Contents
Corporate Management and Leadership Training and Development
Rationale
In management, the ultimate measure of management's performance is the metric of Management Effectiveness which includes:
1. execution, or how well management's plans were carried out by members of the organization
2. leadership, or how effectively management communicated and translated the vision and strategy of the organization to the members
3. delegation, or how well management gave assignments and communicated instructions to members of the organization
4. return on investment, or how well management utilized the resources (financial, physical, and human) of the organization to bring an acceptable return to shareholders
5. conflict management, or how well management is able to utilitze confrontation and collaboration skills. Management's ability to be flexible and appeal to common interests.
6. motivation, how management attempts to understand the needs of others and inspires them to perform. Focuses on rewarding performance rather than punishing failure.
7. consideration, an effective manager is open to critics. Seeks to understand others' values and does not merely view them as a means to an end.
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Teaching and Learning Resources

Leadership and management
Tutorials
Readings
Leadership is closely linked to the idea of management, and can be either centralized or decentralized as well as broad or focused. There is a view that there is reciprocal relationship between leadership and management, that is, an effective manager must have leadership skills, and an effective leader must have management skills.
To paraphrase Warren Bennis, the difference between them is that leaders are inspiring visionaries, concerned about substance, and managers are planners, concerned with process.
- Managers ask how and when, leaders ask what and why
- Managers focus on systems, leaders focus on people
- Managers do things right, leaders do the right things
- Managers maintain, leaders develop
- Managers rely on control, leaders inspire trust
- Managers have a short-term perspective, leaders have a longer-term perspective
- Managers accept the status-quo, leaders challenge the status-quo
- Managers have an eye on the bottom line, leaders have an eye on the horizon
- Managers imitate, leaders originate
- Managers emulate the classic good soldier, leaders are their own person
- Managers copy, leaders show originality
In general, managers concern themselves with tasks and leaders concern themselves with people. This is not to say that leaders do not focus on the task. Indeed, one thing that characterises a great leader is that they achieve. The difference is that the leader realises that the achievement of the task comes about through the goodwill and support of others, while the manager may not.
This goodwill and support is generated by seeing people as people, not as another resource to be deployed in support of the task. The manager often has the role of organizing resources to get something done. People form one of these resources, and many of the worst managers treat people as just another interchangeable item. A leader has the role of causing others to follow a path or a vision he/she has created in order to achieve a task. Often the task is seen as subordinate to the vision. For instance, an organization might have the overall task of generating profit, but a good leader will see profit as a by-product that flows from whatever aspect of their vision differentiates their company from the competition.
Most of us can think of an inspiring leader we have met in our lives who has nothing whatever to do with business. Similarly, management is not purely business-related either.
Differences in the mix of leadership and management can define various management styles. Some management styles tend to be relatively weak on leadership. Included in this group one could include participatory management, micro-management, and top-down management.
Having a single leader (as in dictatorship) allows for quick and decisive decision-making when needed as well as when not needed.
Managerial Skills
Management skills are based on leadership behavior. Skills alone do not make leaders - style and behavior do. Even if leadership is different to management. Leadership relies on management skills, but as well on qualities such as integrity, honesty, humility, courage, commitment, sincerity, passion, confidence, positivity, wisdom, determination, compassion and sensitivity. Some people are born more naturally to leadership than others. Most people don't seek to be a leader. It is crucial to understand the impact of leader’s behavior on the followers and the organization. Some skills can be developed and managerial tools learned to support the manager’s work.
Basic Managerial skills
See also
- Listening
- Communication
- Providing constructive feedback
- Stress management
- Social competence (with superiors, peers, subordinates)
- Setting goals
- Intelligence
Advanced Managerial skills
- Conceptual Thinking
- Delegating
- Presentation
- Concern for others
- Team building
- Coaching
- Empowerment
- Managing conflict
- Negotiations
- Problem analysis
- Problem solving
- Improving creativity
- Diagnosing performance problems in individuals, groups and organizations
- Strategic thinking
- Credibility
Personal Skills
The Self is a key construct in several schools of psychology. Usages differ between theorists and fields of study, but in general the self refers to the conscious, reflective personality of an individual. The study of the self involves significant methodological problems, especially concerning consciousness. Some of these are taken up in philosophy of mind and metaphysics. A psychological school of thought focused on the self was originally proposed by Heinz Kohut (1913-1981).
