Introduction
The relevance of considering an organization’s management team is that the essential elements of a rationally operating business is effectively working management. There is a close relationship between the practical work of the management team and the competitiveness of the organization. A management team is a functional group consisting of complementary management specialists organized to solve administrative tasks.
In an organization, conditions for team development should be created that will complement the employee motivation system and contribute to the growth of their efficiency. The effectiveness of management teams can be assessed by clearly defining the parameters to be evaluated. The most apparent rating system is directly related to the goals of the team’s work, for example, increasing sales, developing new products, or optimizing customer service. These indicators are part of the overall performance assessment, which is also the easiest to measure.
Core Management Skills
Self Awareness
Due to the rapidly changing economic conditions, the professionalism of enterprises and the management personnel becomes a priority factor in the development of various sectors of the economy and industry. The primary condition for the development of professionalism is the formation of self-consciousness of the employee. The professional self-awareness of the manager directly affects the effectiveness of management activities. Professional identity as a complex of a person’s ideas about themselves as a professional plays a vital role. It includes a person’s consciousness of the regulatory framework of their profession as a standard for evaluating their qualities. The developed professional self-awareness of the manager acts as a factor in regulating current activities and predicting future ones.
Stress Management
The pressure on employees resulting from the application of HR practices leads to stress and, as a result, to absenteeism and staff turnover, which increases the company’s costs. Hence, a new task of management arises — to minimize the risks of stress in the workplace. Managers proceed from the principle that the organizational environment is a stress factor but not an actor of its regulation. Stress in professional activity is also an integral part of the manager’s life, which puts the organization’s stress management problem at the forefront. There is a situation when the needs of an organization in creating a stress management system depend on the management style of the organization’s top officials. Their ideas about how to maintain an optimal level of staff stress are of crucial importance. On the other hand, they depend on the conceptual preferences of the coach who trains employees in stress management skills.
Time Management
Time management has the same importance for an educated manager as the skill to hold a meeting, give an order, conduct negotiations, prepare a document, etc. The manager’s task is to optimize the activity by determining priorities, minimizing time, and obtaining a positive result. That is, the manager must organize his actions in such a way as to combine the resources available to them, including time, harmoniously.
Planning is necessary for a manager; it is a written reflection of their schedule that makes it possible to pay attention to all essential tasks. Various techniques should be used to get a greater return on mangers time, i.e., have better results, and use companies’ opportunities more fully. One of the ways to manage time is the time management system. If the manager, establishing the main aspects of the work of subordinates, uses time management techniques, they orient the company’s detail to achieve greater success. This system is quite universal; it can be used at different levels of management in the organization; it will benefit not only the manager but also the entire company.
Communication
Creating conditions for the successful functioning of communications in the organization is one of the most critical management tasks. For the organization to be effective, the manager needs to manage contacts. The quality of communication management is essential in modern conditions of constant growth of the information capacity of production and management, complexity and dynamism of the external environment. It is the managers who have the mission of integrating and coordinating all aspects of organizational activity and meeting information needs at all levels of management. All this leads to the need to develop a unique approach to managing communication.
Problem Solving & Ethics
In the professional lexicon of managers, the concepts of ethical practice, standards of social responsibility, and humanitarian management technologies are fundamental. Today, the moral component in achieving the economic goals of organizations is becoming increasingly important. The ethical competence of the manager and their ability to solve problems is recognized as the basis of their professional competence and business reputation in the economic sphere. Ethics and solving social issues of the company are now becoming an integral part of the brand and directly affect its value. Global integration economic put forward reasonable requirements for a collaborative management culture, ethical and social tools for achieving them, knowledge of negotiation etiquette, and ways of effective communication.
Advanced Management Skills
Motivation
The motivation of managers has high value for the company; thus, a motivated employee improves their qualifications and is aimed at career growth. The three primary motivators of the socio-psychological activity of the manager are the achievement of success in general, the desire for power, and the tendency to affiliation (Whetten & Cameron, 2010). Achieving success indicates that the manager makes every effort to improve their performance, they like to do challenging work, they get satisfaction from completing complex tasks. The desire for power is manifested because the manager enjoys competing with someone, mainly if a win is achieved; they like to take responsibility. The tendency to affiliation is that the managers often have conversations with their colleagues at work. Managers get satisfaction from a good attitude towards them, good relations with colleagues at work are essential, belonging to any groups or membership in specific organizations is also significant.
Performance Management
Productivity objectively remains the most critical indicator of the activity of business organizations, regardless of their forms of ownership. The most important factor of high productivity is the awareness by managers of the realization degree of the potential opportunities for its growth in the enterprise. The functional content of the performance management process includes measuring and evaluating the level of performance at the initial stage of creating a program-target mechanism for managing its growth. Performance management, as one of the functional subsystems of enterprise management, impacts the management entity on the entire life cycle of products to maximize labor productivity growth.
