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Management and Leadership - Sample Questions and Answers
1.1. What is a manager? The classic definition of a manager is one who gets things done through other people. You may be planning, directing, controlling, hiring, delegating, assigning, organizing, motivating, disciplining, or doing any number of other things managers do on a daily basis. No matter what you do, though, you are working toward a goal by helping others do their work. You are a manager if: • You direct the work, rather than perform it. • You have responsibilities for hiring, firing, training, and disciplining employees. • You exercise authority over the quality of work and the conditions under which it is performed. • You serve as liaison between employees and upper management. • You motivate employees and contribute to a culture of accomplishment. 1.2. What are the signs of a good manager? A sign of a good manager is one with a happy, motivated, high performing team, the trust of upper management, and the respect of the user community. Consistent action is another sign, as it provides the basis for everyone to effectively measure their leadership abilities. Good managers tend to understand each employee’s strengths and weaknesses. They accept failures not as weaknesses, but as learning experiences. • Be a doer not an expert: Everyone cannot be an expert and one doesn’t essentially need to be an expert to achieve success. In fact, there is no dearth of experts. One just needs to put in hard work to bring a positive change. • Be open: No matter how important a position one holds, one must always be open to new suggestions. The best form of advice may come from the person working at the lowest stratum of a company. • Always acknowledge: Money is an incentive, no doubt but the biggest form of reward for any worker happens to be acknowledgement. Timely appreciation can go a long way in inspiring someone to do better than the best. • Be a good man manager: One must possess the tact to choose the right people for the right project. Someone who fails miserably at understanding a computer program may show amazing skills at resolving a complicated puzzle of accounting. A good man manager knows who is good at what. • Trust your team: One must always place one’s faith in the team one heads. The policy of standing by the people and trusting their ideas is an infallible management fundamental. • No risk, no gain: A good manager is the person who is not scared of taking risks. Any business necessarily entails taking risks. And one who is brave enough to take a chance always succeeds in the ultimate round. • Believe in practice, not theory: One should not get too bogged down by technicalities of management theories. The best management lesson can be learnt through trial and error. Books can provide a guideline only; they can never be the doer’s functional steps. • Have common sense: In times of crisis, one must fall back on one’s common sense. Relate a business problem to a personal one and ask yourself how you would have solved it in your personal capacity. Use your common sense and a solution is sure to follow. 1.3. What does it take to be a leader? Moving people, capital, and ideas forward; setting new benchmarks for progress and then responsibly seeing the progress through by working with every resource identifiable, whether internal or external. 1.4. What is a leader? A creative and effective leader has a clear vision for the future as well as the ability to examine alternative methods for achieving goals, the skill to motivate others to embrace change, and the talent to effectively carry out a chosen strategy. While the manager works to carry out the aims of the organization, the leader serves to create new aims, tweak old ones, or initiate new courses of action. The leader challenges the status quo, in the most positive and diplomatic ways, in order to continuously improve. It is the leader we turn to when we feel that “good enough” is not. It is the sign of a leader to step in when something is not working, have the guts to reverse it and not let the mistake linger. You are a leader if: • You believe that, working in concert with others, you can make a difference. • You create something of value that did not exist before. • You exhibit positive energy. • You actualize. • You welcome change. 1.5. What is a leadership? Developing a vision and strategy, and motivating people to achieve that vision and strategy. Leaders must set an organization’s direction and communicate that direction to employees. A leader has to be strong enough to make his own decisions, and stick to them, even when they are unpopular (in politics). Again, a great leader is not pigheaded enough to stick with a bad choice. He must be self-confident enough to solicit opinions and change his mind without worrying that he will appear weak. A leader must also set an example. There is no more powerful motivation for others that a leader who sets an example. Leadership characteristics: • Integrity • courage/ability to stand up when time is tough • charisma • lead by example • vision • awareness of the role of doing or leading • get work done • performance coaching • guts to pull the plug if not working 1.6. What traits do leaders exhibit? The most successful leaders