By Uttaporn K.

Management Skills

It is the nature of Supply Chain Management which has to work with several organisation and they
always have various perspective and purposes. Therefore, people who work in this field tend to need
interpersonal skills as much as technical skills. Unfortunately, there is no time for developing all of
essential skills in one semester. As a result, one skill will be chosen for developing throughout the
semester. This essay will elaborate how interpersonal skills contribute to effective management and
how the writer identifies and chooses the personal skill for further development. Moreover, the writer
will share the experiences and descript the past practices which have been applied for the selected skill.

Identify the most commonly cited skills and competencies

According to research of Rasul et al. (2013), leadership ability, teaching others, working with cultural
diversity, working as a team, creative problem solving, decision making are needed by employers. One
of the biggest online careers center is www.jobsdb.com. They have enormous database of required
qualification from employers. According to their article on Jobsdb (2013), most vital soft skills, which are
needed by Singapore’s employers in 2013, are summarized i.e. critical thinking, complex problem
solving, judgment and decision making, active listening, monitoring, sales and marketing. Moreover,
www.indeed.com’s Director of Recruiting, Mike Steinerd also concluded vital soft skills for 2013 i.e.
acting as a team player, flexibility, effective communication, problem-solving skills, accepting feedback
and applying lessons learned, confidence, and creative thinking (Doyle, 2013). To conclude, soft skills,
which employers need from their newcomers, can be changed because of many factors such as timing,
region, economical situation, and so on. In personal, the people skill that is going to be chosen to
develop throughout the semester will be considered from all of above mentioned competencies.

Why people skills are vital for successful managing and leading in organisation?

Managers always have to work and balance all contrast perspectives to satisfy each expectation (Quinn
et al. 2011). According to Simchi-Levi et al (2008), there are many challenges in the system such as cost
minimization while maintaining service level. Those issues need not only technical solutions but also
require various interpersonal skills - such as conflict management, mentoring, or coaching - for dealing
with other people who have different perspectives and diverse cultures. Unsurprisingly, these challenges
are caused by business complexity goals. Theoretically, managerial complexity – based on company
direction – is mentioned by Quinn et al (2011). There are four models of managerial mission i.e. Human
relations model, Internal process model, Rational goal model, and Open systems model. Managers have
to weight of emphasis for each model to achieve the overall mission. Consequently, various
interpersonal skills would be applied for matching a particular goal. For example, an innovative company

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might focus on creativity, motivation, or empowerment but less tight control policy – Internal process
model – which is opposite section of Open systems model.

Undoubtedly, there is positive correlation between soft skills and successful organisation. According to
Australian Workforce and Productivity Agency (2013), there is the result of Australia service sector
survey. The result is every one dollar was spent by the high-performance companies, which had the
leaders who focused on people skills more than others about 20 percent in average, generated income
12 percent more than others.

Justify Management Skill

To choose the right managerial skill for development, the learners must understand the nature of their
own personal characteristics. My personality assessment results, which used several kinds of
techniques, were shown and also there are some attitudes of each result, especially, the opportunity of
improvement s are described as follows;

1) Personal and associate’s assessment which can be found in Carlopio and Andrewartha
(2012, p. 43) was chosen. It includes a self-assessment and three more associates – people
who know you well. In this case, an ex-boss, an ex-colleague, and an ex-subordinate were
selected to see the differential perspectives with my managerial techniques. The result was
summarized as follows (see more details in appendix 1),
1.1) General Summary
a) Self-Assessment’s score = 379, Colleague’s score = 356, Subordinate’s score = 363,
Boss’s score = 302.
b) The strengths are self-awareness, building effective team, and managing conflict,
respectively.
c) The weaknesses are managing stress, communicating supportively, and motivating
others, respectively.
1.2) Overall Analysis
a) I may be bias for rating extremely both of positive and negative. Moreover, the
associates probably have hesitation for rating the extreme negative marks for their
close friends.
b) Balancing relationship between working perspective and personal relationship
among co-workers, subordinates, and bosses is vital for me.
c) The gap of overall score between optimistic and pessimistic perspective is very
large. There are many factors that I can take them into account for personality
development.
2) According to StandOut of Buckingham (2011), the writer’s strengths are connector and
advisor, respectively. The detail of the assessment report was elaborated in appendix 2.
2.1) Overall Summary
I am a connector and an advisor, respectively.