Power and Influence
Power and influence represent the degree of manager’s interaction with people. A manager with power and influence can direct an employee in the right direction for more effective work and also allows to avoid conflict. In power, there is an interdependence between the one who uses it and the one to whom it is used. Often, the degree of power and influence depends on the moment of its application and the nature of the manager. It is proven in management that the system of deprivation and the use of the stick approach will never increase labor productivity and its results (Whetten & Cameron, 2010). When the power is forced, it passes through fear, which dramatically reduces the efficiency of the staff.
Leadership
In the conditions of the development of a market economy, new enterprises are actively opening, and managers are needed to manage them, who can organize their activities. In this regard, there are further problems in the management of personnel and organizations related to leadership. One of the main problems is that if a manager has innate qualities, this does not mean that they will show it in management. In modern society, there should be more opportunities for revealing managers’ abilities through various courses. It will allow them to be successfully used in the role of a manager in the future.
Team Effectiveness & Diversity
By directing the team’s effectiveness, the manager ensures its ability to achieve the organization’s goals. At the same time, it is necessary to meet the needs of employees. Manager should have the ability to achieve the loyalty of the team members, inspire them and fulfill their basic requests, taking into account their diversity. Each highly effective team has a mission, which encourages its participants. The manager’s task is to motivate and convey a common goal to the team members based on their diversity.
Conflict & Negotiation
Some management decisions carry potential contradictions that can provoke conflicts between the participants involved in the implementation of these problem solutions. The competence of managers should also include an understanding of which of their instructions can cause disagreements. In addition, managers should anticipate some disputes if the list of possible causes is limited. Conflict resolution in an organization should be elevated to the rank of organizational and managerial culture. Managers should work out forms and algorithms for conflict resolution specific to a particular organization. For operational and professional work with conflicts in the company, psychological readiness to deal with competition and the skills of analysis, modeling, and conflict resolution are required in managers.
Making Changes
One of the essential skills of a competent manager is the ability to make changes to create a positive and comfortable working atmosphere. It can be achieved by using the correct distribution of work responsibilities within the team. This is due to the fact that the employee will cope well with the tasks that they are interested in and that they like. In addition, creating a positive atmosphere is facilitated by providing an opportunity to exchange personal information with colleagues for friendly correspondence and jokes. In the conditions of a comfortable working atmosphere, the team acquires a high communicative maturity.
Practicing Management Skills in the Classroom Environment
Core Management Skills
Self Awareness
To study professional self-awareness during psychological training, it is necessary to conduct special studies. To evaluate the images of “I-real,” “I-ideal,” “I-professional,” the method of personal differential should be used (Whetten & Cameron, 2010). Its use is due to the possibility of varying the assessment subjects with the subsequent identification of the degree of differences between them. It is also necessary to determine the cognitive and emotional components of professional self-awareness using a questionnaire test to identify the level of self-attitude of the subjects. To assess the formation level of the motivational target and operational features of professional self-awareness, it is necessary to use the test of life-meaning orientations.
Stress Management
The stress management training should include three semantic blocks; the installation block should form managers ‘ ideas about such phenomena as stress, stressor, frustration, coping behavior, and stress resistance. The second block is a corrective and developmental one, during which participants master the basic methods and techniques of regulating the emotional state during stress. During the discussion of situational games and exercises, participants become aware of their constructive and destructive behaviors in stressful situations. The final section analyzes and summarizes the results of the training.
Time Management
It is necessary to conduct training with managers to teach them how to use their time more effectively; presumably, this training should consist of three parts. The first part is an overview, in which participants get acquainted with the concept of time; the second part demonstrates simple ways to manage it. This part is theoretical; it is focused on the laws and principles of time control. The third part is aimed at the practical application of methods and techniques of time control. Within the framework of this part, various exercises are worked out, methods and techniques of time control are considered, practical tasks are performed.
Communication
Exercises in communication skills are the basis of most personal growth training. The more competent and professional managers communicate and transmit their requirements, the more success their team will achieve. The training should begin with assessing employees ‘ interactions with each other, receiving large-scale feedback from the group. Next, exercises are performed to develop the communication skills of the training participants.
Then the training of the ability to approve the partner, to show them one’s respect and willingness to cooperate is carried out. Exercises aimed at developing communication skills, enriching vocabulary, and attention during a conversation are also introduced. It is proposed to work with the internal translator technique, which helps to understand the internal motives and goals of the partner, solve emerging conflict situations (Whetten & Cameron, 2010). With the help of the internal translator technique, participants will understand employees better, maintain a calm attitude in communication, and be able to make objective decisions despite a conflict situation.
