Organization and management has never been easy. The difficulty often arises because of the diversity that characterizes any workplace or any social place for that manner. One would ordinarily be influenced by his or her school of thought, personal preferences and biases. However, it is my humble submission that management and organization is both an acquired and nurtured trait that needs patience and hard work to accumulate and develop. In that breadth, in this paper, I shall discuss some of my organizational and managerial strengths and weaknesses drawing from the everyday experiences that I often encounter both at the workplace and in the family setup.
I must accept and equally appreciate that I am a good listener. I picked my listening character from my mother who often taught me on the skill of listening. My mother was an office manager at a laundry firm. She often informed the four of us in the family that the best way of reaching consensus was through listening to one another. She would say this in a joking manner whenever any of the girls had reported to her cases of disturbance from our elder brother. My mother would listen to both parties and interestingly find blame from both. This would later get ingrained into my character. In the organization, whenever any junior employee submits any complaints with me, I ensure that I fully listen to him or her. I give her all the attention and listen empathetically often capturing the emotions and gestures that accompany the presentation. Then I summon the supervisor or peer worker complained against and equally start the all motion process again. I have learnt never to be prejudicial and take sides with any of the parties. This element which I took from my mother’s approach, has enabled me solved conflicts at the workplace constructively. I often ensure that either parties leaves my office having gotten the message without necessarily feeling dressed down. I, therefore, can authoritatively count of listening as one of my management strengths.
Secondly, a discussion of my organizational strengths cannot be exhausted without my mentioning my strength in speaking. I have perfected the art of Peter Drucker in the use of language. In managing employees, one critical weapon that has often made my work easy is the use of language. It is often a psychological game that one has to play and perfect it while playing. Workers regardless of their position in the hierarchy have the preponderance of wanting to get praised and noticed while being left and or pardoned for the mistakes they commit. A good manager of my caliber has learnt this essential skill. I use it through the language in my speech. Workers often appreciate words such, “Thank you, I recognized you’re the earliest today that was wonderful, among others.” I have perfected this in my speech. This even applies when dealing with one’s superiors. The workers often love one that appeals to their emotions and tends to show recognition for the work well done. In the same breadth, I have learnt on how to use the language to politely communicate my discontent and or displeasure. One does not get it positive if you are strict and direct with the dress down. Workers appreciate being spoken to indirectly. A perfect example of a way to correct a worker which I do employ is, “I guess coming to work at eight would be better off that arriving late after nine o’clock tea.” That example can be used on an employee who has the character of coming to work late say at ten. It politely tells the worker that reporting time is at eight and that as a manager you are aware that he or she reports to work late. Such an approach is better than the use of threats and warnings which often do not give the worker the opportunity to explain and or correct his lateness. The former approach allows room for discussion and operates like an invitation for the worker to explain the conditions operant. Such is the beauty in the use of language. Word choice remains one of the critical of the potent weapons of management.
Lastly, I must observe that am a good information seeker. Information seeking relates to the ability to gather information from sources within and without the organization. Information is power to the worker and even more essential for purposes of organization and management. One way of keeping workers on their toes is often challenging them at whatever they do. Ensure you able to motivate them and keep them putting in more and more. One way I achieve that is through a thorough information system. One can always challenge his employees by attributing the success of such and such to such and such and opening up channels for employees to do more. In addition, an information seeking policy must be backed with an open door policy at the managerial level. This is precisely what I do whenever in a management position. Ensure the organizational structure is as flat as ever to avoid any cases of distortion. In equal measure, flat structures eliminate the unnecessary bureaucracy that only acts as a barrier to free flow of information. A manager must be able to discern good from bad information. Employees only need a given amount of information. Too little leaves them too depend while too much gives them too much autonomy which can be subject to misuse. It is, therefore, important to discern the right ration and apply it effectively. My approach, which has succeeded whenever I try it, entails the clustering of employees into informal structural groups in which each group is diagnosed for a relevant amount of information and level of communication.
On the other hand, one of my greatest weaknesses is my inability to write some of the most important decisions and policies. I tend to rely on my ability to remember. Often this fails especially for cases of informal transactions. Occasions have occurred where I misinform workers in reliance of a failed memory or even fail to observe my appointments because I failed to write it down. I do believe I still have a great memory and that mine (memory) qualifies as one the best. However, I have learnt to keep writing or typing essential matters and agreements especially orders and agreements that have a monetary bearing. Secondly, I find myself impatient with incompetent workers. I have been brought up in a world of competence and often portray zero tolerance to incompetence. However, I have been made to appreciate that cases of incompetence in the work output are not often necessarily on the part of the employee only. At times, the problem is simply a mismatch of skills, a function which is managerial in nature. I have lately been employing my listening abilities in solving cases of incompetence by tracing where the problem lies.
References
Aberdeen Group . (2013). Human Capital Management Trends . Aberdeen Group . Retrieved from http://www.aberdeen.com/assets/report-preview/8101-RA-human-capital-management.pdf
Brickley, J., Zimmerman, J., Smith, J., & Clifford, W. (2008). Managerial Economics & Organizational Architecture. Economics . Retrieved from http://home.comcast.net/~drbrucehartman/Brickley5Online.pdf
O'Rourke, J. S. (2012). Management Communication. New York: Pearson Education.
