business leader would be an individual who, well trained and equipped with the knowledge and skills required to run a team of persons, would take the organization that has employed them from where it stands to a state of profit. A good manager must be able to run the company effectively and efficiently with all the tools at his disposal, including the team of innovative people. He must be able to use his communication skills and his charisma to influence and encourage his team into giving their best performance, which would in turn bring in more ideas and therefore more profits for the company.
Business Leadership and Management Skills
The word ‘manage’ in English means the basic idea of being able to control events and things as they are meant to be controlled or manipulated, even if the system itself has not been designed and decided upon by the ‘manager’ of the situation. In a similar manner, the manager does not decide the various values and objectives and aims of the situation; rather, they are all a part of the system to run the event or the situation perfectly and efficiently. Therefore, it can be stated that when a manager has to manage an event, he will have to solve or sort out the multitude of problems that may arise en route, and this may help him to manage better.
In general, the so-called ‘destination values’ of profit and growth are embedded in the company and its mission statement, and the manager has to be well aware of this fact before he proceeds to manage the company. Management is therefore the most important event in a company, without which the company would not be able to function at its best. Strategy is an important part of the management of a company, and this is something that would be able to provide the much-needed edge over other companies that this company needs. Closely linked to strategy is ‘innovation’ wherein the more innovative ideas the manager has, the quicker he would be able to climb up the ladder of success. (The Art of Management, How can you learn to manage and acquire the skills that the art of management requires?)
Discussion
The real problem faced by a company is that there is actually no sort of technical standards with which to judge and to compare a manager, even though it is indeed a fact that the term ‘scientific management’ describes the qualities of a good and able manager. However, the truth is that a good manager knows very well that ‘management is not measurement’, and that most operations, whether they are for the purpose of generating profit or they are for some other reason, would need an efficient and capable manager to innovate, and wherever possible, come up with brilliant new ideas or use novel ideas to create new and innovative activities. A manager would also need excellent administrative skills that can start an operation and run it smoothly and effortlessly and efficiently, without nay hitches on the way, and also be able to ensure that others within the company perform their allocated duties to their optimum best. This, more than anything else, would ensure the success of the organization. (Business Management Skills- The Art of Management: The triple talents of the manager, the entrepreneur and the innovator)
A successful Business Leader generally possesses a number of easily identifiable qualities that most employers are well aware of, and these are the qualities that would stand a manager in good stead when in need of a new post. However, it is extremely difficult to try to rank these qualities, and this is because of the reason that they all work together, and one cannot function without the other. Another reason for the difficulty in ranking these qualities is that the industry is constantly changing and rapidly developing, and as a consequence, it becomes impossible to know which one quality is better than the others. One of the best qualities that a business leader would possess is the existence of a good supply management capability in the individual, which would enable him to work effectively with those people who are outside the company, and when he has to work with them, for example, with the service vendors or with the product vendors, he would have to ensure that the company’s best interests are never compromised. (Top Ten Leadership Qualities of Successful CIO’s)
Another good quality of an effective business manager is that he would have an excellent understanding of the financial statements, etc., of the company. This is indeed a new development, and a shift from the traditional role of a manager, who would never venture out of his own ‘back office’. Today, the manager is not only expected to be well versed with the business and its several important aspects, but also to possess the basic business managerial skills, and this has entailed the shifting of the manager form his back office to the front of things. In fact, one person has commented that a good business manager must be a person who would, effortlessly, be able to convert 2+2 into 5. This means that the manager would not only be required to meet all the objectives of the organization he is working for, but also be able to add, to a significant extent, to the profit margin of the organization. (Top Ten Leadership Qualities of Successful CIO’s)
In addition, a business leader must also possess the direction and the skill to think and plan strategically in order to further the company’s goals and aims and thereby increase its profits. For example, a CIO of the IT firm, Tech Republic, is required to bring in certain technical skills in order to find solutions and plan appropriate strategies for the company’s problems, and only then would he be considered an efficient manager. In a similar manner, a good business leader would be able to manage the several expectations of the company efficiently, so that internal selling skills may also be utilized with huge success. Selling in this context does not mean ‘oversell’ but simply sell; otherwise it may not be possible for the company to back up what it sells.