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- Definitions of Various Self Constructs - Self-esteem, self-efficacy, self-confidence & self-concept
- Theory of Self - Proposed by an autistic to explain autism
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Stress Management encompasses techniques intended to equip a person with effective coping mechanisms for dealing with psychological stress. Definition of stress: Stress management defines stress precisely as a person's physiological response to an external stimulus that triggers the "fight-or-flight" reaction. ( Also see General adaptation syndrome)
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Creative Problem Solving
Tutorials
Readings
Problem Solving forms part of thinking. Considered the most complex of all intellectual functions, problem solving has been defined as higher-order cognitive process that requires the modulation and control of more routine or fundamental skills (McCarthy & Worthington, 1990). It occurs if an organism or an artificial intelligence system does not know how to proceed from a given state to a desired goal state. It is part of the larger problem process that includes problem finding and problem shaping.
- Overview
- History
- USA and Canada
- Europe
- Characteristics of difficult problems
- Problem-solving techniques
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Interpersonal Skills
Tutorials
Readings
Interpersonal skills are sometimes also referred to as people skills or communication skills.[1] Interpersonal skills involve using skills such as active listening[2], tone of voice, delegation, and leadership. It is how well you communicate with someone and how well you behave or carry yourself.
Interpersonal skills refer to mental and communicative algorithms applied during social communications and interaction to reach certain effects or results.[clarification needed] The term "interpersonal skills" is used often in business contexts to refer to the measure of a person's ability to operate within business organizations through social communication and interactions. Interpersonal skills are how people relate to one another.
As an illustration, it is generally understood that communicating respect for other people or professionals within will enable one to reduce conflict and increase participation or assistance in obtaining information or completing tasks. For instance, to interrupt someone who is currently preoccupied with the task of obtaining information needed immediately, it is recommended that a professional use a deferential approach with language such as, "Excuse me, are you busy? I have an urgent matter to discuss with you if you have the time at the moment." This allows the receiving professional to make their own judgment regarding the importance of their current task versus entering into a discussion with their colleague. While it is generally understood that interrupting someone with an "urgent" request will often take priority, allowing the receiver of the message to judge independently the request and agree to further interaction will likely result in a higher quality interaction. Following these kinds of heuristics to achieve better professional results generally results in a professional being ranked as one with 'good interpersonal skills.' Often these evaluations occur in formal and informal settings.
Having positive interpersonal skills increases the productivity in the organization since the number of conflicts is reduced. In informal situations, it allows communication to be easy and comfortable. People with good interpersonal skills can generally control the feelings that emerge in difficult situations and respond appropriately, instead of being overwhelmed by emotion.Confidence of the behavior is also play important role in decison to take risk.
References
- ^ "The Three Different Levels of Listening". Retrieved June 30, 2010.
Communications Management is the systematic planning, implementing, monitoring, and revision of all the channels of communication within an organization, and between organizations; it also includes the organization and dissemination of new communication directives connected with an organization, network, or communications technology. Aspects of communications management include developing corporative communication strategies, designing internal and external communications directives, and controlling the flow of information, including online communication. New technology forces constant innovation on the part of communications managers.
- External
sources
- Storytelling to Manage Change
- Communication Methods
- International Association of Business Communicators - www.IABC.com.
- Capture. Deliver. Excel. - Applying the principles of business Writing to communicate around change, strategy and leadership
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Social Influence is when the actions or thoughts of individual(s) are changed by other individual(s). Examples of social influence can be seen in socialization and peer pressure. In the case of peer pressure, a person might be forced into doing something (such as going to an opera) he might not like but is "necessary" to upkeep the positive relationship with the other party, such as the family of their partner. The person could agree to the offering even if he hated it because of many reasons; maybe he is the possible inheritor of the family/person that asks him to come to the opera, the family could want to evaluate the person before letting their son/daughter get married with him/her, etc. Social influence can also be described by the word power, which means to possess the ability to embrace a person/group of people to one's own will. Usually people of good genes (looks), significant sums of money, good jobs and so on will possess social influence on other, "ordinary" people. So even if the person doesn't possess any "real" or political power but possessed the things listed above (good looks, money, etc.), he could persuade other people into doing/saying something. An example would be movie stars, who don't (usually) possess any political power but are familiar to many of the world's citizens and therefore possess social status. They get a lot of media coverage, they are admired in television shows and they have many enthusiastic fans. |
There are 3 components of social influence. They are:
Conformity : It is a type of social influence in which individuals change their attitudes or behaviour in order to adhere to existing social norms.
