How to Be a Good Manager and Task Master Essay

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Managing Tools for Effectiveness

The BSC or Balanced Scorecard strategy tool allows managers to monitor and evaluate their staff and how their actions produce effects. A BSC includes a focused approach to organization's clearly defined goal-oriented strategy, a tight, narrow range of data to be monitored, and a blend of both financial and non-financial data (Balanced Scorecard Institute, 2011). This allows the manager to utilized a closed-loop control mechanism with which to better and more accurately identify the effectiveness of his or her staff. What is important is that the measures used within the BSC be chosen well so that the information provided is worthwhile and valuable (Kellermans, Floyd, Veiga, Matherne, 2013).

Therefore selection and evaluation criteria should be chosen with utmost care and priority given to those data which have a direct and correlating impact on the manager's own aims in terms of directing his or her team to produce in alignment with the overall strategic goals of the organization. As Kaplan and Norton (2007) show, the BSC can be used as strategic management system because it allows them to not have to "rely on short-term financial measures as the sole indicators of the company's performance" (p. 75). On the contrary it gives managers the ability to translate the vision of the organization into "operational terms" -- a set of goals with measurement tools in place to provide adequate and accurate monitoring that integrates the "long-term drivers of success" in the day-to-day strategy of daily operations and evaluations (Kaplan, Norton, 2007, p. 76). Even nonprofits and NGOs use the BSC model, which just goes to show how effective it is on the international scale (HSM, 2010). Indeed, the video by HSM (2010) in which Kaplan describes the utility of BSC by so many various international corporations and organizations is a well-thought out presentation of what BSC can do for managers in any situation, because it provides the tools and framework for staying on task and staying accountable.

Another effective video presentation is that by Deloitte (2010) in which Argaman reveals her own personal experiences using BSC to develop teams under her and guiding them to be more effective contributors to the overall aims of the organization. Argaman highlights the need for effective and constant communication in order to stay on task and go "all in" on the development and growth of the team and the organization, which is what driving a company to success is all about. According to Lewis (2005), the most important coordination and relation factors consist of "unity between project manager and functional managers, project team spirit, sense of mission, goal commitment and capability" (p. 112). This is an appropriate assessment and one that correlates with the perceptions of Samaan and Verneuil (2012) regarding "spirit of mission" in their analysis of the success and adaptability of the U.S. Coast Guard in response to the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

The Hermann Brain Dominance model is effective in developing a BSC because it measures the way in which people prefer to think. Thus it is a cognitive model tool and is similar to the Myers-Briggs inventory assessment which provides a four-descriptor or type indicator regarding personalities (for example, whether one is extraverted, introverted, sensitive, perceptive, etc.). According to Hermann there are four ways of producing thoughts: analytically, sequentially, interpersonally, and imaginatively. Identifying the way in which a team's members and leaders are most adept at thinking is a good way to identify which roles they should have because it aligns thinking skills with their applicable activities and outlets. For example, a person who thinks imaginatively would best serve a team by being part of the creative process or department. An interpersonal thinker would be best-suited in the people department or in brain-storming capacity because it is around others that he produces his most effective work in the mind processes. In terms of using Hermann's model to develop a BSC, it is helpful because it gives a framework for situating individuals in what would be their most productive capacity, linking their individual thought processes to their appropriate operational positions.

Individual/organizational reluctance to terminating projects is related to the general unwillingness of persons to admit that they were wrong in their premises after the results bear out as much. It means that persons have to stop and scrap what they have done and essentially flush out all the hard work and preparation that went into starting the project in the first place. It feels like starting back at zero. Yet, as is often the case, these false starts and failed attempts can actually be productive in that they are viewed as learning experiences.

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If a project team is able to assess why a project failed and what went wrong and in the next project build on that learning to establish an effective and successful project, then it is a good kind of failure and terminating it early should not be viewed as a total wash. On the other hand, there is some value in cutting one's losses and moving on to a project that will be more strategically effective towards moving the organization along the path to its goals. As Lewis (2012) shows, a cash-flow model is a good and effective way of determining when to cancel a project. It shows how it is possible to bail out before losing too much on a project. Instead of thinking in terms of immediate loss, it is better to think of long-term operations. It is better to live to see another day, in other words, than to risk everything on a project that is only causing an organization's capital to go down the drain.

Critical analysis and research skills that contribute toward building a knowledge base in business and management are crucial as Archer and Ghasemzadeh (2007) show. Project portfolio management, for instance, requires a strategic logical approach to developing an effective selection practice that greatly enhances the chances of success. Critical to this approach is to monitor the personalities and skill sets of individual team members and to align those qualities with the proper end-game systems that can best utilize and exploit them. Likewise, Thiry (2007) shows how important it is to integrate a learning-performance model in the overall strategic decision process of the manager's program. Integration is a great way to keep all systems coordinating and working together so that no one entity is left out of the loop and forgotten in what could be a very serious case of lack of oversight. One way to do this is to use effective project type distinguishers, as Shenhar and Dvir (2007) argue. Project managers should be able to adapt and alter their styles of management to fit the needs of their team members. To this end, having a strong Emotional Intelligence (EI) is a valuable skill set that allows leaders to be truly transformational in their management decisions.

A standard stage-gate process is a phase gate process that has stages that are worked through independently of each other and must be completed sequentially in order to move on to the next stage. Thus, the gate acts as a barrier from one stage to the next and when one is completed, a team can move through the gate to the next stage. The manager is the one who decides if the necessary tasks have been completed before the gate is opened, so to speak. Thus, before there is advancement, there is a review process in which the manager assesses the task to see if it has been satisfactorily achieved. A standard stage-gate process consists of the first stage which is defining the objectives. 2nd, there is an evaluation stage. Next, this is followed by a design, verify and accept process. 4th, a launch stage is begun. Lastly comes the lifecycle management stage (Stage-Gate International, n.d.).

The define process is essentially the beginning stage in which the business case is set out, complete with tools and products and vision processes. The technology to be used is discussed and tested and trials regarded complex arrangements are conducted in order to gauge the feasibility.

The evaluation stage is when the potential rewards are calculated, whether or not the market is open to the products, whether or not there is any advantage in terms of competition, and whether or not there is a high probability of success in terms of achieving organizational goals. It is also determined at this time if the strategy is aligned with the operations.

The design and verify stage is when the project is put to the test and actually developed. It is constantly reviewed throughout this process to ensure that it is ready to go once it hits the market.

That point comes during the launch phase, with a formal launch set up to alert the public plus a review during and after the launch to assess its effectiveness. It is the role of the gatekeeper at this stage to assess value, deliverability, profitability, cost, and reliability.

The lifecycle management end….....

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