The Power of being a Manager and What it Takes to be One

Manager jobs, aside from being high paying jobs, with its fringe benefits are powerful jobs. The work of the manager is to make his organization wealthy and reputable through the clever use of management skills. Managers create the organization to be what it is. Positively or negatively, they give personality and even character to the organization.

A manager comes with different names. He may be called as the president, chief executive officer, general manager, team leader, branch manager, director, project manager, or business manager.

Their job constitutes the whole gamut of operating an organization to make it fulfill its visions, goals and objectives. Foremost of their responsibilities is the planning process for the short term and within the next five or ten years including the budget needed to carry out the plan. They organize teams to effectively implement the plan into action; they lead, set good working norms and motivate their workers. Moreover, he has the power of control.

Within the context of organizing, managers supervise people and oversee that the job they are supposed to do are accomplished properly and promptly. To accomplish this, he motivates and maintains the enthusiasm of the group to perform their job from start to finish. It may mean a lot of humor, coaching, mentoring to construct a good time management plan, and building rapport and trust so that a harmonious interdependent team is created.

To be effective, the manager defines roles and responsibilities of each member, matches people to the right job, and monitors progress and gives criticism. He is imbued with optimism to keep the group going and prevent demoralization among the ranks. Additionally, he troubleshoots problems, solves conflicts, negotiates, possesses a lot of "know how", and is approachable. He can hire, promote, demote or even fire. He is loved, feared, and respected all at the same time.

Qualities of a Competent Manager

A competent manager makes people give their very best. He knows how to energize people, gain their trust and enthusiasm and keeps that enthusiasm going even in very bad times. He is a perpetual optimist with his eyes on the goal so that the goal can be accomplished through the efforts of his workers. He provides necessary training for workers to improve their technical skills.

A competent manager provides a safe workplace for his people from harm, from liabilities, and from gossips so that people working there would do their best in a safe environment physically and emotionally.

He is also a convincing communicator. He knows how to tell people what should be done, and how it should be done. He builds rapport and works with grace under pressure.

A competent manager is a good leader and a good example. He has vision and knows how to reach that dream. He continuously learns how to be a competent manager. He is practical and knowledgeable and knows that every theory he learned in management school is not always as it is in the workplace. And lastly, a manager knows his power and makes use of that power for the betterment of the company as a whole.