HR Manager Skills: Self-Understanding and Impact on Others Report

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the essential skills and attributes required for an HR manager, emphasizing the importance of self-awareness and its impact on others. It delves into four core skills: multitasking, problem-solving, conflict management, and change management, defining each skill and explaining why they are crucial for effective HR management. The report discusses the benefits and contradictions of these skills, their relevance to a future career in HR, and how theoretical concepts support practical application. It includes a reflective journal, summarizing strengths and weaknesses, and outlines an action plan for continued development. The report also highlights the importance of adapting to changes, managing conflicts, and the overall significance of these skills in shaping a successful career in the HR field.

Understanding Self and Others
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Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION................................................................................................................................3
1 Reflective journal..............................................................................................................................3
Four skills or attributes as HR manager...........................................................................................3
Evidence your wide reading and familiarity with theoretical concepts...........................................6
Demonstrate your ability to reflect on practice...............................................................................6
2 Summary and Action Plan.................................................................................................................7
Alignment of personal development plan with the skills................................................................8
CONCLUSION....................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES...................................................................................................................................10
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INTRODUCTION
To lead and manage we first need to understand ourselves and our affect on others. We need
to be self aware and capable to use it to guide development. For becoming a successful leader or
manager self development is very necessary. We need to direct our self understanding and
development to identify our strengths and weaknesses so that we can manage them. Along with this,
is is necessary to know qualities, skills and behaviours to lead, motivate and encourage others. For
knowing and understanding others we need to relate and connect with people, their personality,
background and values (Foucault and Burchell, 2011). This report is prepared on my self
understanding and others as an HR manager. It will discuss about the importance of skills and
strengths and weaknesses.
1 REFLECTIVE JOURNAL
Four skills or attributes as HR manager
Define and describe the core skills:
As an HR manager I have to possess certain skills which are as follows:
 Multi tasking: On a typical HR day, as an HR professional I need to handle with an
employee's personal problems, create a recruiting strategy for a hard to fill job and deal with
social media, wages and salaries, engagement, retention and whole host of other task and
activities (Baron-Cohen, Lombardoand Tager-Flusberg, 2013). I have to handle all the tasks
by prioritising them so that each of the tasks get enough time. This will make my job
effective and efficient which will reflect positively on my performance.
 Problem solving: As an HR manager I have to ensure that every individual who has
different personality can work together with unity to achieve the organisational goals. I have
to assure that each and every problem of the employees whether it is official i.e. work
related or personal i.e. family issues etc. I have to make sure that these issues do not make a
negative impact on their performance and productivity.
 Conflict management: Everyone does not always get along with everyone else. For gaining
high productivity in the organisation I have to make sure that people work together with
coordination and cooperation. I have to find methods of resolving conflicts and disputes so
that it does not pollute the harmonious working environment of the company. It will also
impact their working and affect the others employees also (Rochat, 2014). As an HR
professional I have to assure that there are less chances of conflicts and disputes. Change management: As an HR manager I have to bring changes in my working patterns
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and styles so that it does not gets boring and monotonous. To manage changes is an essential
skill as it makes the organisation adaptable and flexible. When change is introduced in the
organisation, a lot of people try to avoid it or fear from it. I have to help everyone cope with
the changes.
Why to possess skills?
The reasons why the the above attributes are necessary to possess are as follows: Multi tasking: For me it is essential to possess multi tasking skills as in every business there
is a need to move fast and change quickly. As an HR manager I need to possess this skill as
it will enhance my performance and increase productivity. It will make me learn how to
manage various tasks and activities at a time. It will develop the ability to schedule my time
and prioritising things so that every task receives adequate time and attention. If each and
every task is given equal attention then there will be no mismanagement and confusions
(Foucault, Davidson and Burchell, 2012). Problem solving: I need to develop these skills, as in an organisation, I will encounter
problems and issues each and everyday. For resolving the problems I need to understand it
first and then list the ways to solve them. Problems can be related to me, employees or the
organisation. Problems if not addressed can harm the organisation to a large extent. If I try to
avoid problems, then they will become more bigger and tough to solve (van Dijk,
Ouwerkerk, Wesseling and van Koningsbruggen, 2011). Therefore it is important to pay
attention to every problem whether it is small or big. Conflict management: Conflicts are unavoidable to the organisation. As an HR manager I
need to tackle conflicts almost everyday. Every employee possess different attitude, thinking
abilities, personality etc. These variations results in disputes and conflicts as they come
together while working. As an HR manager I need to build this skill for making the working
environment of the organisation harmonious and smooth (Cozolino, 2014). Change management: As an HR professional I need to develop skills for bringing change in
the organisation. These changes can be related to HR policies, procedures or practices. It is
important to welcome changes with open hands so that the organisation is working
according to the recent trends and scenarios. The organisation will not lack behind in the fast
changing competition if it accepts changes.
