1.6 Skills and Roles of a Manager
There is a long list of skills that a manager should possess, but they can be consolidated into three main categories: conceptual skills, human skills, and technical skills. Conceptual skills are the ability of a manager to see the organization as a whole and how each of the functions of the organization works in concert to achieve organizational goals. They also involve being able to identify where the organization fits in its competitive environment and ultimately the value that the organization creates for the customer. Conceptual skills include long term outlook and the ability to think strategically. Conceptual skills are most important for top management.
Human skills are those skills that allow us to relate to other people. They include the ability to communicate, show empathy and understanding, and form an environment free of the fear of ridicule and hostility. Those with human skills find ways to include subordinates in decision making processes. The human skill category also includes the ability to give timely, meaningful praise when due and appropriate correction when needed. In addition, human skills show respect, concern, loyalty, the ability to motivate others, and conflict resolution. These skills are important at all levels of management but particularly for those front line managers who are in daily and constant contact with their subordinates. Ironically, frontline managers are often an organization's least skilled/experienced managers. How many of you have been turned off by the poor human skills of a supervisor? In past days some senior managers could get away with poor human skills as they focused on their keen conceptual skills. However, with the communication technology of today, it has become more important that managers at all levels have good human skills.
Technical skills are those skills required to perform a specific task, such as those that are responsible for equipment on an assembly line, manufacturing processes, accounting, engineering, and so forth. Technical skills are most important for frontline managers. As a manager moves up within the organization, technical skills become less important.
Other skills necessary in today's world are ethical skills. These skills have long been overlooked, but the lack of them threatens the very existence of our capitalistic system. As more and more managers fail in this area, confidence in investing in the public markets wanes and may potentially lead us towards economic collapse.
On a day to day basis, the biggest skill failure of managers is the inability to listen—to customers, subordinates, and suppliers. An example of one of the biggest failures in this area was Motorola. In the early 1990s Motorola was the recipient of a Malcolm Baldric award for quality and excellence in manufacturing. By the end of the decade they were almost bankrupt. What happened? Senior management continually ignored their engineer's comments about the merits of a new technology called digital. Senior executives stuck with old analog systems and ultimately lost a huge market share as customers flocked to the new digital technology.
In the 1960s, management scholar Henry Mintzberg, through direct observation of managers and other research, came up with three main types of managerial roles. Within each of these three roles were three or four sub-roles. The first role is the interpersonal role. Managers must interact with individuals both inside and outside the organization. Within the interpersonal role were three sub-roles: figurehead, leader, and liaison. In the figurehead sub-role, a manager is the official representative of the organization or department—giving awards, hosting parties, signing documents. As part of this role the figurehead is also responsible for setting the culture and ethics of the organization. The leader sub-role includes communicating, training, motivating, and redirecting constituents. The liaison sub-role is all about maintaining communication channels primarily with people outside of the organization.
The second role is the informational role. Mintzberg felt this was the most important as accurate information is essential for good decision-making. The information role includes being a monitor, disseminator, and spokesperson. The monitor sub-role involves the gathering of information from a variety of sources about anything that affects the company including competition, technology changes, market changes, and new products and services. The manager in this role must stay well informed. In the disseminator sub-role a manager must be able to forward pertinent information to others, primarily within the organization, including his subordinates. As a spokesperson sub-role, a manager is responsible for transmitting information to people outside of the organization.
The third role is the decisional role. Within that, a manager must be an entrepreneur, disturbance handler, resource allocator, and negotiator. As an entrepreneur sub-role, a manager must be an agent for change and innovation. He must constantly scan the horizon looking for new opportunities and solving existing problems. In the disturbance handler sub-role the manager must fix problems between individuals or departments. As a resource allocator sub-role a manager must determine who gets what. In the negotiator sub-role the manager is the formal representative of the organization with primarily those outside the organization such as a vendor.