Management Traits
Once your business is off the ground you are thrust into
the position of being both manager and leader. Being a manager and being
a leader are not the same and each have distinct strengths and
weaknesses. You may want to complete our self-assessment
test to arm yourself with knowledge about your own leadership and managerial
abilities. Knowing your own abilities will greatly increase your chances
of success, as you can improve your skills as well as hire those who can
compliment your abilities. However, even the best manager needs to sharpen
their skills. The GRSBDC offers continuing education through its NxLevel courses,
Types of Managers
There are all different
types of managers. Some are much more successful than others. Many times
managerial success is directly tied to your own personal strengths and
weaknesses as well as your personal action style. The chart below outlines
three common management action styles and describes the strengths and/or
weaknesses of each type. Take a moment to check those boxes that best describe
you. When you add up the boxes you have checked, the highest total will
indicate your management style
Action
Style Choices For Managers
|
|
INACTIVE
|
RE-ACTIVE
|
PRO-ACTIVE
|
|
Who
is leading?
|
Co-workers;
chance; nearest personality disorder
|
Chance;
nearest personality disorder
|
You
|
|
Can
subordinates depend on leader (trust)?
|
No.
Cannot predict what will happen.
|
Yes.
Can expect late, usually disorganized, often negative behavior.
|
Yes.
Can feel safe because they trust action even when they disagree.
|
|
Frequency
of stress situations
|
Immediately,
at level of chance; increases over time because team does not develop
to meet increasing demands.
|
Never
ending; often self - producing.
|
Little
emotional stress (burnout); physical stress only when systems are
temporarily disrupted.
|
|
Severity
of impact
|
Often
unknown until after weeks or months, then severe.
|
Severe;
to survive, staff block awareness; subordinate staff productivity
is minimal.
|
Minimal
for given issues and of brief duration.
|
|
Quality
of training for subordinates
|
Little,
if any, effective training provided; most done by other subordinates.
|
Training
negative because it's given to correct action already taken.
|
Organized;
gives what is expected to do job, time to practice and re-evaluate.
|
|
Productivity
|
Random
level; level development on one or few individual subordinates.
|
Low
level; too busy to get any task done; lots of partially completed
tasks cause lessened level of support from others.
|
Good
level; efficient use of time and resources.
|
|
Service
delivery
|
By
individual, not team, so not consistent.
|
Higher
than needed; number of poor decisions because of time.
|
Consistent;
slowly changing and improving.
|
You probably noticed rather
quickly that being pro-active in your approach as a manager will get you
much further and cause you much less stress than being either reactive
or inactive. So why is it that all managers don't take a pro active approach?
Because each individual has a unique set of behavioral traits. The Pro
Active manager has the right combination of behavioral traits that leads
to managerial success. l
Below is a list of the five
most common reasons for each management action style. As you read through
these, be honest with yourself. . If you already relate to the pro-active
action style, then hats off to you! Not only will you raise the productivity
level of your employees, but you will also save yourself a lot of personal
stress and frustration
Common Reasons for Each Action Style
|
|
INACTIVE
|
RE-ACTIVE
|
PRO-ACTIVE
|
|
Personal
thinking pattern
|
Often
can't move from task to task; incomplete thoughts
|
Not
at ease planning; not creative; difficulty predicting
|
Retains
many pieces of data; very flexible; can evaluate from many points
of view
|
|
Ability
to design systems
|
Often
has difficulty understanding systems; usually better with concrete
tasks with specific steps to follow
|
Most
decisions made independently; sees most issues as unique
|
Uses
new data to evaluate and re-evaluate systems; generalizes easily
|
|
Understanding
of dependency among complex variables
|
Not
a clue and often doesn't understand even when it is explained
|
Sees
each issue separately, takes action without considering impact(s)
|
Usually
considers several options and looks for impact of each one
|
|
Confidence
|
Unsure
of self as a person and/or skills
|
Often
was skilled at non-manager tasks and when promoted perceives self
as skillful manager; often doesn't see own style and doesn't know
there are problems
|
Realistic
self-confidence; usually watches other managers and self with intent
to learn and improve
|
|
Assumption
of responsibility
|
Can't
tolerate feeling responsible; often make issue of team work; often
hopes other staff will do task
|
Sees
responsibility for each task; doesn't think of long range responsibility;
often hopes for change in other systems
|
Proud
to be responsible for day-to-day and long range effectiveness
|
Courtesy of the SBA