Importance of skills:
The above elaborated skills and attributes are very important for me to perform by job better
as an HR manager. There importance is highlighted in the following points:
 To introduce changes in the organisation in terms of policies, procedures, strategies etc. I
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need to build change management skills to take my organisation on success and growth.
 It is necessary to develop multi tasking skills in me for handling different task at a same day
or time. It will enable me to finish my tasks within the deadline so that mismanagement dos
not exist (Salvatore, Lysaker, Popolo, Procacci, Carcione and Dimaggio, 2012).
 It is essential for me to learn scheduling and prioritising my tasks and activities. This can be
done through building multi tasking skills.
 For tackling day to day or big problems and issues, I need to develop problem solving skills.
 It is necessary to solve the problems in such a manner that they do not come again. For that
purpose, problem solving skills needs to be inculcated (Gonzales and Hancock, 2011). As an HR manager I need to deal with conflicts and disputes. These can occur between
employee and employee or employer and employee. For handling such situations in the
organisation, it is important to build conflict management skills in me.
Contradictions or weaknesses in skills:
The above discussed importance shows the benefits of the skills but there are various
contradictions and disadvantages of these skills too. They are highlighted below:
 Change is never free, it requires money. Every change also have an opportunity cost.
 Sometime it is dangerous to assume that I know the exact cause of a problem and I apply the
solution very quickly (Baumeister, 2010).
 The employees can resist to bring change. This can become a very big hurdle in introducing
change as, the employees are the key persons who are going to apply the changes.
 Conflict resolution can sometimes result in winning of one person and loss of other person.
The loser in this type of situation may feel that the other person won due to favoured status.
 The resolution of conflicts may be impermanent and similar situation may arise again in the
near future (Siegel and Hartzell, 2013).
 Multi tasking may prove sometimes a time wasting skill as I have to switch from one task to
another. To do multi tasking I may need a constant reminder of what to do.
Relevance to future career:
The above described skills are very significant in shaping my future growth. The skills
which I have identified are going to support my personal as well as professional growth. If I acquire
these attributes then it will give immense benefits to my career advancement and growth objectives.
If I apply for a high level position, then these skills will prove beneficial for me. I will be able to
handle more roles and responsibilities of the high position with these skills and attributes. Overall,
these skills will help me in making a good career in HR field.
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Evidence your wide reading and familiarity with theoretical concepts
All these reading and theories has helped me to improve my performance in an effective
manner. For an instance, the learning theory has helped me to impart the knowledge with the help of
useful technique. With the help of practical environment I learned different things and techniques.
The impact of the same is on my performance which is improving day by day. In addition to this,
conflict management helped me to Conflicts are unavoidable to the organisation. As an HR manager
I need to tackle conflicts almost everyday. Every employee possess different attitude, thinking
abilities, personality etc. These variations results in disputes and conflicts as they come together
while working. On another side, change management theory has provided an assistance to me to
adapt the changes in the dynamic situations. Being an HR manager its my duty to be versatile and
manage the changing situations. These changes can be related to HR policies, procedures or
practices. It is important to welcome changes with open hands so that the organisation is working
according to the recent trends and scenarios. The organisation will not lack behind in the fast
changing competition if it accepts changes. All these changes allowed me to attain my personal and
group goals in an effective manner. The two theories has provided an assistance in improving my
current position in an effective manner. With the help of this, I will be able to manage my team for
the achievement of team goals and objectives. All these theories has remained useful in order to
improve my position in an effective manner.
Demonstrate your ability to reflect on practice
Working as a HR Manager, I have learned four main attributes that important for me to
complete my all job duties and attain my own set objectives. In this context, first one was multi
tasking in which I have realized that I have able to do different work within a single time. it has
allowed to perform various work activities that enable me to carry out different functions in more
effective manner. On the other hand, in the case of problem solving, I have able solve all the issues
at the workplace. For example, I have resolved the issues between the employees and employer
relationship and have tried to maintain them. Along with this, I have listened the issues of the staff
members related to HR policies and other areas. While, in the case of conflict management case, I
have deal with various conflicts such as working practices, misunderstanding between the staffs,
leave issues etc. All these have resolved with the use of conflict management skills. In addition to
this, I have also gained the skill related to change management. With the help of this, I have
prepared the personnel to accept the changes within the organization. It has assisted me to develop
various plans to bring the changes at the workplace and deal with different situations.
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2 SUMMARY AND ACTION PLAN
Strengths and weaknesses:
The strengths which are identified in the above elaborated skills are as follows:
 I have learned how to schedule my time and manage many tasks at one time.
