Yesterday's companies are not the same as today. Currently the world is made up of societies of organizations, where all of them need to be managed in order to survive. And not just or simply managed, but managed efficiently and profitably, following a well-defined vision and mission outlined in accordance with a strategic plan.
To manage, administrators or managers rationally conduct the activities of the organization, whether for profit or not. This implies the planning, organization, direction and control of all activities, functions or tasks. Without well-planned action plans, organizations would never have the conditions to exist and grow.
For all of the above, the role of administrators or managers is of utmost importance. They are responsible for making things happen, either right or wrong. It's that simple. Without good planning, organization, direction and control, companies cannot function successfully and achieve the proposed goals and objectives. Much less, they can be profitable and competitive.
He is the administrator or manager, that highly valued figure, the main axis, the leader, the guide and promoter that things happen and that everyone follows the right path. Otherwise, each would follow a different course and different interests.
The managers of the companies of before played a very different role from the managers of the companies of today. And that was because companies also operated differently. In recent years, a transformation in the way companies operate has been observed, mainly due to technology.
When changing companies, a change has also been demanded in the people who run them and a change in all the personnel who work in them. The companies of before were less dynamic than those of this new century, their orientation was focused on activities, production; and today they are aimed at satisfying customers. Before there was much less competition than now.
Similarly, previously less attention was paid to human resources, now the workforce is recognized as the most important resource that companies possess. Previously, managers were not required to know all the aspects that make up a company. Yes now. No matter the department that is administered, the manager must have a comprehensive knowledge in order to understand the business gear and to establish goals and plans that are integrated with the rest of the company and in the same way that allows him to interact with everyone and take better decisions.
And so we could list many more qualities and skills. In this work, we have compiled the most important aspects, abilities, qualities, skills and aptitudes that should be part of the manager of this new century. To the extent that you meet these requirements and possess those qualities, it will also allow you to perform with the highest standards of efficiency, professionalism and competitiveness, thus standing out among the rest.
THE INTEGRAL MANAGER
Previously, there were two types of managers in companies: specialists, dedicated to technical tasks within well-defined functions, and generalists, who aspired to general management. But the increasing complexity of modern management has forced the search for a new type of manager, trained to manage the company of the 21st Century, who is both an expert in his functional area and suitable for the global management of the company. This new type of manager is called the integral manager.
What does the integral manager handle?
The Integral manager manages all the resources of the company:
Human resources People
Physical resources Plant, equipment, products
Financial resources Money
Technological resources Technologies
Weather
The integral manager brings together in his way of thinking and acting the three axes of Integral Management: strategy, organization and culture. He is a strategist, organizer and leader at the same time. That is what makes it comprehensive.
The Strategist Manager
A strategist is someone who has the audacity to think that he can control his future, to some extent. The strategist manager forges the future of his company, managing, and not contemplating, the relationships between the company and its environment.
The strategist manager is the one who asks: where are we and where are we going as well as we are headed? Then imagine alternatives. He does not accept the future but designs it. Gain a vision of what the business of tomorrow could be. From this vision derives the mission of the company, that is, the articulation of its reason for being and its essential objectives.
Strategy and Environment
The Organizing Manager
The function of the organization is not to control from the top; it is giving a group of people the means to carry out a task. The organizing manager does more than define everyone's tasks and design an organization chart with lines of authority and responsibility. You have to think about the entire structure of the company, and the organization is only one part of the structure.
The challenge facing the organizing manager is to constantly adjust the organizational structure of the company to changes in the strategy, so as to ensure better performance.
In summary, it can be said that the integral manager is responsible for the overall performance of the company and that this performance depends, at the same time, on the company's strategy, its organizational scheme and the consistency between the two.
The Lead Manager
The strategist and organizer manager determines the strategy, organizes the work, manages personnel, implements systems of motivation, information, decision, control… But that is not all. It lacks a fundamental element: that the heart of the company is made of people.
