Learning Methods for Qualities of Successful Managers
Introduction
Managers are the subjective of managing activities with rights and responsibilities. They achieve their tasks by coordinating and monitoring others’ job (Ivancevich, 1994). The application of their managing skills has decisive impact on organizational goals. In this essay it will be introduced the basic qualities for being a successful manager and subsequently the learning methods for the qualities.
Essential Qualities for a Successful Manager
The theory of “The Role of the Manager” illustrates the three different roles of managers, whose activities are intangible (Kraut, 1989). The first role is to manage an organization to gain sustainable development for it. The manager should be clear about the organizational goals and know how to take measures for the realization. The second role is to manage the other managers of different levels. As each one can be manager and managed to others, the manager of the organization should ensure common goals and the spirit of cooperation. The third is to manage workers and their work. The managed mental work is taking up a greater portion. For workers, managers have to pay attention to their personality differences and action reasons with respect.
To take on the three basic roles, managers should have some basic qualities to achieve successful jobs.
First, managers should have the will for management. A good manager should be willing to devote himself into complex interaction with people and work and try to achieve common goals with cooperation. Although managers may be attracted by high status and munificent payment, the strong will for management is still the initial motive for high efficient performances.
Secondly, managers should have the talent of communicating with others. It usually covers abilities of written reports, letters, conversations, discussions, and etc. Managers should be able to understand the feelings of others and cope with various situations arising in interactions (Reynolds, 1998). Frankness is the essential quality to be treasured for being successful in communication.
Third, the manager is supposed to own enough management experiences and necessary technical abilities. Sufficient management experiences can help the manager gain confidence from others and beneficial rights of manipulating resources. Technical abilities are the essential abilities of applying tools and particular technologies (Popper & Lipshitz, 2000). For any particular management task, they are basic abilities for realizing efficient management.
Fourth, the ability of comprehensive analyzing is also called for to be a good manager. As technologies are developing fast and the economic environment tends to be more complex, managers should be able to recognize the key affecting factors and analyze the relationships existing among them.
Lastly, the manager is supposed to be able to solve problems. A good manager must be able to see through questions, analyze complex situations and solve the encountered problems while making use of the arising opportunities. They must examine the surrounding environment, and see the factors that affect opportunities after a reasonable process.
Discussion of Learning Methods for the Required Qualities
There have been several management genres pioneered by some masters such as the “Good Human Nature” theory, the “Evil” theory, the "Japanese Management" theory (Schein, 1993), and etc. However, in spite of all the differences on the accented points, these theories all require managers to get developed on the introduced qualities. The manager should be able to construct a commonly-appreciated culture, be understanding and patient, construct a high efficient team, self-criticize and be good at authorizing. Generally, the development methods for management abilities can be divided into self-learning and training.
Training courses can generally cover the improvement of the quality items above.