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Leadership Skills
Recent studies have shown that industrial supervisors are
working at less than 60% of their potential. Basic management
skills training is guaranteed to change all this and at such
little cost. Introduction
There is no doubt that the single most important aspect of a
manager's job is the management of people. Of course, a
supervisor must manage resources other than people. However,
none of the other resources compare in importance to PEOPLE. The
challenge to manage people effective is unquestionably the
greatest of all the challenges that face all managers.
The problem with people
It is estimated that there are over 6 billion human beings
presently living on our planet and there are not two of us who
are exactly alike. In other words every one us is unique. One of
the greatest mysteries has been, and still is, to fully
understand how we work. It has obsessed scientists and the great
thinkers since the beginning of mankind. Our progress has been
minimal and maybe we will never know. A simplistic way for us to
understand this complex issue is to consider a human like an
onion with many layers. For example:
1. Hereditary traits
These are our genetic strings (DNA) that are passed down from
generation to generation.
2. Personal values
These are created when we are children and are heavily
influenced by our parents, etc.
3. Attitudes and beliefs
These are influenced by your personal values. It is what you
think about things, situations and people. For example, you may
enjoy romantic music but dislike noisy people.
4. Feelings
Feelings follow attitudes and beliefs. For example, you feel
good when you hear romantic music.
5. Behavior
This is directly related to your feelings. For example, romantic
music makes you smile, and people shouting makes you react
angrily. One of the important challenges for the great thinkers
has been to determine to what extent can the features of each
layer be changed or manipulated. This single study area has
proved to be minefield of differing views that has resulted in
enough books to fill many warehouses.
For our purposes, we will assume that once someone has reached
working age then he has unchangeable values, attitudes and
feelings. In consequence, the only layer that we can work with
as a manager is the final layer - our BEHAVIOR.
However, it is important to understand how behavior has been
influenced by the other inner layers.
Now that scientists have defined human DNA it is possible that
future mankind can develop the perfect manager and then clone
millions. However, in the meantime you will need this training
manual!
The final factor in our simple equation is EMOTION, which has a
profound effect on our behavior. It stimulates our love and
caring behavior but also invokes violence and cruelty.
Statistic analysis
A lot of work was done in the 1960's to evaluate what really
motivated workers. The responses of thousands of workers were
tabulated and ranked in order of motivational influence. Not
only did these studies solidly support the basic theory but an
unexpected phenomenon appeared.
Although the relative rankings were consistent, there was always
large gap between the top six factors and all the others.
These statistics are quite remarkable and have never been
seriously contested. However, it is very important to realize
that the above list is not based on importance because the low
scorers are high potential de-motivators if not at acceptable
levels.
Another important factor is that many of the early studies and
the resulting statistics concentrated on what made people feel
good and maintained morale. This has now become more objective
with more emphasis on what motivates people to be more
productive.
What is leadership?
It is a natural requirement of human beings, like most other
animal groups, to have leaders. There are many excellent
wildlife films that show the dramatic and tragic process of
leadership challenges in the animal kingdom.
In caveman days we probably did much the same. Although the
group was not directly involved in these struggles they
obviously supported the outcome. When mankind developed from
being hunters to being predominantly farmers the leader role
became more sophisticated and different qualities were required.
The Holy Grail of management Throughout the history of
management science there has been an unrelenting quest to find
the holy grail of management success - a one best leadership
style. As a result several main theories have emerged: trait
theory, behavior theory, X-Y-Z theory and contingency theory.
The toolbox style
I like to imagine all the theories like a toolbox where some
jobs need a delicate instrument but others a heavy hammer. The
choice is dictated by the job you have to do and your knowledge
and skill. The tools that you have and choose and the way that
you use them will determine the success of the work, and
management is exactly the same. Let's look at the toolbox that
you could have available if you choose to put them together and
learn to use them.
About the author:
Chris Thomas is the author of the Managers Toolbox training
material located at http://www.managers-toolbo
x.com and runs the very successful Basic Management Course
for new leaders and supervisors.
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