are those with the best people skills, especially during the most difficult circumstances. Poor communication and interpersonal relationships routinely thwart leaders who are otherwise technically competent. In order to succeed, leaders must be fully engaged with the individuals who make up their organization. Leadership reflects a wide spectrum of traits - all of them admirable, all of them beneficial to others. • Courage • Pride • Sincerity • Adaptability • Influence: The key to leadership today is influence, not authority. Leaders know how to influence others, to persuade them to a higher calling. If you intend to lead others, you cannot depend on the authority of your managerial position. It can help you, but it can also harm you when trying to reach those who resist “authority figures.” • Multilingual Abilities 1.7. What are the differences between managers and leaders? Leaders and managers share a number of traits. Among them are positive attitude toward the organization, the team, the work. Both managers and leaders generally have positive attitudes, although the leaders tend to be more action-oriented than the managers. When you have on your manager’s hat, you are wading in familiar waters; you are doing an outstanding job of the duties specified in your job description. By contrast, when you are wearing the leader’s hat, you may be stepping into unknown waters, the swirling eddies of which may make you vulnerable. This is the basic difference in the two roles. No matter which hat you are wearing, though, you demonstrate honesty, fairness, trustworthiness, and respect if you wish to be called outstanding. In both roles, you are expected to have sound judgment, to accept responsibilities, to support who have joined you in making decisions. Your competence is assumed and others expect you to perform your job according to the highest possible standards. You are also expected to make continuous improvements in that job, although as a leader, you will be more willing to incur risks as you do. Leaders apply the concept of continuous improvement to themselves and their followers as well as to the processes. They acquire old knowledge, create new knowledge, and share both with those who need to know. Leaders are also inclined to think outside the box and to find novel solutions for problems. They are typically systems thinkers who aim for big-picture thinking that results in “wins” for many stakeholders. The difference between mere management and leadership is communication. It is a fact of organizational life: to lead well, you must communicate well. 1.10. What does interpersonal relationship include? The management of interpersonal relationships includes: • Effective communication: The exchange of information • Influencing the organization: The ability to “get things done” • Leadership: Developing a vision and strategy, and motivating people to achieve that vision and strategy • Motivation: Energizing people to achieve high levels of performance and to overcome barriers to change • Negotiation and conflict management: Conferring with others to come to terms with them or to reach an agreement • Problem solving: The combination of problem definition, alternatives identification and analysis, and decision-making 1.11. Describe effective teams. Effective teams get great results and work well together. Effective teams think and act in ways that make excellent work possible, sustainable, and satisfying. They act as a team. They also constantly look for ways to improve their work. They strive to reduce or eliminate such things as name-calling, cynicism, rework, conflict, and apathy that make it difficult to get better results. They do the work of a team. 1.12. What are the practical steps you can take to create and sustain an environment that will motivate your team? Here is a checklist of practical steps you can take to create and sustain an environment that will motivate your team. Some of these relate to delegation and some to other skills. If you can provide all of these, you will make sure your team is fully motivated. • Set challenging targets, but make sure they are realistic and achievable. Try to involve people in determining their own objectives. People need to feel in control. • Make sure your team is fully informed about decisions that will affect them and anything relevant that is going on in the company. • Involve more people in planning work and/or innovating. • Increase individuals’ responsibility by delegating more. Allocate work in such a way that everyone has a chance to take on more responsibility and gain more expertise. • Allow people maximum scope to vary the methods, sequence, and pace of their work. Remove as many controls as possible while making sure that everyone knows who is responsible for achieving defined targets or meeting standards. • Make it clear that what people achieve or fail to achieve is up to them. • Make sure that the relationship between effort and reward is clearly defined. • Recognize achievements, but do not cheapen praise by dispensing it too freely. All of these steps link back to the principles Maslow put forward; by using them, you will motivate your team, develop their skills, be a more effective leader, and create a positive team culture.
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