Monday, September 12, 2011

Skills of a Manager

On Friday we discussed skills a manager should possess or acquire to do their job;

Technical Skills,
Human Skills,
Conceptual Skills.

Rank and explain the importance of each managerial competency (skill).

17 comments:

  1. Human skills are the most important of all skills that a manager needs to have. This is because good people skills determind whether or not people will have respect for you. Also, if a manager is unfriendly to customers it sets a bad reputation for the entire company. This is important for all levels of managers.
    Conceptual skills are the second most important skill because managers need to be a step ahead of everyone in order for the company they work for to progress. This is especially true for upper level managers such as CEOs of major companies.
    The least important skill for a manager is technical skills. This is because there are people below you who are trained to do the technical things. Although technical skills may be somewhat important for lower level managers, it is not quite as important for middle or upper.

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  2. 1. Conceptual Skills - This is the most important because it allows a person to see things in a bigger picture which is definately needed for a larger company. Also, this skill gives people the ability to have a vision about their company and know where they want their company to go by setting goals. They can also see trends allowing them to know what to do in the market that they are in.

    2. Human Skills - These are the second most important because without good people skills it's very difficult to coordinate even a small store. Good people skills are essential for CEOs of large company. These allow the CEOs to give presentations, talk to their employees, and give instructions to their workers.

    3. Technical Skills - These are not very important for a manager, but still need to be there because you need to know how to do the work that your employees are doing so that if they ask you a question about their work, you know how to answer it. It also gives the managers the ability to pass on their knowledge to the newer employees.

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  3. 1. Conceptual Skills- In order to be successful you need to know what you're doing, as well as what you're getting yourself into. You need to be able to see the "big picture" in order to see if your business will do well with competition, and if it will do well generally. It is most important for upper management because they're the ones that make the biggest decisions for the company.

    2. Human Skills- To put conceptual skills into play, you need to be able to communicate with people. People are your network.

    3. Technical Skills- Once you have aquired both Conceptual and Human Skills, you can start working on either finding what you excel in, or looking for employees that have specialized skills that will benefit your company.

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  4. 1. Human Skills is the most important skill because as a manager you need to be able to communicate well with customers. If you cannot have a conversation with a customer that will cost you business. Without customers you wont make sales. If a customer has good experiences with managers they will come back to the store, but if a manager cannot interact with customers then they will not want to come back.
    2. Conceptual Skills is the second most important skill because in order to have a successful business you need to continue to set goals and improve products.
    3. Technical skills is the least important skill out of the three because managers should know the basic technical skills but they can hire other people to do them.

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  5. 1) Conceptual Skill- most important because a manager must act accordingly and think critically based on the situation. This skill is a must need in order to drive and profit the business.
    2) Human skills- a manger must be good at interacting with people, whether its with customers or in a business meeting.
    3) Technical skills- least important, but also depends the the level of management. A CEO of a company does not have to have technical skills as he has his middle/lower management running the department who do have to have technical skills.

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  6. I think the skill that a manager needs depends entirely how established they currently are. For someone who is starting in a business or is in low level management, technical skills are the most important. A manager can conceptualize or talk to people very well, but they will be useless unless they have the basic technical skills/knowledge in their field and can actually be an asset to the company. A manager who does not know how to do the job of those working under them will not be able to hold respect or authority, since they will not be able to solve basic problems when their workers ask for assistance.

    After this comes Human skills, so that they will be able to organize a workforce and get clients for their business. Human skills are a great thing to have, but if a manager lacks this skill he or she can simply hire someone else to deal with people.

    Conceptual skills are extremely important to build a future and set/achieve goals for a company, but the ability to conceptualize is useless without technical knowledge and the ability to gain a market share/gain customers. Conceptualization is important for high level management so that they can move the company forward, but simply imagining the future of the company will do nothing

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  7. The most important skill is conceptual skills. These skills include having a passion, having a vision, critical thinking, and seeing trends. Having these skills are very important to the success of a business. For instance, if the manager of a franchise is not passionate about the products that his business sells, how can he expect his customers to be? Similarly, most of these skills cannot be taught as easily as technical skills. For example, you can teach a person with passion to program, however you cannot teach passion to a programmer.