Although the integral manager is a technical-strategist and organizer, he cannot achieve success without the cooperation of the public of the company, that is, both of the staff and of the clients, suppliers, shareholders, bankers, etc. This requires the qualities of a communicator and a leader. As a communicator, the integral manager must make his audiences understand what the company's strategy is and why it requires a certain organizational scheme. As a leader, the integral manager influences the behavior of his collaborators with a view to achieving the objectives of the organization in a more effective way. Thus, organizational leadership is a quality derived from a double sensitivity.
- Sensitivity to people: The leader is a boss who works with people. Sensitivity to the objectives of the organization: The leader has a clear vision of the goals of the organization.
FUNCTIONS OR ROLES OF THE INTEGRAL MANAGER
All managers have to be able to think as integral managers, as if they were general managers, in order to make optimal decisions for the company and not just defend their "territories" within the company.
Those functions or roles of the integral manager are located in three spheres:
Interpersonal
- Ensure the representation of the company abroad. Direct the subordinates. Ensure the link between the public.
Informational
- Act as a spokesperson. Communicate the objectives of the organization. Control the implementation of the strategy.
Decisional
- Initiate change in the organization. Solve problems when they arise. Allocate company resources. Negotiate with the public.
ADMINISTRATIVE SKILLS AND ORGANIZATIONAL HIERARCHY
The 21st century manager must possess various types of skills.
Technical ability: possession of knowledge and skills in activities that involve the application of methods, processes and procedures. Therefore, it involves the skillful use of specific instruments and techniques. For example, mechanics work with tools and their supervisors must have the ability to teach them how to use them. Similarly, accountants apply specific techniques in their work.
Human ability: ability to work with individuals, cooperative effort, teamwork, creating conditions where people feel protected and free to express their opinions.
Conceptualization ability: ability to perceive the big picture, distinguish the most significant elements of a situation and understand the relationships between them.
Design ability: ability to solve problems for the benefit of the company. To be effective, and particularly at higher organizational levels, managers must be able to do much more than notice a problem. They must also possess the ability of a good design engineer to deduce the practical solution of a problem. If they limited themselves to spotting problems and serving as "problem watchers," they would fail. Therefore, they must also possess the valuable skill of being able to design functional solutions to problems in response to the realities they face.
In the following table we can see the requirements of these skills at each level of the organization.
Organizational hierarchy
THE MANAGER AGAINST THE CHANGES
The manager of this new century anticipates changes and positively accepts every change that comes his way. Visualize and perceive each change as an opportunity and a challenge. Below is a figure that indicates the skills required to manage changes.
Change management
OTHER CONSIDERATIONS ABOUT MANAGERS
In addition to all of the above, we consider that every manager should:
- Understand the economic and political trends of the environment and their impact on public administration and the organization's strategy. Possess the ability to formulate strategies. Identify the key factors for the implementation of organizational changes. Promote a culture of internal and external customer service. of the institution or company. Redesign processes, implement organizational learning, have a greater openness to the approach of "empowerment" (empowerment). Possess managerial skills for negotiation, teamwork, decision-making and other essential functions in high-level public management Know how to self-evaluate to know the impact of their management styles and the identification of personal goals to improve the quality of their contribution to their institution or public company.Have the ability to establish and develop relationships with other people, Know how to adapt to change and have a strategic vision to innovate or develop new business opportunities, Have an entrepreneurial spirit, that is, adopt a business point of view, and not a purely administrative one. Ability to operate and conduct themselves in multicultural environments and from there arises the need and almost the obligation for the manager to master more than one language. It is necessary to master at least two languages correctly. Respect the idiosyncrasy of customers or partners from different cultures. Be aware of ethical problems, both internal and external to the company. Motivate and build trust, openness to innovation, ability to Communicate effectively. Possess strategic vision to undertake change.Have university preparation. Have a good education and a lot of personal initiative. Have professional experience. Have computer skills. Have a deep understanding of business models, both in companies and small businesses. Know how to listen. Have a passion for business. of which it is a part.
Personal qualities for making DECISIONS
Every administrator or manager is a decision maker. Undoubtedly there are certain qualities that make decision makers good or bad.