Compliance : A form of social influence involving direct request from one person to another.
Obedience : A form of social influence in which one person obeys direct orders from another to perform some action(s).
External links
- 5 Ways to be Influential Article is on a Canadian politics website.
- Working Psychology Website A webpage written by a professor at University of Southern California, devoted to social influence.
Sociologists usually define Power as the ability to impose one's will on others, even if those others resist in some way.
Much of the recent sociological debate on power revolves around the issue of constraining and/or enabling nature of power. Thus, power can be seen as various forms of constraint on human action, but also as that which makes action possible, although in a limited scope. Much of this debate is related to the works of Foucault, who, following Machiavelli, sees power as "a complex strategic situation in a given society [social setting]". Being deeply structural, his concept involves both constraint and enablement. For a purely enabling (and voluntaristic) concept of power see the works of Anthony Giddens. The imposition need not involve coercion (force or threat of force). Thus "power" in the sociological sense subsumes both physical power and political power, including many of the types listed at power. In some ways it more closely resembles what everyday English-speakers call "influence", although some authors (like D. Wrong) make a sharp distinction between influence as a more general concept, and power as intended influence. |
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The imposition need not involve coercion (force or threat of force). Thus "power" in the sociological sense subsumes both physical power and political power, including many of the types listed at power. In some ways it more closely resembles what everyday English-speakers call "influence", although some authors (like D. Wrong) make a sharp distinction between influence as a more general concept, and power as intended influence.
More generally, one could define "power" as the more or less unilateral ability (real or perceived) or potential to bring about significant change, usually in people’s lives, through the actions of oneself or of others.
The laws of power are an interpretation of evolution, used by individuals, with the goal to let an individual evolve to the highest level of comfort he can attain in his social setting.
The exercise of power seems endemic to humans as social and gregarious beings.
The Spanish word for power is "poder", and the French word is "pouvoir". Both words mean "to be able," and this meaning reflects on the meaning of the English word "power". A second French word is "puissance", which means more potential or virtual power, a capacity of, while "pouvoir" would be actualized "puissance".
- Tarnow, Eugen (2000). A quantitative model of the amplification of power through order and the concept of group defense.
- 5 Ways to be Influential Article is on a Canadian political site.
- What is power?
In psychology, Motivation refers to the initiation, direction, intensity and persistence of behavior (Geen, 1995). Motivation is a temporal and dynamic state that should not be confused with personality or emotion. Motivation is having the encouragement to do something. A motivated person can be reaching for a long-term goal such as becoming a professional writer or a more short-term goal like learning how to spell a particular word. Personality invariably refers to more or less permanent characteristics of an individual's state of being (e.g., shy, extrovert, conscientious). As opposed to motivation, emotion refers to temporal states that do not immediately link to behavior (e.g., anger, grief, happiness).
- History of the concept
- Psychobiology of drives
- Regulation of Behavior
- Social and self regulation
- Controlling motivation
- Applications in education and instructional design
- Applications in business
Conflict
Management refers to the long-term management of intractable conflicts.
It is the label for the variety of ways by which people handle grievances
- standing up for what they consider to be right and against what
they consider to be wrong. Those ways include such diverse phenomena
as gossip, ridicule, lynching, terrorism, warfare, feuding, genocide,
law, mediation, and avoidance. Which forms of conflict management
will be used in any given situation can be somewhat predicted and
explained by the social structure - or social geometry - of the
case.
Conflict management is not the same as "conflict resolution." The latter - conflict resolution - refers to resolving the dispute to the approval of one or both parties, whereas the former - conflict management - concerns an ongoing process that may never have a resolution. For example, gossip and feuds are very common methods of conflict management, but neither entails resolution.
The scientific study of conflict management (also known as social control) owes its foundations to Donald Black, who typologized its elementary forms and used his strategy of pure sociology to explain several aspects of its variation. Research and theory on conflict management has been further developed by Allan Horwitz, Calvin Morill, James Tucker, Mark Cooney, M.P. Baumgartner, Roberta Senechal de la Roche, Marian Borg, Ellis Godard, Scott Phillips, and Bradley Campbell.
See also
External links
- Party-Directed Mediation - Mediation of interpersonal conflict, including free PDF book. University of California.
- Peace Forge -A wiki dedicated to best practices in peace and conflict resolution
- Wikia: Conflict Resolution -A wikia dedicated to conflict resolution
- Search For Common Ground - One of the world's largest non-government organisations dedicated to conflict resolution
- CUNY Dispute Resolution Consortium - 'The Dispute Resolution Headquarters in New York City.