    Next, human skills are the second most important. It is vital to be able to communicate with others when in a position of authority, especially in lower management. With good human skills, a manager can lead his team (which, in turn, increases productivity), resolve disputes employees have, and attract customers (being friendly to customers creates a consumer relationship). For example, if the employees are always fighting, they will be reluctant to work with each (which will greatly reduce productivity).

    Finally, technical skills are the third most important skill. While these skills are important to a business, they are usually the easiest to obtain. To illustrate, a waiter can easily learn the technical part of waiting tables (ex. taking orders, making the bill, serving food. etc.).

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  8. I rank them from 1 - 3; 1 being the most important and 3 being the least important.

    3. Conceptual Skills
    -They are the least important because those are the skills that involve the ability to think critically and analytically and solving problems; they are more important for really high up employees like CEOs, people who run the company, not managers who run a department or specific area, though the manager should definitely still have that skill.

    2. Technical Skills
    -They are ranked #2 because they are important because those are the specialized skills like engineering and accounting and often the manager should know how to do their subordinate's job because the employee's often need the manager's help or advice for many of the tasks they do. Though, it is not as important as human skills.

    1. Human Skills
    -I ranked human skills as #1 because I believe that the ability to interact with people is the most important skill that a manger should have. Though the manager has to deal with his/her employees a lot, they deal with other people like customers more as they often have complaints, or other reasons that they need to discuss with the manager and the manager has to be able to deal with those people and talk to them in the appropriate kind of way. Also, the manager has to be able to talk to the employees in the most appropriate way he/she can and if the manager has bad news to give to an employee they have to deliver that news in the best way. So basically, the manager has to be able to talk to people very well.

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  9. I Rank them from the most important to the least important in terms of managerial skills.
    1.)I Think the main skill any manager should have is Human Skills (People Person), in oreder to fufill your job as a manager you have to have good comunication with your employees.

    2.)The seccond most important skill for a Manager should be there Conseptional Skills. Managers should have the ability to think criticly, Problem slove, Set Goals for their employees and have a vision for the company. I think these having these abilities plays a major role as a manager because if you cant problem solve and one of your customers has a problem and you cant find a solution they will tell people about there problem and not just give you a bad reputation but give the company a bad reputation aswell.

    3.) Im Ranking Technical skills at 3rd because i think its an important skill but not as important as being able to comunicate with your employees and not as important as being able to problem solve and think criticly. Having good Technical skills is a good thing for a "Lower Manager", because if one of your employees is having some problems with one of the machines then the manager can go over to them and help them out.
    I think all of these roles can work together if used in the right situation. If one of your employees if having a problem with one of the machines then you will have to be able to show them how to fix it or direct them to do something else ( Human skills), Then you will have to find the problem (Technical Skills) Then the manager will have to fix the problem eather by them self or calling head office and getting someone down to the store to fix it (conseptional skills).

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  10. 1. I think human skills are the number one thing to have. I think this because if you can interact with people and give off a good impression of yourself it will motivate people to do the best at their job and make them want to work and do good.

    2. I think conceptual skills is next. I think this because every business will have its problems and being able to figure out problems and take things to the next level is very important in a business. Also, it is very important to set goals in a business so that you can strive for your goals and reach success.

    3. Lastly, I think technical skills is the least important. I think this because there are bigger problems/goals within a business rather than a specialized skill.

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  11. Conceptual skills are the most important skill for an upper level manager to have, as they are the "goal setters" of the company. The job of upper management is to set goals for the company, so they need to understand what is going on with the company and design goals to keep the company moving forward, or to have the company pick up the pace. Though most people would say that Human Skills are the most important, I would much rather hire a guy who hates people, but can think for the company, rather than hiring a guy who loves people but couldn't solve any of the company's problems.
    Human Skills are then then the next most important, as the manager needs to be respected by their peers. If a manager is not respected, they will probably not be listened to.
    Technical Skills are the least important skills, but still very important. The manager of the accounting branch of the company has to have an idea of how accounting works, so they can lead that division properly. If the manager of the accounting branch was trained in architecture, this would not be good, as the architect would most likely have no idea what needs to be done in the accounting branch, and could, therefore, not lead it properly.

