Professional requirements for the manager

Management is the process of planning, organizing, managing and monitoring the activities of individual members of an organization’s team and using all its resources to achieve short-term or long-term goals. It consists in coordinating the work of other people, achieving the goals set by the governing, motivating, controlling bodies.

Management was defined as the art of realizing something through other people. Managers, regardless of their personal talents and skills, take certain interrelated actions to achieve their desired goals. The reason managers take action is the need to satisfy their own needs and achieve the goal of group activities, such as creating specific objects.

Manager: the essence of the concept

Henri Fayolle was the first to say that you can become a manager through training. His predecessors claimed that it was an innate skill. Managers work with people and through people. In this case, we mean not only subordinates, but also other individuals in the hierarchy of managers, suppliers, customers or customers. Thanks to mutual cooperation, managers can effectively plan the long-term goals of the organization, provide information and communication channels.

Many business schools present entire sets of managerial roles, setting requirements for new generation managers, especially in the formation of interpersonal relationships, staff motivation, communication between employees, empowerment and inspirational changes in the enterprise. The manager’s competence is based on his skills, understood as the ability to effectively and efficiently achieve specific results, that is, the ability to use professional knowledge in practice to achieve goals in a particular situation.

Manager Features

Among the main requirements for managerial qualities are the following:

1. Responsibility: the manager becomes the equivalent of a coach, who is evaluated only after the results. The objective is to ensure that the work is done correctly. Therefore, he is responsible not only for his actions, but also for actions performed by his subordinates.
2. Prioritization: as a manager of limited material and human resources, a manager is often required to make a choice between competing organization goals, problems, and needs. In this situation, the limited time of the manager should be used optimally, accurately prioritizing.
3. Analytical type of thinking: the manager breaks down the problem into main factors, analyzes them and actually solves the problems. This is a difficult task, because everything must be connected with the intended goals of the organization.
4. Acting as a mediator: the manager is responsible for resolving conflicts. Working with people, he is faced with different points of view and disputes, which he must resolve quickly, efficiently and fairly. Misunderstanding in a unit or organization can negatively affect morale, the working atmosphere and, as a result, reduce productivity.
5. Politician and diplomat: he must establish relationships, use beliefs and compromises to support the goals of the organization. Like a politician, a manager may be faced with the need to join or form a coalition, creating a network of obligations with other managers in order to gain support for their projects and ideas.
6. Symbols of success: the manager should be a model for members of the organization and outside observers. He is able to accept not only praise, but also a possible wave of criticism, personify both the successes and failures of the company.
7. The ability to make complex decisions: both senior management and subordinates expect a quick search for a method and the speedy completion of a task.

Key interview requirements

Consider the characteristics of the manager, responsibilities and requirements for this position in modern companies:

• willingness to take a position and work on it;
• identification with the company and its goals;
• ability to organize work for others;
• good cooperation with the board of directors;
• at least two years of work experience;
• the ability to manage a large project covering the entire company;
• competence and readiness for continuing professional development;
• conviction of the need for innovation;
• excellent knowledge of human resource management and ability to work with people;
• inner sense of control;
• creativity;
• ability to make independent decisions.

The above complex of functions is rarely found in one employee. The manager must be a person who is able to solve tasks as soon as possible. This is due to the need to impose on many employees the changes that are necessary and do not always meet with approval. Support from company management is also needed.

Main responsibilities

Although core responsibilities are often routine, a manager cannot ignore them.

Among the main requirements for the manager, which can be called labor responsibilities, it is necessary to highlight the following:

1. Representative role. The head of the department must sometimes perform certain functions - to welcome partners, take part in procedures, invite customers, etc.
2. The role of a leader in priority. Using training, motivation and encouragement, you can achieve the effectiveness of employees who certainly recognize the experience of the leader.
3. The manager plays the role of a link, communicating with people other than subordinates and superiors.
4. Informational role. Employees in a unit or organization depend on information received from or transmitted through the manager.

Job requirements

Requirements for the work of the manager are divided into levels of leadership.

Top management is focused on strategic management and has the best knowledge of the market conditions of the company, its customers, contractors and competitors. It is especially necessary to direct a personnel management strategy related to the strategy of the entire organization. A very important task of top management is to fill key positions. It depends on the skills of acquiring the best candidates. The fewer mistakes are made, the better the company’s work, staff stability and consistency in achieving goals, a stronger market position and a better working atmosphere.

Top management should focus on the most important issues.

There are three roles of top management in the field of strategic personnel management:

• far-sighted: a broad vision of the development of the company;
• architect: transferring vision to a sequence of processes and related structures;
• promoter: related to the ability to inspire, initiate and force a specific policy.

Medium and lower management personnel have greater freedom in the field of personnel management in decentralized companies. From the point of view of the speed of the decision-making process, it would be better if the decisions were made by managers at the lowest level, with sufficient knowledge on this issue. Limiting the rights of these people, treating them as specialists of low competence in the field of personnel management and mistrust leads to a slower decision-making process, low involvement of managerial personnel and overloading people in the highest positions.

Qualification requirements

The presence of qualifications indicates a certain potential, formed in accordance with the standards adopted in this community for performing important work.

Among the main qualification requirements of a manager are:

• specialized knowledge in the field of management;
• sociability;
• strategic thinking;
• analytic skills;
• initiative;
• ability to make managerial and administrative decisions;
• interdisciplinary approach.

