Developing Personal and Management Skills Free Essay Example

Transferrable skills, whether as an individual, employee or manager can be personal or professional & can flex between both work & home life. These are basic skills which are demonstrated in an individual”s aptitude & behaviours. Together, these make up a skill set which demonstrates natural behaviours in different situations. Transferrable skills could also be described as technical for a specific industry. In this case, these basic skills are required as a manager or leader.

Supportive Communication

Supportive communication is achieved through a variety of verbal, non-verbal & digital approaches.

Face to face communication requires active listening, positive body language & appropriate facial expressions such as eye contact. In order to facilitate an effective conversation, it is also important to allow others the opportunity to contribute to the conversation, providing feedback accordingly.

“Supportive communication is a style of communicating that has a specific set of goals and techniques. The primary goal of supportive communication is to resolve conflict or achieve change in a situation while preserving, even strengthening, the relationship between the communicating individuals.

” (life, n.d.)

Digital communication, which although is an effective, convenient & cheap method of communication, can be ineffective in terms of conveying a message between the sender & the receiver. Conversations can easily be misconstrued as there is no tone & the reader will create their own. If the reader gets any sense of hostility from written text, the tone will change completely. Within my organisation, there have been instances of staff members (often senior) who fail to follow the email use policy & with the use of capital letters, bold etc, can make an email read aggressively.

Where possible, to facilitate effective communication, in my opinion, it is better to have a face to face meetings & then confirm the detail over email.

An example of a need for professional presence is when presenting to a large audience. This can be achieved by using all of the above positive communication styles to instil confidence in the audience & provide energy whilst conveying a message. Presence can be assessed by physical appearance, by being dressed appropriately for the occasion & therefore providing a professional demeanour. The audience will also be aware of the speaker”s reputation & will demonstrate respect accordingly.

Motivation

Each individual will have a different set of motivators; some basic & some more complex. Maslow suggests in his hierarchy of needs model that once each of the four basic needs has been met, the individual will be able to progress to the fifth state where they will perform at their best & have the most satisfaction. “The basis of Maslow”s theory of motivation is that human beings are unmotivated by unsatisfied needs and that certain lower needs need to be satisfied before higher needs can be addressed” (Centre, n.d.).

An example of a motivating factor could include a company bonus. It is important to remember that using a bonus as a motivator will be likely to turn into an expectation & the motivating factor will be lost & short-lasting. Therefore if all of the basic needs are met, natural job satisfaction & motivation will happen naturally.

I am fortunate to feel motivated in my job role, mainly due to having a supportive management team. We take time to thank each other for support & help each other as required. This provides a great sense of belonging & purpose within the team. I have regular discussions with my manager who supports me & encourages me on my career path. I have a yearly appraisal to assess my performance, good working conditions & support with training to support my career. Having these measures in place provides me with motivation to go over & above my role.

As a team working in the fast-paced & ever-changing world of the NHS, we do well to congratulate each other despite the pressures we are facing & remind each other that we are doing a good job.

Empowerment

In my role I feel empowered & trusted to carry out any task that is asked of me, but feel supported at all times. Therefore I give freedom to my colleagues & direct reports the same treatment. We give each other autonomy with making decisions within the remit of our roles. Trust is needed which has resulted in an effective, cohesive team. Identifying “stars” within the workforce helps with motivation & a method of recognition. These people tend to look for more responsibility & giving them this results in distribution of workload & is satisfying the employee”s need to be able to move into their next stage of the Maslow theory.

Empowerment requires a level of power to act (within the remits of the role) & confidence, both mine & that of the manager. Management need to be aware of strengths, weaknesses & skill sets so as not to “set someone up to fail”. This can also be switched in terms or a task being completed successfully & member of staff learning new skills from working outside of their comfort zone. This can increase confidence.

“Organization design aims to clarify roles and relationships so far as this is possible in fluid conditions. It is also concerned with giving people the scope and opportunity to use their skills and abilities to better effect – this is the process of empowerment.”

(Armstrong, n.d.)

I am fortunate within my role & the method of management from my management structure as I am given autonomy to act. I am often given tasks with little or no direction & am required to present a method & solution. I am not micromanaged & I would struggle to work in my current role if this was the case.

Conflict Management

Any conflict, however small must be dealt with quickly so as not to escalate further. This can either be by the individuals or a manager may need to intervene. There is a zero-tolerance policy in the NHS & also locally, a Trust”s Values & Behaviours framework. However conflict does occur, between members of staff, patients & members of staff & between patients themselves. There are processes in place for the management of conflict & staff are trained in basic conflict resolution. Conflict can be described as a clash of needs or miscommunication of matters.

Kilmann & Thomas developed a model for conflict management & to describe its use in response to conflict situations & defined them as:-

Two basic behaviours can be described as Assertive or Cooperative which are classed as levels of cooperation in a situation of conflict. This are then the five ways of approaching that situation:-

Competing – Trying to win, fully assertive nature, standing up for yourself

Accommodating – Taking on the other person”s demands & being fully submissive

Avoiding – Avoiding the situation completely or postponing any actions which are required

Collaborating – Inability to fully agree with both parties believing they are right but agreeing to find a way to work together collaboratively

Compromising – Requires some degree of flexibility with both parties & possibly some difficult conversations to ensure that both get an equal part of what they want

This demonstrates that our natural behaviours can have an effect on the outcome.

“Each of us is capable of using all five conflict-handling modes. None of us can be characterized as having a single style of dealing with conflict. But certain people use some modes better than others and, therefore, tend to rely on those modes more heavily than others whether because of temperament or practice.” (Kilmann, n.d.)

Bibliography

• Armstrong, M., n.d. How to Be an Even Better Manager : A Complete a-z of Proven Techniquest & Essential Skills, s.l.: Koga Page Ltd 2017.
• Belbin2015, 2012. An Introduction to Belbin Team Roles. [Online]
• Centre, T. P. P., n.d. The Peak Performance Centre. [Online]
• Crucial Competence: Emotional and Social Intelligence in Leadership. n.d. [Film] Directed by Daniel Goreman. USA2016: Key Step Media.
• Kilmann, D. R., n.d. Kilmann Diagnostics. [Online]
• Profiler, T. Q., 2019. The Quest Profiler, s.l.: s.n.
• Thomas, R. K. &. K., 1978. Four Perspectives on Conflict Management: An Attributional Framework for Organizing Descriptive and Normative Theory. Four Perspectives on Conflict Management: An Attributional Framework for Organizing Descriptive and Normative Theory , p. 59.