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  12. I believe that the skills of a manager depends on what they are managing (lm, mm, um) but generally I would rank the skills of a manager as followed:

    1 - Human Skills
    The ability to have human skills is an important trait because you have to interact with others daily. Without human skills there is not much communication which can result to an unsuccessful business.

    2 - Conceptual Skills
    Conceptual skills relate back to human skills where problem solving is important because it sets the direction of the organization in a critically and analytically way.

    3 - Technical Skills
    Technical skills that are specialized can be trained and taught to but also if they are already in the company they should have at least bit of knowledge of technical skills.

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  13. In my own opinion I think the ranking changes depending on the job the person has. If your lower level then you definitely Technical Skills. But in general, my rankings are listed as followed.

    1. Conceptual Skills- I believe that Conceptual Skills are most important because everyone must be able to problem solve. And being able to have a goal in mind can make a person move up in the chain of work.

    2. Human Skills- Human Skills would be next because almost every job needs people interaction.

    3. Technical Skills- Lastly, Technical Skills because most people in the company should already have a specialized skill. Also, it is easier to learn a specialized skill than it is to learn Human Skills and Conceptual Skills.

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  14. Above all of the skills of a manager, the most important skill is conceptual skills. If a manager is not able to problem solve or manage his/her own goals to achieve their vision, they will not able to lead others to a successful future. After conceptual skills follows human skills. Once the manager knows where they want to take their business, they need the people skills to communicate their ideas fully, and make sure their employees co-operate and understand. After human skills, rank technical skills. This skill is placed the last because a manager can always be taught to do ground work. Also, it should be easier since there is a routine to it.

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  15. 1) Human skills

    I ranked human skills number one because that is the first step. If you have good human skills (ability to interact with other people) they will stay in your store longer. If they stay in your store longer they are more likely to buy more stuff witch increases sales. By mastering this skill it will help reach your goals you are trying to accomplish.

    2)Conceptual skill

    conceptual skills is the ability to think critically and analytically. This deals with upper management that have a vision, set goals and problem solve. There are bigger positions witch mean bigger responsibilities.

    3) Technical skills

    technical skills are specialized skills such as accounting or engineering. This skills are easy to learn and more for lower management. It is much harder to learn people skills rather then to count money. Although it is important for the company to have good technical skills, human and conceptual skills are for higher management and more important for the company

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  16. i think all three are crucial for a business without even one the the business cannot function. if i had to rank them in order of importance i would rank them most important to least important conceptual skills, human skills and technical skills.

    Conceptual skills are more important because they solve problems and set the direction of the organization without a vision or a focus the company has no purpose and the ability to make the big decisions is so important.

    Human skills are also very important because they determin how people view your company and in many cases appearance is more important than a good product (i mean look at apple) human skills and the ability to interact with your customers well can mean a huge increase in sales and that is why it gets number two

    Technical skills are a neccesity it doesnt matter how good the management or vision is if you cant come out with a good product or service your company will fail

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  17. #3: Ranking in third place is Technical Skills. These skills are important all because you will need them in order to work with the technology you are given and use them to do things like finding the sum of all the profits and expenses you have made.

    #2: People say that "the customer is always right". That's why you need Human Skills to help with your customer's problems and be able to stay calm even when they're extremely frustrated. You would also need them to speak to new employees, especially if you were training them.

    #1: I believe the Conceptual Skills are the most important skills you will need in running a business. Intelligence is after all a human being's greatest attribute! Being able to think hard and solve any problem is very important in any situation whether you're you're interacting with people, working with technology, or even what to do in the case of emergency.

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