Managers play a key role in organizational success and their employees' success. To be effective, managers must understand emotional intelligence, have certain skills like technical knowledge, interpersonal skills, and conceptual skills, and understand their roles. The document discusses three characteristics and three skills of effective managers, as well as ten primary managerial roles grouped into interpersonal, informational, and decisional categories. Good communication skills are important for managers to successfully fulfill their roles.

1. Stay Effective!A Quick Refresher for
Managers
March 30, 2015
Organizations are fluid and dynamic. They are social structures with individuals at their very
core. Knowing an organizational dynamic is impossible without getting to know what type of

2. behavioral traits, personality characteristics, and individual differences are involved.
Managers are just one of the layers within the organizational structure. Organizations and
industries are in continuous change cycles. Technological, economic, competitive, and
government forces are just some of the forces that create trigger events that cause leaders
to create developmental or transitional changes. In his book “Seeing the Big Picture,” Kevin
Cope says there are five key business drivers: cash, profit, growth, asset utilization, and
people. He explains that cash is king but that people are one of the most important assets
in business. Therefore, having a good understanding of people and howmanagers lead and
manage them is key. “Management consists of all of the techniques that are used to lead
human resources in an organization to be productive” (Reilly, Minnick and Baack, 2011,
p.21). Consider the following questions when reviewing your own manager’s management
style.
Three Characteristics of an Effective Manager
1. First, managers should have a good understanding of emotional intelligence (EQ). This
characteristic means they need good self-awareness, social awareness, self-management,
and relationship management.
2. Next, they need to know certain skills in order to be effective.
3. Finally, they need to understand the roles managers play. These characteristics create a
managers (getting desired results and building positive and productive relationships). To be
successful, managers need to be flexible and adaptable as they apply these characteristics
to make their organizations productive.
Three Skills of Management
Over time, the basic thinking behind being a successful manager are these three things:
1. Technical knowledge and skills – they need to understand the specific knowledge
associated with their position and how to effectively perform in the role.
2. Interpersonal skills – they need to have good interpersonal skills and be able to
effectively work with people. Good human relations skills are a must and essential for
success. We have all heard the term “people skills.” This skill allows them to effectively lead
and motivate others.
3. Conceptual skills – they need to be able to read and diagnose situations and to analyze
them. Can they see the “bigger picture” macro view and the micro view and be able to solve
problems? Being able to be critical thinkers and to see cause and effect is important to a
manager’s effectiveness.
A fourth skill of management may be leadership. Being a leader is not a prerequisite to
being an efficient manager, but being promoted and accomplishing organizational goals is
not possible without proper leadership skills. Improving and inspiring people to follow are
important in the leadership role. Altering between being a manager and being a leader is
not always easy. As much as someone might strive to inspire and provoke passion in their

3. direct reports, sometimes the simple managerial stance of “getting things done” is all that is
needed.
With regard to technical skills, a typical managerial day might be described as moving from
one thing to another and back again to the point when your head is spinning. However,
John Kotter, a Harvard Business School professor, spent five years studying successful
mangers and determined that 75% of their time was spent in dealing with others vs. 25%
doing independent tasks (O’Rourke IV, 2010, p.3).
The results given above lead right into interpersonal skills. A manager may need to focus
on dealing with employee “drama,” at times called crisis handling, conflict resolution, or
other more politically correct terms.
Finally, conceptual skills are needed to determine long-term goals. Planning may be one of
the most crucial tasks with which managers are entrusted. To properly plan, managers must
understand:
• goals and objectives
• proper workflow distribution
• deadlines
• clearly defining and communicating job tasks.
Not every manager goes through the above-mentioned steps but the vast majority of those
who are successful work though a similar process.
Ten Managerial Roles
Henry Mintzberg (1989) in his landmark book, The Nature of Managerial Work, states there
are ten primary roles of managers, and they fall into three distinct categories.
Interpersonal
Figurehead
Leader
Liaison
Informational
Monitor
Disseminator
Spokesperson
Decisional
Entrepreneur

4. Disturbance handler
Resources allocator
Negotiator
Learn more about each of these management roles.
Management philosopher Peter Drucker stated in the mid-20th century, “Managers have to
learn to know language, to understand what words are and what they mean. Perhaps most
important, they have to acquire respect for language as (our) most precious gift and
heritage” (O’Rourke IV, 2010, p. 1). From that statement, you could say that in order to
successfully perform any of the above listed roles, managers have to be superb
communicators.
Managers are an important component in an organization’s success and in the success of
their employees. Having a good understanding of the skills, characteristics, and techniques
for effective management is a key for organizational success.
Written by Dr. Maja Zelihic and Bill Davis, MA, CM
Dr. Zelihic is an Assistant Professor and Bill Davis is an Instructor in the Forbes School of
Business® at Ashford University.
References
Cope, K. (2012). Seeing the Bigger Picture – Business Acumen to Build Your
Company,Credibility, Career and Company. Austin, Texas. Greenleaf Book Group.
Mintzberg, H.(1989). Mintzberg on Management. New York, NY, Free Press. Simon and
Schuster, Inc.
Mind Tools (n.d.). Mintzberg’s Management Roles. Retrieved from
http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/management-roles.htm
Mind Tools (n.d.) Emotional Intelligence, Developing Strong “People Skills” O’Rourke IV, J.
S. (2010). Management Communication. Prentice Hall: New Jersey
Reilly, M., Minnick, C., & Baack, D. (2011). The five functions of effective management (2nd
ed.). San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc.
Weiss, J. W. (2011). An introduction to leadership. San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education,
Inc.
(1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
Managers are an important component in an organization’s success and
in the success of their employees.

5. Related Articles
Forward Thinking
Every day great ideas, advice, and information are discussed around the institution. This knowledge
is shared with students, alumni, friends, and faculty, but on a small scale. This blog was created to
engage a larger audience, a group of lifelong learners who read, think, and provide valuable
feedback. Forward Thinking is meant to be more than a blog; it’s another way of learning – for us
and for you.
Tags: bosses; communication; diversity; leadership; motivation; what great bosses know; Ashford
blog; AU blog;, management skills