- March 12, 2013
- Posted by: essay
- Category: Term paper writing
Leading
A successful manager should necessarily possess leadership skills. In fact, leadership and management are two arts which should be mastered by managers. Peter Drucker stated that “Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things”. The leading function of management can be translated as the process of influencing, directing and motivating employees to perform the necessary tasks and to achieve organizational goals.
The scope of responsibility covered by the leading function includes (Rees & Porter, 2008):
Ӣ Manpower planning
Ӣ Training and development
Ӣ Appraisal of performance
Ӣ Supervision
Ӣ Motivation
Ӣ Communication
Leading function is commonly considered as the “lifespark” of the company which in fact sets the organization into motion after all preparations during the planning and organizing stages.
Slide 6
Controlling
Controlling function is defined as the process of measuring organizational accomplishments, determining deviations from the standards and implementing corrections. This function of management is extremely important, since it allows to make timely corrections and generates information for the next stage of planning. At the level of controlling, managers should address emerging deviations and implement measures for improving the situation. There are several essential steps of controlling:
Steps of controlling:
1) Establishing standards of performance
2) Measurement of actual performance
3) Comparison of actual and standard performance
4) Identification of deviations
5) Corrective actions
Thus, controlling is the measurement and correction of performance activities of subordinates in order to make sure that the enterprise objectives and plans desired to obtain them as being accomplished (Witmer, 2009).
Slide 7
Important managerial skills
Overall, there are three key roles which a manager has to play: informational (linking people and resources together), interpersonal (establishing effective communication and leading employees) and decisional role (assessing working situations and objectives, making strategic and tactical decisions).
Thus, in order to perform their responsibilities, managers should possess numerous skills, which can be classified into such groups as leadership, administrative, technical and decision-making skills. As a leader, manager has to establish communications with his subordinates, colleagues and senior management. Leadership functions also include motivating employees and effectively supervising their work. From technical point of view, managers should be aware of the business processes, develop performance metrics and use various analysis tools for estimating the situation.
Managers should be strategic thinkers and have strong problem-solving skills. One of necessary skills for a manager is crisis management. Finally, managers should also perform their administrative functions, and thus they should be able to monitor employee performance and should have effective delegation skills.
Slide 8
Importance of delegation skills
Delegation is the process of assigning and sharing responsibility and authority between subordinates in order to reach optimal performance (Montana & Charnov, 2008). Managers should not tend to perform all tasks and solve all problems on their own. One of their key responsibilities is to divide and distribute work and power within the organization. There are numerous benefits of successful delegation:
 High quality of work
 Optimized workload
 Improved productivity
 Development of employee skills
 Increasing profits
 Organizational stability
Thus, good delegation skills allow to save time, to help employees in their development and can serve as a good motivator. If a manager lacks delegation skills, this will create frustration for the manager and his or her subordinates, demotivate employees and might result in failed tasks and organizational objectives. Thus, it is possible to state that delegation is a critical survival skill for managers.