Management Skills and Competencies: Personal Term Paper

This will help me become more aware of effective communication techniques. This step should begin immediately and should continue for six months.

To determine if this is effective, I will seek feedback from my team members on my communication skills at the beginning and at the end of the process, to quantify any improvement.

To improve my relationship building skills, I will again focus on seeking out written resources regarding emotional intelligence as well as how best to motivate employees. There may also be seminars available that discuss this topic, in detail. This activity should begin immediately after my reading on communication skills, as these form a base for relationship building, and last for approximately six months. I will also seek the feedback of my team members to establish a baseline and to measure improvement over the course of the six months. The primary obstacle to both this and the communication skill improvement is locating good sources of information to learn from. There is a plethora of material on these two topics, some better than others.

The conceptual skill of vision is the third area where my improvement could benefit my career most. To have vision, one must know their industry intimately.As such, I will begin to investigate our competitors, providing an organizational analysis to identify their strengths and weaknesses. In addition, I will look closely at the industry we operate in, identifying the opportunities that may be available as well as the potential threats, in addition to identifying the forces that affect the industry as a whole. Lastly, I will investigate top companies in other industries whose methods may be of value to our company. This will begin after the completion of my work on the relationship building skills and is anticipated to last approximately four months. The primary obstacle to this step will be in locating the pertinent data for each company. Resources such as Hoovers and D&B should provide some information, other information may be found in trade publications as well.

References

Chen, S. & Miller, E.C. (1988, Jul/Aug.). Conceptual ability: A critical skill of management. IM, p. 23-26.

Gaide, S. (15 Nov., 2004). Are technical skills "Core competencies?" How do we Measure them? Distance Education Reports, p. 5 -7.

Hard skills, soft skills. (Oct. 2004). CIO Insight, p. 17.

Peckham, S. (No….....