Management/Leadership Continuum Reflection - Essay Example

? The Management and Leadership Continuum The economies today are more competitive than ever; and for a young manager to survive and flourish in these conditions, he needs to understand the best possible means of understanding the situation he finds himself in have multiple means to resolve a problem, keep his employees loyal and friendly and meet the uncertainties and complexities of the situation head-on. Over the period of completing this course, it has been observed that many key elements have been exposed to the student. Foremost among them is the concept of personality, and its effects on the person’s behavior, motivations, and abilities. Another important factor is the types of decision-making techniques available to the manager, and the propensity of the manager to use any particular one more than the others. While these topics are more of a personal, inward glance at functioning, this introspection holds the key to surviving well in torrid conditions. The MBTI is a personality test that explains the individual’s tendencies and propensities based on four dichotomous dimensions. This test has become a valuable tool in the industrial setup; allowing the manager to understand his own strengths and weaknesses in context to the work at hand. The self – awareness afforded by the MBTI helps in understanding the reasons for patterns in functioning, and helps in taking decisions such that the strengths are highlighted and weaknesses compensated for. A manager who is self –m aware is also a manager who knows when to push for results, and when to draw a line. He is more assertive, less dogmatic and more pragmatic. This excellent instrument also has the application of helping individuals get to know each other better. It provides a scientific basis for what may have before been considered random bits of information. A manager who is able to understand the personalities of the employees will be able to assign tasks more appropriately; leading to better results and happier employees. Understanding the personalities will also help the manager decide how to interact with each person, and the possible pitfalls that may be faced when two different personality types interact. This helps avoid problem situations as and when possible. Yet another benefit of being able to understand the way personality affects our decision making capacities and our attitudes, is in interacting with clients. A manager who responds to the needs of the client’s personality is more likely to impress the client, and ensure further trade. When meeting with a new client, a manager who sizes up this potential client’s personality and responds accordingly; he is more likely to retain the client for further business. Another necessary attribute for a manager is the ability to use both, vertical thinking, and lateral thinking in the process of problem solving. Most people predominantly use one technique over the other, given any situation. However, the response needs to be fitting to the problem at hand. Some situations are best resolved with vertical decision-making, and some situations respond better to lateral thinking. A manager, who can give a response that is more accurate to the problem at hand, is more likely to benefit the situation and the organization. Vertical thinking involves deductive logic, a necessary process when resolving a structural problem. Lateral thinking, on the other hand, involves inductive reasoning and creativity, which is important in image related and novel solution situations. Any manager is faced with a variety of both these types of problems; and needs to be able to use both deduction and induction, as the case may require. Taking on from the concept of problem solving is the problem of planning for an unknown future. A manager needs to plan for the stability, growth and expansion of the organization under various conditions, in order to come to the right choice, the manager needs to be discerning enough to choose such steps as would help the organization under a variety of possibilities. Building scenarios for the future helps in understanding the need to evaluate the possible outcomes to the present, and control for the possible problems in advance. This way, there are always some resources that will help the organization in the future. At a personal level, this journey has been a most revealing one, both personally and professionally. The knowledge gained through the programme will be found useful in a number of ways, and is already benefitting the managerial skills of the student. Knowledge about one’s own personality can always be an eye – opener; but in this case, it was an experience that touched deep, since the process of evaluating one’s own personality, introspecting, comparing with the perception of professionals, and understanding how to focus on the salient points has helped at a deeply personal level. A number of choices now make more sense in hindsight and the way in which intensity of personality variables interact has helped in understanding the choices and perceptions of oneself. The predicted as well as the unpredicted elements brought more knowledge then was possessed before. Understanding personality differences has also helped in interacting with collogues and employees. Interactions have improved, and the functioning of the office has smoothened out since the use of MBTI. This understanding has also helped in dealing with clients. Learning the different types of problem solving has helped in that the student now find himself more equipped to deal with a number of situations that could have flummoxed him before. The importance of planning for the near and distant future so that change and evolution o the organization happens in a smooth movement. All this information has been reflected on the pictorial representation of the Management and Leadership continuum. We can see that the base line at the beginning of the course showed a tendency to follow old-fashioned hierarchical approach; wherein employee welfare was definitely a concern, but employee opinion was not. As learning occurred, and awareness of the self and other developed, the process became more interactive, and the midpoint shows that the student was involved in motivating employees to problem solve independently, and regularly provided them with encouragement and support. Even this was less as compared to the changes brought about by introspection and an improved understanding of problem solving procedures and future concerns. The student has now understood that the manager’s task is basically to funnel the strengths of the employees and create a formidable problem solving condition, where each employee had the opportunity and the capacity to give solutions, and amongst themselves, they complimented each other’s strengths, and covered each other’s faults. Thus, we see that the final point can be marked at the point that defines a manager who believes in networking with the clients and employees and in communicating the situation so that each employee can give their best response. It must be noted here though, that the growth of the student is by no means complete. He has come to be aware of many important ideas; and the most important is that this is just the tip of the iceberg. It is now an accepted fact that simply having information cannot help; but one needs to practice the new skills at every opportune moment. There is much that he needs to gain, both - on the personal and professional front; and the biggest lesson of the entire exercise is that there is still much to learn, and much to imbibe. One needs to keep an open mind and understand that this learning will take both, time and effort. The main commitment at this point is to continue to learn, and continue to take the effort required to become a manager and a leader who can truly be trusted to keep the organization afloat in the worst and the best of times. References: Daniel Goleman, Annie McKee, Richard E. Boyatzis, (2002) Primal Leadership: Realizing the Power of Emotional Intelligence. Harvard Business School Press. Hirsh, S., and Kumnerow, J. (1998). Introduction to type in organizations. (3rd ed.). Mountain View, CA: CCP, Inc Hofstede, G. (1977). Culture and Organizations: Software of the Mind. New York: McGraw-Hill. Schriesheim, Chester A. The Great High Consideration: High Initiating structure leadership myth: Evidence on its Generalizability. The Journal of Social Psychology, April 1982, 116, pp. 221-228. Thomsett, R., (2002). Radical project management. USA: Prentice Hall. Appendix: The Management and Leadership Continuum. Read More