Four qualities that are most important when analyzing the decision maker can be highlighted: experience, good judgment, creativity and quantitative skills. Other qualities may be relevant, but these four make up the requirements.
Experience: It is logical to assume that a manager's ability to make decisions grows with experience. The concept of seniority in an organization with those individuals who have the longest service, is based on the value of experience and therefore receive a higher salary. When selecting a candidate for a position in the organization, experience is a very important chapter in the decision. Past successes or mistakes form the basis for future action, previous mistakes are assumed to be potential for fewer future mistakes. The successes achieved in previous times will be repeated.
Experience has a very important role in decision making. When a controller faces a problem, he draws on his experience to solve it in a way that he knows he solved before.
For poorly structured or new situations, experience can have advantages and disadvantages. The main disadvantage is that the experience lessons may be completely inappropriate for the new problem, resulting in a wrong decision. But it can also be a great advantage, since it provides elements to differentiate between well-structured or poorly structured situations.
Good Judgment: The term judgment is used to refer to the ability to evaluate information intelligently. It is made up of common sense, maturity, reasoning ability and the experience of the decision maker. Therefore, judgment is supposed to improve with age and experience.
Good judgment is demonstrated through certain skills to perceive important information, weigh its importance, and evaluate it. The judgment is more valuable in handling poorly structured or new problems, because precisely from that judgment the decision maker will make determinations and apply criteria, to understand the problem and simplify it, without distorting it with reality.
A judgment develops in the following way: based on the available information and on his own previous experience, the decision maker establishes parameters made up of facts, opinions and knowledge in general.
Creativity: Creativity designates the ability of the decision maker to combine or associate ideas in a unique way to achieve a new and useful result. The creative decision maker is able to grasp and understand the problem more broadly, even to see the consequences that others overlook. However, the greatest value of creativity is in the development of alternatives. They are creative and can generate enough ideas to find the shortest and most effective way to the problem.
Quantitative skills: this is the ability to use techniques presented as quantitative methods or operations research, such as: linear programming, waiting line theory, and inventory models. These tools help managers make effective decisions. But it is very important not to forget that quantitative skills should not and cannot replace good judgment in the decision-making process.
A manager is:
- Teacher Trainer Visioner Recruiter Stimulator of idea and creativity Counselor Group leader Follower and creator of policies, plans and programs Decision maker Communicator Catalyst Planner Psychologist Analyst Motivator Evaluator Organizer Achiever Achiever Guide and teamwork toward achievement of goals
CONCLUSION
The new millennium has transformed the practices of organizations and with it the skills and characteristics that the new business environment demands of managers. The characteristics that we have described in this work indicate that today's manager must have a very different profile from the manager from several decades ago, whose pattern was more closely adjusted to control and supervision.
21st century managers are required to be differently prepared to meet the needs of modern businesses. Knowledge of more than one language, university studies, computer skills and communication skills are some of the aspects to consider to be a successful and competitive manager.
Today's manager must master a myriad of functions that make it easier for him to interact with the environment and efficiently direct the destinies of the company. You must be a strategist, organizer and leader. To be able to organize, you need to know where you are going, how you are going to organize, and at each stage you need to know how to be a leader.
You should know a little about everything, and also know all those aspects that can affect an organization, be prepared to face it and be aware that as time progresses, in addition to being presented along the way with useful tools to deal with any adversity, obstacles also appear that overshadow the panorama. It is then where he must demonstrate that he can face all that and together with the human team that manages to face it, counteract it, and learn from it for future experiences.
Bibliography
- COMPREHENSIVE MANAGEMENT - Do not fear competition, fear incompetence. Jean-Paul Sallenave. ADMINISTRATION - A Global Perspective - 11th Edition. Harold Koontz, Heinz Weihrich.www.gestiopolis.comwww.unamosapuntes.comwww.monografía.com
TITLE: CHARACTERISTICS OF THE ADMINISTRATORS
AUTHOR: Enrique Lay - [email protected]
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