The art of management

THE ART OF MANAGEMENT

THE ART OF MANAGEMENT

THE PERSONAL QUALITIES WHICH MAKE A GOOD MANAGER

TOME 1

 “Man is the principle syllable in management”, and that is why everyone is a manager. Some people manage in their professional lives, as company executives responsible for the success of a team or an entire firm. Others are managers in their private lives, handling family relationships and their children’s education. In this chapter, we examine the personal qualities which a manager should possess to be effective, without forgetting that, in the word of French author François de la Rochefoucauld: “It is not enough to have great qualities: we should also have the management of them.”

GRAMMATICAL STRUCTURES

- sequence of tenses: preterit / conditional

(If you hired a new salesman, would you choose him?)

- passive voice: preterit

(I was hired by a firm.)

- passive voice: present perfect

(It has been discussed.)

- present participle + preposition by, for, of

(He succeeded by manufacturing cheaper products.)

- present participle

(Where is the person running this firm?)

- to be able to: infinitive form

(He should be able to delegate work.)

to be able to: preterit

(He was able to express his ideas clearly.)

- may

(You may find this difficult.)

- conjunctions: despite

(He did a good job, despite the poor conditions.)

VOCABULARY

PERSONAL QUALITIES OF A GOOD MANAGER 

WHAT HE SHOULD BE

creative, decisive, thoughtful, daring, competitive, determined, innovative, flexible, dynamic, a risk taker, a decision maker, a visionary, a leader, an organiser

WHAT HE SHOULD DO

to motivate, to delegate, to cope with, to get the best out of people out of, to have a flair for, to get on well with, to have insight, to take the initiative, to break new ground, to lead

WHAT HE SHOULD HAVE

leadership skills, know-how, enterprising spirit

RUNNING A BUSINESS

chairman, tycoon, to found, to run (a company), workforce, staff, to manufacture, goods, product line, to handle, meetings, to hire, to fire, to reward, to schedule, progress report, quality control, to merge, expansion, strike, to go bankrupt

THE MARKET

market share, sector, competition, requirement, direct marketing, advertising, consumer

PHRASAL VERBS

to carry on, to find out, to sum up, to lay out, to look for, to look to, to take over, to build up, to turn around, to start up, to end up

INTRODUCTION

THE PERSONAL QUALITIES WHICH MAKE A GOOD MANAGER

It is not only businessmen who are managers.

The ‘Art of Management and Decision-Making’applies to1us all.

What makes good decision-makers?Countless2books have been written3on the subject, and many successful managers have discussed it, but they don’t allagree.

QUOTE4

"Nothing is more difficult, and therefore more precious, than to be able to5decide"

Napoleon Bonaparte [pic 1] [pic 2] (1769-1821)

Napoleon Bonaparte [pic 3] [pic 4] was one of France's greatest military leaders. He was also a great risk taker6 and therefore a decision-maker.

1. to apply to: to concern (a person, group)

2. countless: too many to be counted

4. quote: a phrase written or said by someone else (in a book, a speech, etc.)

HAPPINESS IS A GOOD MANAGER (1/4)

COMPLEX IDEAS IN SIMPLE TERMS

‘Happiness is a good manager’.Charles Schulz[pic 5] [pic 6], the cartoonist1 who created ‘Peanuts’, could have written2 something like this. He was able to3 express complex ideas in simple terms. If all companies had ‘good’ managers, the workforce4 would be happy. And if all employees were happy, there would be no strikes5.

There is an English proverb that says: ‘There are no bad students, only bad teachers’.

I believe it also applies to6 a company. There are no bad employees, only bad managers. This may be a facile comment expressing a complex idea, but how does one define a ‘good’ manager? What qualities should he possess?

Company directors in Europe look for7 different qualities in their managers. The English look for7 people who are pragmatic8, able to3 handle9 meetings efficiently and who have good leadership skills1. They must be able to3 take the initiative and get on well11 with others. In Germany, managers should be good organisers, meticulous and determined. They should also possess excellent ‘know-how’12 relating to all the departments of their business. The French look for7 a person with expertise, someone who is highly qualified in their field13.They want managers who have an enterprising spirit and who are risk takers14.

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