One of the best ways to ensure that overselling is never done is to have an excellently efficient team of employees that can think quickly, and also plan strategies and solutions to all the multitude of problems that generally arise in the organization. Therefore, if the manager is able to constantly challenge the team members with newer and increasingly difficult problems, the team would also come to have high expectations, and would therefore be better able to meet all the challenges being put to them, and who would profit but the organization? If the business leader were to also have a basic knowledge of technology and be a ‘tech-savvy’ person, then he would be held in high esteem by his team, and this in turn would make for a better working team. (Top Ten Leadership Qualities of Successful CIO’s)
However, if the manager lacks expertise in any one area, then he must be efficient enough to be able to choose a team that would cover these lapses, wherein the others may possess whatever skills he himself may not have. This is especially useful in these cases because of the truth that one individual may not have all the solutions to all the problems; if the work was done by a team of qualified personnel, then the solution would be easier to find as well as to implement. Mutual trust and acceptance between the team members are what make for a good team, and the better the manager is able to work with them and coordinate all the activities of the organization, the better it would be for the company both for functioning better as well as for generating profits. A good manager must also be in possession of excellent ‘listening’ skills, wherein he may listen to his team members, so that they may feel that their opinions do matter to the welfare of the company. (Top Ten Leadership Qualities of Successful CIO’s)
The delegation of responsibility between the team members, and teaching the members to learn from their mistakes by accepting the mistakes and not criticizing them would go a long way towards improving the efficiency of the team. The manager, however, must be careful of not giving rise to internal tensions between the various team members by inadvertently playing one member against the other. This can not only limit the creativity and the creation of original ideas by the team, but can also curtail the progress of the individuals. A good business leader must be able to motivate all his team members in such a way that all the members would be able to give in their best efforts towards the cause of the improvement of the organization. More often than not, when the manager expects the same high standards from himself, then the team members would automatically become motivated enough to want to improve their own standards. (Top Ten Leadership Qualities of Successful CIO’s)
However, there is an inherent danger when a manager starts to drive his team to succeed, and this is that the manager will lose his effective management skills when he attempts to drive his team to succeed and then does not manage the team well. When the business leader is able to be a visionary, wherein he will see the eventual success of the company, and also be able to visualize the company as having already reached the pinnacle of success, then this would only bode well for the company, because of the fact that when a manager is able to look forward to where he is today, and the direction in which the business is actually proceeding, then he would be able to use that vision to move the company forward into he realms of success.
However, all the above mentioned are only secondary to the basic communication skills that a good business leader and manager must be in possession of, and it is only when the manager is able to communicate exactly what he wants done to his team of personnel, would he be able to succeed as an efficient and effective manager who would be able to garner profits for his organization. Among various communication skills is the innate ability of a manager to talk to his people, whether he is being tech-savvy or ignorant. For example, if the manager were to talk completely IT talk, which cannot be understood by the less savvy people, then he would not be able to either communicate or even sell well to them. In a nutshell, good communication skills are essential to the development of a good business relationship, and if that fact cannot be accomplished, then there is no question of this individual being a good team leader or an efficient manager for his organization. (Top Ten Leadership Qualities of Successful CIO’s)
Good managers are always in great demand, and when there is an economic crisis of some kind, and then a good business manager would be vitally needed to pull the organization together. A good manager is an individual who combines his leadership qualities with the innate goal of building a profitable and a viable company. An organization, in turn, can be termed ‘healthy’ when it has a number of satisfied customers, and it must be remembered that customers are never very easily satisfied. In general, a customer is happy when this company offers him more than that company, and he feels that he is getting a better deal. Nestle, Swatch, and Novartis are perfect examples of top companies that have benefited under efficient management. (Good Management Skills can be learned)
The business manager, in these companies, has a very good inside knowledge of the company and its workings, so much so that he is able to understand the goals of the company better, and therefore able to motivate his team in such a way that the achievement of these goals becomes of paramount importance, without which, the team members are convinced, the company would not be able to succeed. A good manager must use the tools available to him as effectively as possible, like for example, the meetings between the personnel of the company, and the subsequent preparation of the reports. A deep knowledge of the job design, an awareness of the budget that has been allocated for the purpose, and the regular appraisal of the various outputs, and the systematic refuse disposal, and, the most important of all, the possession of a good personal working method. (Good Management Skills can be learned)
Conclusion
To conclude, a good manager is an individual who combines his leadership qualities with the innate goal of building a profitable and a viable company. A manager would need excellent administrative skills that can start an operation and run it smoothly. One of the best qualities that a business leader would possess is the existence of a good supply management capability in the individual. Another good quality of an effective business manager is that he would have an excellent understanding of the financial statements, etc., of the company. A business leader must also possess the direction and the skill to think and plan strategically. However, if the manager lacks expertise in any one area, then he must be efficient enough to be able to choose a team that would cover these lapses. The delegation of responsibility between the team members, and teaching the members to learn from their mistakes and not criticizing them would go a long way towards improving the efficiency of the team. However, the entire above mentioned are only secondary to the basic communication skills that a good business leader and manager must be in possession of. When all the above skills are combined with the communications skills of the manager, then the company would most definitely be able to reap benefits.
REFERENCES
Bono, Edward de. “The Art of Management, How can you learn to manage and acquire the skills that the art of management requires?” Retrieved From
http://www.thinkingmanagers..php
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Heller, Robert. “Business Management Skills – The Art of Management: The triple talents of the manager, the entrepreneur and the innovator” Retrieved From
http://www.thinkingmanagers..php
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Luderer, Michele. (27 January, 2003) “Good Management Skills can be learned” Retrieved
From http://emagazine.credit-suisse..cfm?fuseaction=OpenArticle& aoid=23353& lang=en
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Robertson-Kidd, Karen Ann. (June 3, 2003) “Top Ten Leadership Qualities of Successful
CIO’s” Retrieved From
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