As you progress through your career as a manager you’re going to find that people have certain preconceived notions about managers and their abilities. They think that managers are mind readers and are flawless in character, organisation, and technical skill.

These assumptions couldn’t be further from the truth. While those who find themselves in management positions have usually shown their superiors a certain amount of skill, they’ve also shown their superiors that they have the will and tenacity to learn more. No one takes a management role knowing exactly how everything is done. Today I’m going to share three myths about management.

Management Myth #1: Managers have excellent time management skills.

The truth here is that most managers have great time management skills but those skills are often blown out of proportion. I have, on my occasions, created a daily schedule for myself but my position as a manager does not necessarily allow me the ability to enjoy sticking to that schedule. I am constantly interrupted by my employees, phone calls, emails, and people who truly believe that what they’re working on is more important than what I am working on. At the end of the day I may find I completed 7 out of 10 tasks or, on a bad day, only 1. Time management is relative, especially when managers are responsible for other individuals.

Management Myth #2 – Managers delegate work to others and do nothing else.

I’m not sure who started this myth but I wish it would disappear. It’s usually a disgruntled employee who believes that a manager merely dumps his work on his subordinates and then goes to his office to sip a cup of coffee and read the paper. Good managers delegate tasks – that means they give away parts of a project and keep others for themselves. A true manager is always busy – both delegating tasks, completing his own, and then putting the project back together when all of the parts are complete.

Management Myth #3 – Managers have access to all informational resources.

This is, again, false. Managers ask questions and look for information but in reality their superiors in upper management often have access to additional information that doesn’t trickle down to middle management. As such, you and your team may find that you end up doing extra work that could have been avoided if only someone had given you a piece of information you didn’t even know existed.

Keep these myths in mind as your superiors, peers, and employees question and approach you throughout each day. It’s very likely that they expect you are perfect when, in reality, you’re merely working with the resources you’ve been given.

Thanks again,
Sean

Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Management Training

Click below for a:
FREE email course “Improve Your Management Skills”

As a manager you are, of course, responsible for making decisions on a number of different levels. You’ve probably already figured out that your interpersonal and information management roles involve making decisions, but you have a number of other responsibilities as well.

You have four main roles as a decision maker within your organisation. They are to act as an entrepreneur, to handle disturbances, to allocate resources, and to negotiate.

As an entrepreneur you are responsibel for finding new ideas that will enhance the way your team works. Once you’ve developed the idea you must implement it and continuously review it to ensure your strategies are sound. You’ll need to know when to make changes should they become necessary.

The handling of disturbances within your team or department are also your responsibility. Disturbances may include anything from broken equipment to scheduling conflicts or two team members not getting along. You need to make decisions that will stop or avoid anything that will decrease your team’s productivity.

When your team or department receives new resources they’ll come to you first. It’s your job to decide who needs those resources and allocate them properly. These may include access to training, funding for new equipment, and evens upplies.

Last, but certainly not least, you are a negotiator. You are responsible for working with suppliers, other management members, and your employees to make agreements that will enhance your performance.

Managers are obviously bestowed with a significant amount of authority and if you find yourself in a new management position you’ll have to be careful not to abuse that position. The more skilled you are at using your decision making skills for good the more productive, efficient, and successful your team will be.

Thanks again,
Sean

Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Manager Training

Click below for a:
Free email course “Improve your Management Skills”

We’re going to continue our look at the different roles of managers by focusing today on a manager’s role when it comes to dealing with information. As we noted earlier this week, a manager is responsible for monitoring information, disseminating information, and acting as a spokesperson. Let’s take a closer look at what each of those tasks entails.

As a monitor it is your job to keep track of what information is coming in and going out of your organisation. In order to do this you must accept and review information that you receive (whether you asked for it or not) as well as ask the questions needed in order to obtain new information.

The disseminator is responsible for handling and distributing the information he or she has received. This means making sure that subordinates and, in some cases, higher ups receive the information you have gathered – especially if they would not otherwise know about it.

As a spokesperson you may be asked to share information that is pertinent to your particular work group with other work groups within your organisation. In some cases you may be asked to give reports to people who work outside of your organisation. Either way, you’re going to be responsible for the proper transmission of information.

The way you handle information is imperative to the success of not only your own career but your organisation as a whole. Take the time to look at every piece of information you receive and determine whether or not it is really critical and, if it is, make sure it gets shared with the right people as soon as possible!

Thanks again,
Sean

Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Management Course

Click below for a:
Free email course “Improve your Management Skills”

Let’s take a closer look at a manager’s interpersonal roles. As a manager, your interpersonal roles will be dictated by the type of position you hold. Lower level managers will have different interpersonal roles than middle management. The same goes for upper management as well. To review, the interpersonal roles of a manager include acting as a figurehead, acting as a leader, or acting as a liaison.

As a figurehead within your organisation you are responsible for doing work that some may consider flashy or ceremonial in nature. You do, of course, have dozens of administrative tasks but you’re also in the public and professional spotlight. You have to represent the company at business functions, take out of town business partners out to dinner, and sometimes even attend the private events of your employees.

As a leader you are responsible for making sure your employees are able to work in a safe and productive environment. The growth of your department and your employees rests on your shoulders and you have to be able to foster growth while at the same time avoiding conflict.

As a liason you must be prepared to communicate with others. You’ll not only have to report to upper management but will have to work with peers from other groups within your organisation, vendors, and even clients. The liason is responsible for knowing who to contact to resolve any situation.

It’s no secret that being a manager means you need to have extremely strong communication skills. Your ability to communicate effectively while working with people is paramount to your success.

Thanks again,
Sean

Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Management Courses

Click below for a:
Free email course “Improve your Management Skills”

According to a man by the name of Mintzberg, the roles or expectations placed upon managers can be broken down into three main categories incorporating ten different roles. As a manager you’ll find that you wear a number of hats at any given time but it is (fortunately) very unlikely that you would be responsible for all 10 at the same time but from time to time you will find yourself juggling at least a few.

Over the coming days we’ll spend some time reviewing the different roles managers are responsible for undertaking. I’d like to start today by mapping them out a bit.

The three main categories the 10 management roles fall into include interpersonal, informational, and decision making. These categories should sound familiar to you buy now. Within each category you’ll find the following roles defined:

Interpersonal:

• Figureheads
• Leaders
• Liasons

Informational:

• Monitor
• Disseminator
• Spokesperson

Decision Making:

• Entrepreneur
• Disturbance handler
• Resource Allocator
• Negotiator

As you can see, a manager has quite a number of responsibilities. We don’t usually think about our roles in such a complex manner until we see a list of tasks in front of us. Does the list seem a bit daunting? It shouldn’t. You’ve got the training you need to be in your position and can now work towards furthering your expertise.

Thanks again,
Sean

Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Management Training Course

Click below for a:
Free email course “Improve your Management Skills”