How to be a Leader ?
The problem that was encountered by me was to manage and lead a group of employees who had disparate ways of thinking and in no way were ready to reach a consensus in any given situation. This problem was solved by me using the six thinking hats proposed by Edward De Bono. Through this, I identified the gaps presented in the existing decisions by analyzing the trends. It helped me in finding the weakness of the existing decision. I also determined the benefits of the current decision. Through it, I found a creative solution to my problem of managing and leading people. Problem solving questionnaire helped me in identifying the problem that I was currently facing. Later, it also helped me determining the factors that are behind that particular problem. The final part of the questionnaire helped me in concluding whether I will be able to solve the question or not and what can be the possible solutions. The above two activities helped me identifying the solution so that I can effectively manage the people to achieve the goal. I was asked to complete a particular project in a month’s time. And for completing the project, I had to lead the team of 5 people. But, during the project I found that our activities are not going as budgeted. Earlier I was not able to find out the root cause, but by applying the above stated activities, I was able to settle on the loopholes and further it helped me in finding and implementing the solution so that I can achieve the goals on time. From this, I concluded that I need to work on my skills so that I can identify the weaknesses of a system but once identified, I can effectively come up with solutions.
Skills Required to be a Manager
According to me, it is very important for a manager or a leader to have problem solving skills. The main responsibility of any leader or the manager is to manage resources such as money, man, machine, etc. But, out of all, human resource is the most important and difficult resource to deal with. In order to achieve the goals of an organization, it is very important for a manager or leader to take along all the staff members in one direction. But, there may be possibility that many times dispute occurs between some staff members. So, manager or leader must be able to overcome those situations. Moreover, he will have to prepare himself for contingency situations, so that work or organization does not suffer. Thus, it is very important for them to have or develop problem solving skills. Finally problem solving can be improved in following ways:
- Defining the situation properly
- Working on different alternatives
- Analyzing all the alternatives and selecting the best
- Implementing the solution