Professional competency requirements

The requirements for the professional competence of a manager are very diverse. Consider the main ones.

Managers use all the resources of the organization - money, equipment, information and people to solve common problems.

A manager is a person who sets goals, takes actions, or seeks to solve problems identified by people at higher levels of the hierarchy, formulates the group’s policy, that is, determines the ways and time to complete the tasks that are components of the common goal, coordinates the activities of the group, is an expert. He represents the group outside, is the creator and controller of interpersonal relationships within, distributes punishments and rewards, resolves conflict situations, acts as a model for other team members.

The vastness and variety of roles that a manager must fulfill makes one person insufficient to satisfy the aforementioned requirements for the manager. Therefore, this is an ideal management model, the implementation of which should be the object of the aspirations and efforts of people in leadership positions.

However, to implement this model, power is needed, that is, the ability to influence other people, arising from a certain position in the social hierarchy or certain personal characteristics, such as the ability to convince or subjugate others. An influence that can be realized due to the possession of power is expressed in the ability to indicate or change the behavior of another person, for example, by ordering him to perform something in a certain way. The main link to success in management is the ability to adapt to changing working conditions, i.e. flexibility or adaptability.

This feature is related to intelligence. Another important personal advantage is the ability to make quick decisions, which does not mean that every fast decision is good. The manager’s social maturity, understood as a high level of motivation for team actions, general activation, a tendency to actions aimed at changing existing decisions, and the ability to think logically also help him to manage.

If the implementation of a specific task requires the ability to solve problems, then a manager with such skills will be effective. If the staff of the group requires the use of incentives and bonuses, then the manager who prefers this method of influencing colleagues will be effective. Managers are responsible not only for their own work, but also for the work of others, for the effective implementation of a specific task. They must determine who should perform the tasks and assign them to the appropriate subordinate.

Managers make difficult decisions. There is no organization in which everything goes smoothly. There are almost no restrictions on the number and types of problems that may arise: financial difficulties, problems with employees, differences in views on the organization’s policies. Managers must find solutions to complex problems and lead the team to implement the decisions made, even if they are unpopular.

The effectiveness of achieving the organization’s goals and satisfying its social needs depends on how managers fulfill their tasks. Professional requirements for the manager, including the entire list of necessary knowledge and skills, are reflected in the future on the quality of work. The lack of the required qualities of the applicant will lead to the fact that the organization will not be able to achieve its goals.

Job requirements

Consider the basic requirements for a manager position.

A manager must be both effective and efficient. There are many different types of managers with different tasks and responsibilities. Managers can be classified in two ways:

1. Depending on their level in the organization: first-level specialists, middle and senior managers.
2. Solvable volumes of organizational activity for which they are responsible, i.e. functional and general managers.

Top managers are the lowest level in the organization. They control only performers. Examples are a team leader or foreman at a factory, a studio manager in a research center, or a department manager in a large office.

Mid-level managers manage the work of other managers, and sometimes performers. The main task of specialists at this level is to control activities that implement the company's policy and balance their requirements as a manager with the capabilities of subordinates. An example of a mid-level manager is the head of a small factory in a large electrical company.

Top managers consist of a relatively small group of directors and are responsible for managing the entire organization. They establish policies and interact with the environment. Typical senior management positions: CEO, President, First Deputy Director.

All managers enter into interpersonal relationships with their subordinates, colleagues and managers, who, in turn, provide managers with the information they need to make decisions. These various aspects of a manager’s work mean that managers at all levels play many roles.

Manager qualities

Modern requirements for a manager come from the concept of their managerial roles.

Robert L. Katz identified three main types of managerial skills of managers:

• technical - the ability to use tools, methods and technologies for a particular specialty;
• social - the ability to collaborate and establish contacts with other people, understand and motivate them;
• conceptual - mental abilities to coordinate and integrate the interests and activities of the organization.

According to Katz, these are the skills that every manager should possess. But the degree to which he must master them depends on the level of control. Obviously, technical skills are most important at lower levels, and conceptual skills at higher levels. Social is relevant everywhere, regardless of level. For these basic management skills, three more are added:

• Communication - this skill is associated with the ability of the manager not only to effectively transmit ideas and information, but also to accept them. It helps to understand all messages or reports.
• Decision making is the manager’s ability to correctly recognize and identify problems and options, and then choose the appropriate method of action and make full use of the opportunities.
• Time management - thanks to this skill, a specialist can effectively distribute his time, set priorities and delegate tasks.

Sales Manager: Key Features

According to the requirements for the sales manager, he should be focused on the concept of increasing the profitability and gross results of the company due to growth in sales volumes and the number of customers.

In this regard, the main functional responsibilities are:

• fulfillment of the sales plan;
• growth of outlets;
• increase customer loyalty;
• conclusion of supply contracts;
• control of receivables.

Among the qualification requirements for a sales manager are:

• communication abilities;
• sales skills;
• gift of persuasion;
• work with objections.

Conclusion

Managers are responsible not only for themselves, but also for employees. This is the main requirement for managers. They must balance competitive goals and set priorities, be able to think analytically and conceptually. These are intermediaries, politicians, diplomats and decision makers. The main thing is that the manager sees the need for his role and its possible changes as necessary.