Problem Solving & Ethics
To develop skills for practical problem solving, it is also necessary to conduct special training; in general, the training consists of three stages. At the first stage, an approximate range of problem situations is determined, emotional and behavioral reactions are revealed. Next, the content of possible alternative actions in a problem situation is selected, and psychological resources are searched for. At the third stage, the desired and practical ways of behavior in a problematic situation are trained. This training should take into account not only the requirements of the case but also the capabilities of the participants.
Advanced Management Skills
Motivation
The goal of motivating training should be to reach a steady increase in motivation to achieve the company’s purpose and reduce motivation to avoid failure among the training participants. At the first stage of the training, participants are introduced to the training situation and create an environment that promotes the development of employee motivation. The next step is devoted to getting acquainted with the concept of motivation and teaching the training participants psychological methods for developing professional motivation. A mandatory stage is the generalization and consolidation of the knowledge and experience acquired by the participants on the topic, summing up the results of the training.
Performance Management
Since the volume of knowledge on performance management is significant, it is advisable not to limit its education to training but to conduct a full-fledged professional development course for employees. During the course, the main problems in labor productivity are identified, its growth factors are analyzed, and reserves for its improvement are determined. Further, the participants consider the leading indicators, methods of calculating and analyzing labor productivity, factors affecting changes in labor productivity, and their classification. Then the participants learn to apply optimal methods of organizing processes that can significantly improve labor productivity indicators.
Power and Influence
The development of power and influence in a manager should be aimed at the practical effect of emotional impact, persuasion, and training to recognize and resist manipulation and pressure. During the course, participants will learn to apply the basics of effective communication and work out the mechanisms of influence and persuasion. The triangle of power, methods of persuasive argumentation, tactical methods of impact and effectiveness, and dialogue management techniques will be practically applied. Next, the basics of public speaking will be studied, followed by practical training. In addition, the topic of manipulation will be raised, and in practice, ways of protecting against it will be worked out.
Leadership
The identification and realization of the leadership potential of managers can be carried out during a series of training aimed at developing leadership qualities. At the first stage, the training participants get acquainted, an atmosphere of trust and mutual understanding is created; knowledge about leadership, ways of developing communicative abilities are updated. At the second stage of the training, with the help of practical tasks, there is a direct development of communicative and organizational qualities. Practical classes are organized to master and develop knowledge, methods, and forms of development and application of their leadership and organizational potential. At the final stage, knowledge about leadership qualities is consolidated, ways of further realization of leadership potential are determined.
Team Effectiveness & Diversity
To successfully solve the problem of organizing high-quality interaction among employees, they should be invited to participate in team effectiveness and diversity training. Activities can be held in different formats: sports and intellectual competitions, business games, general creativity (creating collages or videos), or events with a collective departure. The training begins with a brief introduction of employees to the purpose and task of the movement. Then, practical exercises to establish an optimal level of psychological and emotional compatibility in the team follow. In the end, the results are summed up; the participants share their impressions, opinions about the training, voice their wishes.
Conflict & Negotiation
To gain experience in modeling, developing, and regulating a conflict situation, to form the ability to resolve a conflict constructively, it is also recommended to conduct training. First of all, it is necessary to develop the concept of conflict among the training participants and create conditions for understanding the ambivalent meaning of the conflict. Further, during the exercises, the essence of conflicts, the causes of their occurrence, and ways of resolving them are analyzed. The next stage examines the main methods of psychological manipulation during the conflict and works out ways to protect against them. The final step is the consolidation of the results achieved during the training.
Making Changes
The structure of the training will include the following stages: the first stage will be a greeting aimed at creating positive emotional attitudes for trusting communication. This will be followed by several exercises for relaxation and stress relief, after which participants can proceed to the central part of the training. During it, practical tasks are performed to unite the group and improve effective communication skills and the development of communication skills. After that, reinforcement exercises are performed, and to develop self-understanding and mutual understanding of the training participants; they exchange feedback.
Importance Of Individual Contribution and Diversity of Individual Approaches
Business organization implies ensuring the normal functioning of the company, which includes many aspects, including supply, production, sale of manufactured goods and services. A unique role in the organization and management of the business is assigned to managers. Management is a rational assessment of the situation and a systematic choice of goals, systematic development of a strategy to achieve these goals, and allocation of the required resources.
Manager should sensibly plan, organize, and control the activities necessary to achieve the chosen objectives. The central problem facing the manager is ensuring that the employees perform a particular task. The specifics of the manager’s work are that he needs to choose a unique approach to influence employees who must directly solve production, economic and technical problems. It is the managers who bear the primary responsibility for achieving the goals of the company’s activities.
Reference
Whetten, D. A., & Cameron, K. (2010). Developing management skills. England, London: Pearson College Div.