How to become a manager at 25

LEADERS ARE born and not bred. Are they a breed of a higher caliber, and a greater businss acumen?

``The world has the habit of making room for the man whose words and actions show that he knows where he is going.'' - Napoleon Hill

``Winners can tell you where they are going, what the plan to do along the way, and who will be sharing the adventure with them.'' - Denis Waitley

``Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration.'' - Thomas Edison

Leadership is often considered a form of success. In today's world climbing the ladder of success by making strides in the managerial positions is synonymous to leadership. What does it take to be a manager in an age where prodigies abound. With advances in technology giving rise to a new trend of young achievers, what does it take to groom achievers into good managers. There are certain qualities that you need to possess and cultivate in order to be a young and successful manager.

``Recognizing strengths and compensating for weaknesses represents the first step in achieving positive self regard.'' (Warren Bennis & Burt Nanus) Leadership is an art that can be mastered. Some people may have some inherent traits that make this task easier. As a manager you have to hold onfidence of your team and you should be able to stir them into action and guide their undertakings, and to tap the potential.

Cashman is the founder and CEO of LeaderSource, which has helped executives from companies such as Pillsbury, American Express, and Rollerblade to explore what it means to lead ``Leaders lead by virtue of who they are,'' he replies. ``If we want to be more effective with others, we first need to be more effective with ourselves.''

Insights to becoming an effective leader.

Hardworking

A manager is a leader first and a manager next A person who is hardworking will always command the respect of his subordinates. There is no substitute for industry and the 'sweat of your brow' has be. Learn everything you can that will keep you ahead and abreast. Striving for excellence has it's own rewards and a work well done will always be commendable. A leader always gives his best shot and never falls short of standards but makes a mark so that the rest of his team follows suit.

Personality

Personality does make a difference and a person who is unequivocal, not dogmatic and more resilient, with a lot of potential to hold the attention as well as a vibrant personality will make a good manager. A person who is not too mushy and one who is able to dominate without being despotic will be the ideal mix for an effective manager. Unless you drive and sway people you cannot get the work done.

Vocal/ articlulate/ communicative

You have to be articulate and vocal in expressing your ideas and expectations in order to communicate effectively. You should be able to convey what you need and be direct about it. It is often noted that people with good communication and language skills make it big and move ahead of others who are just good workers. There's nothing like a great vocabulary at your command to help you vehicle your thoughts and ideas and make them executable. It is advantageous if a manager is a good speaker, this proves that the person has a certain level of confidence and communication abilities.

Innovative

Quality ideas and authentic expression does make you a manager. Build a reputation of being fresh, genuine, concise and eager always. Good ideas will always get a nod and a die-hard spirit that makes the most of the existing resources and does the job come what goes into the making of a successful young manager.

People manager

Getting things done and done quickly, without compromising on quality, motivating people and chalking out a path that is to be taken is what people management is all about. Being able to tap the potential in the existing manpower and putting resources to the best use, making the most out of the least of resources is what people management is all about. An ability to plan and prepare for the future, monotor the progress and bring plansd to fruition. Organise important meetings and events is what is expected of a manager.

Trustworthy and integrity

Cultivate virtues like integrity and reliability. Make sure you don't shirk responsibility and shy away from difficult tasks. If you are enterprising you can move on to higher ranks and if you are not afraid of responsibility then the chances of success are high.

Credit where credit is due

If a person is better than you in some areas, you don't have to feel insecure or threatened by it. Appreciate this quality and make sure you publicly commend someone if the situation requires you to. Conversely if you have made up a mistake, learn to accept it and apologise. This proves that you are not the be-all, end- all and know all of everything.

Nothing works like a word of appreciation, a morale booster, or a pep talk. ``That was a great job you did''.

If you have something you dislike about a person, don't backbite about it, but offer cnstructive criticism to them.

Teamwork

A leader must be an all and all teambuilder. He should be able to cement teams together and also resolve conflicts. Providing emotional support and technical assistence and guidance whenevr necessary. If a person is not a team builder then his team will disintegrate sooner or later and he will be a failure. When two people cannot get along because of certain reasons a good mamanger sees to it that the discord is patched. Have a listening ear and make sure you address problem areas effectively. Be interested in the concerns of your team members and maintain a friendly, informal rapport with them. Understand the psychology of each person and make sure you deal with them accordingly. Don't brush aside their feelings and rub them the wrong way too many times. This may cause them to be bitter in the long run.

Set goals

The fact that you maintain a friendly rapport does not rule out the fact that you can be firm when you need to get your message across. Set targets and goals for your team and have meetings as a team and one-on one as well. Meet you staff atleast once a day and find out what they are doing and how they are faring. Call a meeting wenever it is necessary to do so.

