Four Key Responsibilities of an Hr Manager free essay sample

The Key to Strong Management Within the organizational structure of most businesses you will likely find management and leadership coexisting. Commonly, the words are often substituted for one another. However, each word has a distinctly different definition. A manager does not necessarily make a good manager. Management is defined as those individuals in an organization that have the authority and the responsibility to manage the organization through the control of production processes and ensuring that they operate efficiently and effectively. Leadership is defined as the skills and ability to set future goals in accordance with the organizational goals and to communicate those goals to other employees in such a way that they voluntarily and harmoniously work together to accomplish those goals for the benefit of the organization. Any organization needs to be managed; even a one-person company has to be managed. A manager has four key responsibilities: 1) planning, 2) organizing, 3) leading, and 4) controlling. Management can also be defined as the function that determines how the organization’s human, financial, physical, informational, and technical resources are arranged and coordinated to perform tasks towards achievement of strategic goals. Leadership implies that the manager has fundamental knowledge about critical processes. We live in an era of communication challenges. It is an age of increasingly scarce management and education to the markets of tomorrow. To solve this problem, to improve and restore the competitive edge of business, I recommend teaching leadership as well as organization. We need to move beyond the simplistic and boring, everyday organizational skills commonly taught in core courses in business schools. Important as these skills are, we need to redirect our focus towards the essential ingredient required to put these skills to work – leadership. There is a profound difference between management and leadership, and both are important. â€Å"To manage† means â€Å"to bring about, to accomplish, to have charge or responsibility for, to conduct. † â€Å"Leading† is â€Å"influencing, guiding in direction, course, action, opinion. Other characteristics include: motivating and inspiring individuals, providing direction and vision, earning the respect of others, turning talent and efforts into results, and being an excellent communicator and listener. The distinction is crucial. â€Å"Managers are people who do things right, and leaders are people that do the right thing†. The difference may be summarized as activities of vision and judgment – effectiveness versus activities of management routines – efficiency. † Leadership is an influence process. It might be thought of as the ability to motivate others into following and understanding the role they play in an organization, as well as what the overall strategy of the business is, with the interest of achieving organizational goals. If this is done correctly then high levels of motivation, empowerment, commitment and performance should result. It is important in every leadership role that the leader be as effective as possible in order to work those people he is responsible for to their full potential. Certainly the leadership skill will play an important part in determining the effectiveness of the leader. Good communication skills are another important quality for a leader to have. The primary difference between leadership skills and management skills, are quite simple. A leader has the skill to remove obstacles for growth, development and performance within a team. Also he or she has the skills to get people to want to do their jobs. He or she generally has the skills to motivate people to want to reach a goal and hold them together until they can reach that goal. The most important skill a leader must posses, would be being able to set direction or vision for their organization. Management has the skills to control or direct people/resources in a group according to principles or values that have already been established by leadership. They have the skills to recognize our natural talent, and bring this out. They also have the skill to put their self in the shoes of those they manage. This will help them understand what employees are like and what motivates them, and then they can slowly work to mold them and help them to do their best. Those are some of the primary differences between leadership and management. A leader can be a manager, but a manager is not necessarily a leader. The leader of the work group may emerge informally as the choice of the group. If a manager is able to influence people to achieve the goals of the organization, without using his or her formal authority to do so, then the manager is demonstrating leadership. Great organizations are managed by people who have the necessary skills and attributes which allow them to connect with the organization and the people involved in the company. Managers must meet the many demands of performing their functions; managers assume multiple roles which include being a figurehead, leader, liaison, monitor, disseminator, spokesperson, entrepreneur, disturbance handler, resource allocator, and negotiator. Managers set and achieve the organizations goals by planning, organizing, controlling and leading. A manger can assume or delegate portions of authority to lead employees and achieve goals. Being a leader is not the same as managing an organization. Leader’s posses the interpersonal skills needed to influence others to achieve a goal willingly. Leading is a major part of a manager’s job. Leaders do not need to be a manager to lead people, but managers must know how to lead as well as manage. Leaders also have the ability to inspire, motivate, change attitudes and influence others to achieve goals. I have had the opportunity to work for some great managers as well as some not so great managers. At my last job, my manager fell into the not so great category. She was not organized, did not exude confidence and was more interested in being friends with her employee’s than their mentor and leader. I looked at her management style and decided I did not want to be the kind of leader that she was. She taught me how not to be an effective leader and manager. The manager I work under now exhibits the four key responsibilities of an effective manager. She is very well organized and helps employees stay organized. She is a great planner when it comes to setting things up such as training sessions for us to expand our knowledge. She takes control of situations that she feels might overwhelm us and is great at knowing when to take over. Her leadership is one that any employee can follow and imitate. I enjoy working for her and learning under her and hope to be in her position someday.