indicates that
most companies ignore and underestimate the function of managers and are therefore not able to
manage strongly. In a study, it has been analysed that, employees who plan to stay in their
current enterprises are twice as likely to report that their managers recognize their talents and
encourage them to use them to the fullest extent. The report focuses on capabilities that should
be learned or inherited by the managers in order to manage the organisation activities. There are
various theoretical concepts has been analysed and interpreted for learning about management
concepts. It also has been discussed about the various challenges that are faced by the manager in
an organisation and how it faced these issues with its knowledge and skills.
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Recommendation
It is important to overcome the organisational management challenges that are faced by the
manager and the employees. Due to lack of controlling various, there are various challenges arise
such as lack of communication skills, teamwork and so on. There are some tips that help in
develop effective management skills.
The development of leadership plays a critical role in maintaining and motivating the leadership
team and in preparing it for further duties in the future. It is therefore essential, as part of the
culture, to develop leadership by developing employees ' possibilities that can be used every day
for their strengths. The achievement of objectives motivates and provides an opportunity for staff
to build abilities. It doesn't take a lot of time or money for training and growth. Recruit managers
and executives to mentor their subordinates. It also offers internet training classes to enable
individuals to move at their own speed. Workforce investment will contribute to faithful and
productive team development. The establishment of a teamwork culture and respect will
maintain a favourable and productive working atmosphere. Furthermore, the implementation of a
program of diversity training is a must. Employers are in charge of setting workplace
behavioural norms. Standards and accountability systems should be established at an early stage
(Augier and Teece, 2018).
The capacity to communicate efficiently comprises good leadership abilities. It's not only about
delegating this capacity. It includes attempts to make staff actively aware that they are
appreciated. Open communication should be coherent and constructive to staff. Managers should
give subordinates advice on weakness improvement while celebrating the strengths and
achievements of these staff. It is critical to communicate. The company needs to make sure that
the team knows why, when and how with any changes. Set clear objectives for projects and
provide the training necessary for staff to comfortably take them. Corporate owners should
concentrate on communicating with all the advantages of the change. The regular meeting of
employees is a good starting point. Negotiation Skills are a key part of every manager's role. It is
important to be to negotiate with colleagues, business partners, suppliers, and clients. This is not
something that can’t be ignored. The manager needs to be able to develop win-win strategies
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