 Giving due attention to all the tasks and activities equally is my strength.
 Prioritising the tasks and activities in an effective way has become my strength.
 Dealing with any kind of problem is my capability.
 I do not avoid or neglect even small problems which can make big losses if not paid due
attention.
The weaknesses assessed in the skills are as follows:
 I am not capable enough to handle the conflicts in an effective manner.
 While dealing with the conflicts I am unable to find out the appropriate solutions to it.
 Sometimes I get confused with the solutions as to which will be more effective.
 I hesitate and resist to bring changes in my HR policies and procedures. I apply the solutions to the problems very quickly which is a big weakness.
Personal development plan:
Goals Action Evidence of
achievement
Target date
Managing time I will manage my time
by scheduling it in a
proper manner. I will
also prefer prioritising
my tasks and activities
so that they can be
effectively managed.
Also I will avoid doing
more multi tasking in
my job.
The time table I have
prepared is followed
strictly. I do my tasks
according to the to do
list I have formed.
Prioritising my tasks
and activities is also
evident that I am able
to manage my time
effectively.
6 months
Communication skills By interacting more
and more with my
employees. Taking
active participation in
seminars, training
I have developed my
communication skills
by joining
communication classes
and taking part in
6 months
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sessions, meetings,
decision making
process.
training programs,
seminars and meetings.
Team management I will prefer to be a
member of a team and
then after that I will
learn to manage a team.
As a team member I
have gained team
building skills and as a
team manager I have
learned how to take a
team towards a shared
goal.
12 months
Alignment of personal development plan with the skills
The plan which is being prepared will help me in gaining those skills which I have
identified in the above part. The need for time management will help me to perform multiple tasks
at one time which will be done by making a to do list and prioritising the activities and tasks.
Communication skills will help me in resolving the conflicts and disputes in the organisation. In
addressing a conflict there is a vital role of communication skills as I need to listen the views of the
employees who are fighting. For this the planning for communication skills will be very helpful.
Team management skills will help me in bringing change in the organisation. If change is to be
introduced than it cant be done on individual basis, I will need support and strength of many people.
It can be done by effective team management skills only. Therefore it can be said that the personal
development plan is prepared in such a manner that it links the skills identified above and it helps
me in removing the weaknesses in those skills.
CONCLUSION
The above report is being prepared on understanding self and others in the context of HR
manager. It describes about the core attributes which one should possess. These are identified such
as conflict management skills and problem solving skills. It also discusses about the importance of
these skills. Moreover, it highlights the strengths and weaknesses of these skills. Further, it gives a
personal development plan to develop the skills which can be aligned with the identified needs. It
can be concluded from this report that an individual is required to understand himself and others so
that he is able to identify his strengths and weaknesses.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Baron-Cohen, S., Lombardo, M. and Tager-Flusberg, H. eds., 2013. Understanding other minds:
Perspectives from developmental social neuroscience. OUP Oxford.
Baumeister, R.F., 2010. The self. Advanced social psychology: The state of the science, pp.139-175.
Cozolino, L., 2014. The Neuroscience of Human Relationships: Attachment and the Developing
Social Brain (Norton Series on Interpersonal Neurobiology). WW Norton & Company.
Foucault, M. and Burchell, G., 2011. The government of self and others: Lectures at the College de
France, 1982-1983 (Vol. 7). Macmillan.
Foucault, M., Davidson, A.I. and Burchell, G., 2012. The Courage of Truth: The Government of Self
and Others II; Lectures at the Collège de France, 1983--1984 (Vol. 8). Macmillan.
Gonzales, A.L. and Hancock, J.T., 2011. Mirror, mirror on my Facebook wall: Effects of exposure
to Facebook on self-esteem. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 14(1-2),
pp.79-83.
Rochat, P., 2014. Early social cognition: Understanding others in the first months of life.
Psychology Press.
Salvatore, G., Lysaker, P.H., Popolo, R., Procacci, M., Carcione, A. and Dimaggio, G., 2012.
Vulnerable self, poor understanding of others' minds, threat anticipation and cognitive biases
as triggers for delusional experience in schizophrenia: a theoretical model. Clinical
psychology & psychotherapy, 19(3), pp.247-259.
Siegel, D.J. and Hartzell, M., 2013. Parenting from the inside out: How a deeper self-understanding
can help you raise children who thrive. JP Tarcher.
van Dijk, W.W., Ouwerkerk, J.W., Wesseling, Y.M. and van Koningsbruggen, G.M., 2011. Towards
understanding pleasure at the misfortunes of others: The impact of self-evaluation threat on
schadenfreude. Cognition and Emotion, 25(2), pp.360-368.
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