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In today society, business women need to have
business management skills in order succeed. The
activities of such a manager can thus be classified as
planning, organising, leadership, control,
communication, negotiations and problem solving. These
skills form a vital part of the organisation.
Planning is the most important skill, as it occurs at
all stages and levels of the enterprise and is also part
and parcel of all the other tasks performed. It includes
the purposeful reflection of the objectives that the
project, or one of its phases, wants to achieve within a
given time. It is also the means and activities that are
needed and the problems that may be encountered as well
as drawing up the most appropriate plan of action to
achieve the said objectives.
Organising is the first step in implementing the
plan. Organising thus means making arrangements as to
who will do the work, how will it be done, what
resources will be used and exactly when the operations
will take place.
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Organisation needs leadership. Leading has a strong
interpersonal character and is not only focused on
activities, but as much, if not more so, on people.
Leadership or leading is responsible for the actual
execution of the activities.
Motivation forms a major part of leadership and
leadership should be used to convert the abilities of
subordinates and peers into willingness and thus
encouraging people voluntarily perform their duties to
the best they can.
During the planning stage standards have to be set
according to which the plans have to be executed.
Control is that necessary management skill that controls
and regulates the execution of plans to ensure that it
is done according to the prescribed plans and standards
and that the objectives that have been formulated have
been achieved. This incorporates pre-control, concurrent
control and post-control to ensure success.
Communication involves the exchange of information
and is vital for any decision to be made. Correct and
timely information is of utmost importance for the
success of any project. Communication includes acts such
as self disclosure, paraphrasing or confirming, empathy,
respect and keeping track of past communications.
Negotiation involves conferring with others in order
to come to terms or reach an agreement. Agreements may
be negotiated directly or with assistance; mediation and
arbitration are two types of assisted negotiation.
Negotiations occur around many issues, at many times,
and at many levels of the project such as the scope of a
project, changes to be made, terms and conditions,
assignments and resources.
Problem solving involves a combination of problem
definition and decision-making. It is concerned with
problems that have already occurred (as opposed to risk
management that addresses potential problems). Problem
definition requires distinguishing between causes and
symptoms. It may be of internal or external origin; it
may be technical or interpersonal.
People tend to just look at the symptoms and then
they try and fix it. This will only cause the problem to
re-occur at a later stage. In effect we are just killing
fires. It is thus vital to determine the pattern or
patterns of these symptoms in order to put down a
structure, and therefore a structured approach in fixing
the cause of these symptoms. In other words, we need to
fix the core of the problem.
By implementing these business management skills, the
well-being of an organisation is given the vital tools
to grow.
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