- New Conversations Online Library
- A list of resources on conflict style inventories and a culturally sensitive tool for assessing personal styles of conflict management.
- The Center for Justice and Peacebuilding
Leadership and Group Skills
In organizational development, Leadership Development is the strategic investment in, and utilization of, the human capital within the organization.
Leader development focuses on the development of the leader, such as the personal attributes desired in a leader, desired ways of behaving, ways of thinking or feeling.
In contrast, leadership development focuses on the development of leadership as a process. This will include the social influence process and the team dynamics between the leader and his/her team at the dyad level, the contextual factors surrounding the team such as the perception of the organizational climate and the social network linkages between the team and other groups in the organization. Both forms of development may mutually influence each other, as exemplified in the concept of "Deep Change" in Robert E. Quinn's 1996 book of the same title. Typically, leader development has focused on 3 main areas - providing the opportunities for development, stimulating the ability to develop (including motivation, skills and knowledge for change), and providing a supportive context for change to occur (see Cynthia D. McCauley, 2001). Leadership development can build on the development of individuals (including followers) to become leaders. In addition, it also needs to focus on the interpersonal linkages between the individuals in the team. In the belief that the most important resource that an organization possesses is the people that comprise the organization, some organizations address the development of these resources (even including the leadership).
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Leadership development can encompass any number of developmental processes including:
- talent identification and management
- individual development planning
- management development
- 360-degree feedback
- succession planning
- mentoring
- coaching
External links
- Conscious Leadership
- Leadership Simulator
- Carter McNamara's Free Online Library
- Governance Focus issues in governance worldwide, in English & Español
- Leadership Development WIKI
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Self-awareness
and Personal Leadership |
A Concept is an abstract idea or a mental symbol, typically associated with a corresponding representation in language or symbology, that denotes all of the objects in a given category or class of entities, interactions, phenomena, or relationships between them. Concepts are abstract in that they omit the differences of the things in their extension, treating them as if they were identical. They are universal in that they apply equally to every thing in their extension. Concepts are also the basic elements of propositions, much the same way a word is the basic semantic element of a sentence. Concepts are bearers of meaning, as opposed to agents of meaning. A single concept can be expressed by any number of languages. The concept of DOG can be expressed as dog in English, Hund in German, as chien in French, and perro in Spanish. The fact that concepts are in some sense independent of language makes translation possible - words in various languages have identical meaning, because they express one and the same concept.
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Conceptual Thinking is problem solving or thinking based on the cognitive process of conceptualization - is a process of independent analysis in the creative search for new ideas or solutions, which takes as its starting point that none of the accepted constraints of “today’s reality” need necessarily to apply to or to shape the future. Thus it does not accept received wisdom, the status quo nor inertia as necessary determinants of every bit of the future.
Conceptual thinking can be a valuable analytic or problem solving tool in any field; for instance, Environment Canada in a note on “competencies meteorologists” defines it as follows:
- Conceptual thinking is the ability to understand a situation or problem by identifying patterns or connections, and addressing key underlying issues. Conceptual thinking includes the integration of issues and factors into a conceptual framework. It involves using past professional or technical training and experience, creativity, inductive reasoning, and intuitive processes that lead to potential solutions or viable alternatives that may not be obviously related or easily identified.
Conceptual thinking requires an openness to new ways of seeing the world and a willingness to explore. But once the work of analysis is completed and a new concept or mind map emerges, the hard work of communicating this new vision begins. Conceptual thinkers if they are to succeed must understand that new and to many people unfamiliar ideas need nurturing and support.
In more common terms it is often referred to as “lateral thinking” (Edward de Bono) or “out of box thinking”, in both cases the terms referring to the conscious omission or putting aside of commonly accepted beliefs or constraints.
See also
- Thomas Kuhn
- Paradigm shift
- Edward De Bono
- Lateral thinking
- Creative problem solving
- Cognitive dissonance
External links
SPECIFIC COMMUNICATION SKILLS
Tutorials
- Designing and Delivering Business Presentations
- Communicating Information Through Visuals
- Managing Data and Using Graphics
- Giving Oral Business Presentations
- Enhancing Your Oral Presentations with Electronic Slide Shows and Overhead Transparencies
- Interviewing for Employment and Following Up
Readings
Conducting Meetings
Recommended Texts
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Fundamentals
of Management Assess Your Management Skills
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