Interview with Two Managers

In the interview, two managers were involved, the first being a sales manager who had been recently employed in a cloth manufacturing’s Human Resource department and had one-year experience. The second interviewee worked at a large car dealership as a Marketing manager and had seven years of experience.

Job Responsibility and Expectations

The key responsibility of a manager is to provide leadership in overseeing a group of workers or a department within an organization. Regardless of the number of years and the level they had been operating, their central roles included staffing, coordinating daily operations, setting goals, liaising with other department heads, dealing with administrative duties, training, evaluation, and enforcing company policies.

Challenges

The sales manager claimed that one of the most pressing demands involved pressure to perform and adapt to the new role. The challenges faced by the more experienced manager were different, with the main problems including crisis handling, hiring the right people, and dealing with outstanding employees. Arguably, an increase in experience levels is associated with challenges encountered by professionals shifting from smaller concerns to larger organization strategic planning and problem-solving concerns.

Likes and Dislikes

There is no correlation between the likes and dislikes of managers and their experience levels. Both managers liked the shifting responsibilities involving training, problem-solving, and decision-making according to the task. The HRM stated the reason behind the interest lay in their ability to be creative and achieve better organizational skills; consequently, the sales manager mentioned that the activities aided in bringing tangible change brought about by their involvement. The dislikes mainly included having to reprimand or punish employees and crisis handling within the organization.

Differences between Average managers and Top Performing managers

The significant difference between a competent manager and an average one is that the former can influence the workers through people’s skills; consequently, they are goal-oriented, good at strategic planning, and initiate healthy working dynamics. On the other hand, ineffective managers are easily swayed by circumstances, lack general wisdom while directing the workforce, and have inferior negotiating skills.

Skills and Knowledge for effective management

Managers should possess intellectual, strategic business, and information management skills. While most of these skills come through theoretical studies, achieving expertise occurs only through fieldwork exposure which aids in enhancing their knowledge and skills. Other learning activities include seminars, workshops, team building, and personal reading.

Biggest Mistake

The Sales manager’s biggest mistake involved hiring an ineffective and unorganized personal assistant. Since the manager delegated some of the duties to the assistant, the incompetence in handling arrangements, meetings, and other crucial engagements made the manager seem incompetent in choosing a viable workforce. The mistake would have been avoided by having a rigorous assistance selection process. The Human Resource Manager’s worst mistake was focusing on details and micro-managing shortly after being appointed. This trend ended up making the manager’s social life suffer and losing precious time that could have been used for other pressing issues. The mistake could have been avoided by setting and aligning goals, choosing the tasks, and distributing them to the subordinates according to their strengths and weaknesses.