Be the person others can look up to

Be the role model for the team. Conduct yourself in a way that evokes respect, recognition and admiration. A person who can offer a solution to problems that they cannot handle alone. An Easy going, and light hearted, friendly, optimistic attitude can handle frayed tempers. A power crazy autocratic person who does not take care that power corrupts, can misuse the power. He should not be manipulative but forthright and open. Be a go- getter and try and be a person who is a doer. A person who is focussed and has a vision in mind, and one who is single-minded in his efforts to achieve his goals.

There is no secret recipe or magical formula to become an effective leader overnight. It is a process of trial and error, successes and failures. Never stop learning, and with practice you can increase your success in leadership!

``The future will require those of us in such positions to keep our eyes, ears and minds open. It will require us to listen and to involve, to coach and to develop, to enrich and to motivate, to risk and to credit, to care and to express concern, and to laugh - especially at ourselves.'' (John H. Anthony)

What needs to be done and why?

What results have to be achieved?

What problems have to be overcome?

Is the solution to these problems straightforward or is there a measure of ambiguity?

Is this a crisis situation?

What is the time-scale for completing the task?

What pressures are going to be exerted on the leader?

The Team:

What is the composition of the team?

How well is the team organized?

Do the team members of the team work well together?

What will they want to get out of this?

How can the commitment of this particular team be achieved?

How are results to be obtained by satisfying their needs?

How are they likely to response to the various leadership styles or approaches may be adopted?

The individuals in the team

What are the strengths and weaknesses of each member of the team?

What sort of issues are likely to motivate them?

How are they likely to respond individually to various leadership styles?

|Top of Page|

Leadership Qualities:

Ability to work with people

Early responsibility for important tasks

A need to achieve results

Leadership experiences early in career

Wide experience in many functions

Ability to make deals and negotiate

Willingness to take risks

Ability to have better ideas than colleagues

Having talents 'stretched' by immediate bosses

Ability to change managerial style to suit the occasion.

A-Z of management:

Achieving results

Assertiveness

Benchmarking

Budgeting

Case presentation

Change Management

Clear thinking

Coaching

Communicating

Conflict management

Continuous improvement

Controlling

Coordinating

Corporate culture and how to manage it

Cost cutting

Counseling

Creative thinking

Crisis management

Delegating

Developing people

Empowerment

Getting on

How things go wrong and how to put them right

Improve organizational effectiveness

Innovating

Interviewing

Leadership

Managing your boss

Meetings

Motivating

Negotiating

Objective setting

Organizing

Performance management

Persuading

Planning

Policies

Power and politics

Presentations and effective speaking

Problem solving and decision making

Productivity improvement

Profit improvement

Re-engineering the business

Report writing

Strategic management

Stress management

Team management

Time management

Total quality management

Trouble shooting

Achieving results:

Three sorts of managers

* Those who make things happen

* Those who watch things happening

* Those who don't know what is happening

They define to themselves precisely what they want to do.

They set demanding but attainable time-scales in which to do it.

They convey clearly what they want done and by when.

They are prepared to discuss how things should be done and will listen to and take advice. But once the course of action has been agreed they stick to it unless events dictate a change of direction.

They are single-minded about getting where they want to go, showing perseverance and determination in the face of adversity.

They demand high performance from themselves and are somewhat callous in expecting equally high performance from every one else.

They work hard and work well under pressure; in fact, it brings out the best in them.

They tend to be dissatisfied with the status quo.

They are never completely satisfied with their own performance and continually question themselves

They will take calculated risks

They snap out of setbacks without being personally shattered and quickly regroup their forces and their ideas

They are enthusiastic about the task and convey their enthusiasm to others.

They are decisive in the sense that they are able to quickly sum up situations, define alternative courses of action, determine the preferred course, and convey to their subordinates what needs to be done.

They continually monitor their own, and their subordinates' performance so that any deviation can be corrected in good time.

Advice:

``Promises: if asked when you can deliver something ask for time to think. Build in a margin of safety. Name a date. Then deliver it earlier than you promised.''

Clear Thinking:

* Hardworking

Industry overcomes intelligence they say. And a person who is hardworking and a steady performer will always rank higher than a perso* Personality

* Vocal/articlulate/communicative

* Innovative

Exclaim ``this guy's an Einstein'', or She's an out and out professional and makes sure her work is top-class

* People manager

* Trustworthy and integrity

Credit where credit is due

* Teamwork

* Set goals

* Be the person others can look up to

ARCHANA JAYAKAR

archana.hydKcareercommunity.co.in