■ Customer focus. The exercise of unceasing care in looking
after the interests of external and internal customers to
ensure that their wants, needs and expectations are met or
exceeded.
■ Developing others. The desire and capacity to foster the devel-
opment of members of their team, providing feedback,
support, encouragement and coaching.
■ Flexibility. The ability to adapt to and work effectively in
different situations and to carry out a variety of tasks.
■ Leadership.The capacity to inspire individuals to give of their
best to achieve a desired result and to maintain effective rela-
tionships with individuals and the team as a whole.
■ Planning. The ability to decide on courses of action, ensuring
that the resources required to implement the action will be
available and scheduling the programme of work required to
achieve a defined end result.
■ Problem solving. The capacity to analyse situations, diagnose
problems, identify the key issues, establish and evaluate
alternative courses of action and produce a logical, practical
and acceptable solution.
■ Teamwork. The ability to work cooperatively and flexibly
with other members of the team, with a full understanding of
the role to be played as a team member.
Some organizations illustrate their competency frameworks with
examples of positive or negative indicators of behaviour under
each heading. These provide a useful checklist for managers
willing to measure their own performance in order to develop
their career. An example is given in Appendix A.
DEVELOPING MANAGERIAL EFFECTIVENESS
The development of managerial effectiveness should be focused
on the qualities and competencies listed above. The fundamental
question which is addressed by this book is: ‘How can I learn to
be a manager?’
A familiar answer to this question is to say that ‘managers
learn from experience’. But can experience alone be the best
teacher? Several writers have expressed their doubts on this
score. Tennyson called it a ‘dirty nurse’. Oscar Wilde noted that
‘experience is the name everyone gives to their mistakes’. And
12 How to be an Even Better Manager