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2.2) Overall Analysis

a) In personal belief, this is true but, actually, I love being an advisor more than a
connector. To be the great advisor, there are many obstacles which must be solved
such as specialist skill finding, confidence, and so on.
b) According to the connector type, one of the main characteristics is optimistic with
others. Unfortunately, from previous working environment, I have become slightly
pessimistic about how people responded while working as a team. Consequently, it
was uncomfortable to connect that kind of people.
3) Carl Jung’s and Isabel Briggs Myers’ personality test is one of the most popular. The detail of
assessment report was shown in appendix 3.
3.1) Overall Summary
My personality type is INFJ with introvert (33%), intuitive (25%), Feeling (12%), and
Judging (67%).
3.2) Overall Analysis
a) According to Myers, P.B. & Myers, I.B. (1995), it is true that the extraverted feeling is
the auxiliary need – such as social relationship – which is important for me. Unluckily,
it has become weaker because I have not had social relationship enough in Sydney.
b) According to Myers, P.B. & Myers, I.B. (1995, p. 154-161), “there are some negative
characteristics of INFJ which I would like to correct it such as have trouble with
remembering names and faces, dislike taking time for precision, often let decisions
be influenced by their own or other people, and may postpone unpleasant jobs”. One
of the suitable career paths for INFJ is specialist such as internal medicine.
4) The Big Five is one of the chosen techniques. The result is attached on appendix 4.
4.1) Overall Summary
40% of Extroversion was moderately low, 60% of Orderliness was moderately high, 38%
of Emotional Stability was moderately low, 66% of Accommodation was moderately
high, and 58% of Inquisitiveness was moderately high.
4.2) Overall Analysis
a) All characteristics seem to be moderate – except the emotional stability – This may
mean I could balance well between personal and working perspective.
c) Low emotional stability; this is true because I am willing to do his best for achieving
my goal. I will assess all potential risks then try to make the best decision by having
less negative impacts. Moreover, I am enthusiastic and quick responding for every
activities which are important for me.
5) The last personality assessment report came from Manpower Company in 2010 which is one
of the most popular online career centers. The report was shown on appendix 5.
5.1) Overall Summary
a) The highest score is emotional stability – cautious with 86.55%
b) The lowest score is emotional stability – adaptable with 25.50%
5.2) Overall Analysis
For the adaptability, if any change that caused unpredictable result and could have
widely negative impacts from the worst case scenario, this would be anxious for the

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writer. Even I have worked as a project coordinator for ten years but I always studied
feasibility of each new project before committing.

My further career ambition has two possible options. Firstly, I want to have own business or
entrepreneur. For example, merging my experience with IT then become an IT service provider for
businesses or consultant. However, this needs to extend working experience and strong IT business
partner. Lastly, working as an employee is inevitable for next couple years because of collecting money.

From previous assessments and career ambition, I chose to develop mentoring and coaching from
strength to excellence because this is the career ambition. This skill must be useful for helping people
learn to achieve their goals which is beneficial for work performance. The reason of rejecting the
development of the weaknesses – such as managing stress – is timeframe issue. Moreover, in personal
belief, beginning by learning from the simplest case is more effective than starting with complex case.

Pinpoint of the nominated skill which have influenced your past approach.

I elaborated it by giving some examples of critical situations as follows;

1) In 2005, I was working at Japanese’s electronic manufacturing company, which had 7,000
employees, as a senior quality engineer. At that time, cost saving was one of the vital issues
and employee involvement was essential. The president assigned three persons from
different departments to go and learn at the cost saving technique and other courses at
customer plant in Japan. When I came back, there was much pressure to start something
from the management level and three of us hesitated to be the project leader. I decided to
handle it. I created new procedures, formats, teaching, and coaching 3,000 employees to
start their own improvement project. As a result, the company has saved $60,000 annually.
The pinpoint was awareness that I had to teach them, if I wanted to achieve this project.
2) In 2011, I was working at a small electronic Korean company as a QMR which stand for
Quality Management Representativeness. I had to implement ISO/TS16949 which is the
most difficult system for the automotive sector. I had eight months of timeframe otherwise
the company would lose the first automotive customer which we could not afford it.
Employees did not have any experience or even knowledge about this management system.
I had to foster them by providing outside training, coached them how to apply the
knowledge to their work. Eventually, we managed it and was certified this system. The
fundamental of my thought was the requirements of the system itself.

Issues, questions or problems for further investigation about mentoring and coaching

1) What is the most effective technique of mentoring and coaching for INFJ?
2) Is there any technique of mentoring or coaching difficult people and how?
3) What factors make a mentor or a coach more respectful for a listener?

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Reference

Australian Workforce and Productivity Agency, 2013, ‘Future focus: 2013 National Workforce
Development Strategy’ viewed 14 August 2013, <http://www.awpa.gov.au/our-work/national-
workforce-development-strategy/2013-workforce-development-strategy/Documents/
FutureFocus2013NWDS.pdf>

Carlopio, J., Andrewartha, G. (2012) ‘Developing Management Skills: A Comprerhensive Guide for
Leaders’, 5th edn, Pearson Australia: Frenches Forest.

Doyle, A. 2013, Top 5 Most Important Soft Skills, viewed 14 August 2013,
<http://jobsearch.about.com/b/2013/08/08/top-5-most-important-soft-skills.htm>

Jobsdb 2013, The Most In-Demand Skills of 2013, viewed 14 August 2013,
<http://sg.jobsdb.com/SG/EN/Resources/JobSeekerArticle/the_most_in_demand_skills_of_2013?
ID=1912>

Myers, I.B. & Myers, P.B. (1995) ‘Gifts Differing: Understanding Personality Type’, 1st edn, Davies-Black
Publishing, USA.

Quinn, R., Faerman, S., Thompson, M., St. Clair, L. (2011) ‘Becoming A Master Manager: A Competing
Values Approach ’, 5th edn, John Wiley and Sons, USA.

Rasul, M.S, Rauf, R.A.A, Mansor, A.N. 2013, ‘Employability Skills Indicator as Perceived by Manufacturing
Employers’, Asian Social Science, vol. 9, no. 8, pp. 42-46

Simchi-Levi, D., Kaminsky, P., and Simchi-Levi E. (2008) ‘Designing and Managing the Supply Chain:
Concepts, Strategies, and Case Studies’, 3rd ed. McGraw Hill.

Appendix