Which interpersonal skills do you consider being the most important for a manger and why?

To be a good manager you have to posses a range of qualities wich will make youa good leader and help you to have succes. The main qualities are: to be able to work on a team (teamwork), to be able to comunicate with your subordinates so they can understand what are your requirements and expectations, a good manager has to be self-motivated and he has to be able to make decisions and solve a problem. Also is very important for a manager that in his everyday work he can manage corectly his time, prioritise the problemsand be flexible so he can adapt at any situation.

Teamwork What is teamwork? Teamwork can be defined as the activity of working well together as a team or the co-operation between those who are eorking on a task. Teamwork doesnt mean everybody doing the same thing or evrybody being able to do each others jobs. Its more a means to a synergistic way of working, where the sum is greater than the parts. Properly managed , teamwork maximises strengths, bringing out the best in each team member. The benefits of teamwork are: Problems solving: A single brain cant bounce different ideas off of each other. Each team member has a responsibility to contribute equally and offer their unique perspective on a problem to arrive at the best possible solution. Teamwork can lead to better decisions, products, or services. The quality of teamwork may be measured by analyzing the following six components of collaboration among team members: communication, coordination, balance of member contributions, mutual support, effort, and cohesion; Accomplish tasks faster: A single person taking on multiple tasks will not be able to perform at a same pace as a team can. When people work together they can complete tasks faster by dividing the work to people of different abilities and knowledge; Healthy competition: A healthy competition in groups can be used to motivate individuals and help the team excel; Developing Relationships: A team that continues to work together will eventually develop an increased level of bonding. This can help people avoid unnecessary conflicts 1

since they have become well acquainted with each other through team work. Team members ratings of their satisfaction with a team is correlated with the level of teamwork processes present; Everyone has unique qualities: Every team member can offer their unique knowledge and ability to help improve other team members. Through teamwork the sharing of these qualities will allow team members to be more productive in the future.

Self-motivation A self-motivated person is that person who is capable of hard work and effort without the need for encouragement. Being self-motivated means driven, focused, ready for objective discussion, also being sharp, smart enough not to be manipulated and open to positive learning. Every self-motivated posses three traits: The desire to lead; The commitment to the mission and the vision of the company; The integrity.

Decision making Decision making can be regarded as the cognitive process resulting in the selection of a course of action among several alternative scenarios. Every decision making process produces a final choice. The output can be an action or an opinion of choice. It is important to differentiate between problem analysis and decision making. The concepts are completely separate from one another. Traditionally it is argued that problem analysis must be done first, so that the information gathered in that process may be used towards decision making. Problem analysis Analyze performance, what should the results be against what they actually are; Problems are merely deviations from performance standards; Problem must be precisely identified and described; Problems are caused by a change from a distinctive feature; Something can always be used to distinguish between what has and hasn't been affected by a cause;

Causes to problems can be deducted from relevant changes found in analyzing the problem;

Most likely cause to a problem is the one that exactly explains all the facts. Decision making Objectives must first be established; Objectives must be classified and placed in order of importance; Alternative actions must be developed; The alternative must be evaluated against all the objectives; The alternative that is able to achieve all the objectives is the tentative decision; The tentative decision is evaluated for more possible consequences; The decisive actions are taken, and additional actions are taken to prevent any adverse consequences from becoming problems and starting both systems (problem analysis and decision making) all over again;

There are steps that are generally followed that result in a decision model that can be used to determine an optimal production plan;

In a situation featuring conflict, role-playing is helpful for predicting decisions to be made by involved parties.

Time management and Prioritization In order tu have success, every manager or leade has to manage its time so they can have time to manage all the problems. Successful time management will help any manager to become more effective in completing the tasks. Prioritization means putting your tasks or problems in order of importance, so that you can deal with the most important first.

Comunication In my opinion the most important quality that a manager has to posses is the communication. No matter what the situation, a manager has to be able to communicate both with his superiors as with his subordinates. When you lead a team of workers (employees), you have to know how to control and influence them, haw to coach them, how to delegate the labors, how to persuade or praise and last but not least how to handle a conflict. 3

Influencing and Persuading

This word can be defined as the ability to change someones point of view, attitude or behavior in a positive way or the power of a person to have an effect on someone else resulting from ability, wealth, position. Persuasion is defined as the act or process of persuading to do or believe something. Being persuasive also means being able to sell a message and this can mean: Convincing colleagues of a particular approach; Bringing employees on-board with new ideas; Persuading customers to buy you services or products. Delegating

Delegation means giving responsibility to someone, give them part of your work. In that case the person who is delegated has the authority to do things but the manager remain accountable for the outcome. Delegation is an important part of communication even if sometimes it is perceived like a part of management tasks. The communication skills that are associated with delegation are: Building trust; Communicating what is expected; Giving a clear brief; Encouraging questions; Providing support. Coaching

Coaching is the process which supports people in developing their skills and achieving their goals. A good manager has to be capable, in any situation, to support and coach his subordinates who can have problems in resolving some tasks, or may be the first time when they have experienced the delegation process. Apart from this situations, coaching can be needed for some other reasons like new skills development, confidence building, understanding a process, career development, etc. Also its possible and useful to combine coaching with training and mentoring. Often, although those two activities can be confused. To be able to coach someone, a manager has to develop a series of skills for himself, skills like questioning, active listening, summarizing, setting goals or giving feedback. 4

Praising

For a manager is very important to know when to praise and when to give a positive feedback to his subordinates because this action can have two purposes: Motivate when team members are performing well, feedback can increase confidence and encourage them to continue at the same level of performance; Correct when team members are not performing, feedback can help determine how to change and improve their performance. Handling a conflict/problem

Handling a conflict is a vital role for a manager, because every unresolved problem can affect the work environment and the people around. In solving a conflict are more possibilities: Passive response to conflict (avoiding conflict or giving in); Approaches that require more engagement with the conflict (smoothing over or responding argumentatively); Mutual engagement (work together to solve the conflict).

All these interpersonal skills are very important for a manager an for sure if the manager posses this range of skills he will have success in his career and he will be able to manage his work and his team successfully, but all these skills are based on some foundational skills like active listening, body language skills, assertiveness and questioning skills. Is very important for a manager to know that people will react to his behavior and if he change a part of his behavior, then people who are working for him can change their reactions too. Listening skills and body language are important because they will help you to communicate more effectively. Learning to be assertive is another critical interpersonal communication skill. Assertiveness skills enable you to communicate your ideas in a confident meaner, whilst still respecting someone elses view and opinion. The art of questioning is another skill which will help a manager to combine different types of questions.