Leadership is called as the process of influencing the activities of an individual or a group in efforts toward goal achievement in a given situation (Hersey & Blanchard 1988). In every organization, managers play the role of leaders in achieving the organizational goals and objectives. In understanding the roles of the managers, one of the primary responsibilities of the Manager is to ensure the smooth run of the operations that are there in the company. In ensuring the smooth run according to my understanding, the managers have to have a thorough understanding of how the different operations are happening in the company or organization and what gaps are there in the expected targets to be achieved and the actual results that they achieved from the current processes. In Gap analysis, the managers are responsible for understanding the sections that are missing in the process. The managers have responsibility look at the variances and the extent to which they are adverse and favorable in the view of the company (Brockbank et al 2002).

By learning Mintzberg’s ten managerial roles under the leadership lessons, that describe the ten different roles a manager would have to play in his role as a leader, I understood what the most important roles are for a manager and how to combine all those roles to get the maximum results for the organization. Also I learned through this that what the roles that are already in me and what the roles that I should develop further are.

Mintzberg has come up with three different types of Managerial roles which are Informational, Interpersonal and Decisional. The Informational role of a manager is to monitor, disseminate and to act the role of the spokesperson where he or she is providing all the required information to the fellow people who are working in the team (Koontz 2010). The Interpersonal role of a manager comprises of being the figurehead, leader and liaison for the organization whereas the Decisional role is to take the role of and entrepreneur, disturbance handler, resource allocator or a negotiator. This is much more appropriate to be practiced in a changing environment (Boud 2001).

As per my self-evaluation, I think I am strong in playing the roles of Interpersonal and Informational. As a figurehead, Leader and Liaison, I have so far been very successful. My ability to lead others and handle the ceremonious occasions effectively has been appreciated often. Also, though not as much good as in Interpersonal roles, I am, to a better extent good in Mintsberg’s Informational roles as well. I can handle the roles of information monitoring, disseminating and being the spokesperson quite fine.

But, as I personally believe, the Decision Making roles are somewhat beyond my capabilities. According to the theory of Mintsberg of the ten roles of managers, Decisional role of managers consists of the sub roles of entrepreneur, disturbance handler, resource allocator and a negotiator. Although I believe that I am pretty good at resource allocating role, I think, as a manager, I should develop the roles of entrepreneur, the disturbance handler and and the negotiator of the Mintsberg theory. There, I should develop the change management skills and most importantly the problem solving skills as an entrepreneur, when working with others around me. I should learn both how to initiate and handle the change. Also as disturbance handler, I must find a way to manage my own tension and address the situations with a clear and relaxed mind and to make most favourable decisions. As a negotiator, I must also practice effectively negotiating with employees to make them motivate, by creating a better work place for them where they can generate new ideas and provide solutions for the existing or forthcoming issues. Not only when working within the organizational context, these decisional skills will definitely be useful when getting the best deals to my organization through the discussions with other external parties as well.

Therefore, this lesson unit was very helpful for me to recognize what my strengths and weaknesses are as a manager through a self evaluation and thereby to develop my weaknesses and exploit my strengths.

References

Brockbank, A, McGill, I & Beech, N 2002, ‘Reflective Learning and Organizations’, Reflective Learning in Practice, Aldershot: Gower Publishing. pp.15-18.

Boud, D 2001, ‘Using Journal Writing to Enhance Reflective Practice’, New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education, vol. 90, pp.9-18.

Hersey, P & Blanchard, K 1988, ‘Management of Organizational Behavior’, Englewood Cliffs, Prentice Hall, New Jersy, USA.

Koontz, H 2010, ‘Essentials of Management’, McGraw-Hill Education.