Hi,

The challenges faced by a manager in the twenty first century differ greatly from those of previous decades. Where once it was commonly held knowledge that the managers main focus was that of recruiting and controlling staff and other corporate resources available to achieve the organisations objectives, whether it be maximizing profit or increasing market share, in todays working environment the managers function in the organization has discernibly altered from that of previous times. Dynamic changes in this centurys working environment due to rapid

Todays managers face rapidly changing conditions--flatter organizations, virtual teams, doing more with less, temporary structures, employees with different values and life-work style preferences. How effective these managers manage spells the difference between the profitable and the also ran organizations. Are you or your managers making the adjustment and transition to this new role, these new demands or, are you stuck in the past? Although not exhaustive, this quiz tests eleven important skills for contemporary managers by assessing the degree to which you practice these skills. The more honest you are in this self evaluation the more valuable the results for your growth and development or, the growth and development of the managers in your organization. To what extent would others describe you in each of these eleven skills areas:

The 7 Biggest Challenges of a Manager

by Harwell on November 11, 2009 2 comments in Careers,Leadership,Management Ive previously written about why you might want to be a manager and the 13 skills needed by a manager. This article explains the seven biggest challenges faced by a manager. 1. Achieving a Stretch Goal The organization youre managing is responsible for something whether its performing a business process, supporting some other organization, developing a new product, or getting new customers. There are goals associated with your objectives, and if your organization is aggressive then those goals require more than the typical amount of effort. Its going to take some careful planning for you to figure out how to apply your organizations people and resources to achieve an aggressive goal. Youre going to have to motivate people, remove roadblocks from their path, and focus them on the things that are most important. Its a stretch goal, but you can achieve it maybe even surpass it.

2. Bringing Out the Best in Your Employees All employees have good days and bad days. Some of the causes are out of your control. But its important that you take steps to make as many days as possible good days. Here are some of the things that you can do:

Treat every employee with respect. If you have praise for the employee, give the praise in front of coworkers. If you have criticism for the employee, give it in private. For all but the worst underperforming employees, make sure that the praise happens much more often than the criticism. Help employees align their personal goals with their work goals. Talk with each employee about his or her personal goals: what they want to get out of life, where they want their career to go. To the extent possible, use this information to help you allocate work assignments. Provide a work environment that is appropriate for the work and conducive to employee well-being. A comfortable work environment makes your employees more productive. Encourage employee communication and cooperation. For example, in one of my management jobs, I held a monthly lunch for my employees. During the lunch I updated them on any company news Id heard, and I had some of the employees describe their recent work and some of their challenges. We also had a series of awards. But these were not your typical awards. Each award was given by the previous award recipient to someone who exemplified the spirit of the particular award. There was a Gumby award (a Gumby character) given to the most flexible employee, and other awards for things like putting the team ahead of yourself, most creative outside-the-box idea, and unluckiest employee. Employees sometimes even created their own one-time awards when something special or unusual happened. Over time the number of awards grew, and the interchange of enthusiasm and ideas made the organization a happy and fun place to work.

3. Dealing with Underperforming Employees Not all of your employees will do their best. Some will have personal issues that interfere with their work. Technically its not your problem, but in reality any issue that contributes to an underperforming employee is your problem. Youll help employees cope with personal issues, youll provide motivation and counsel, maybe steer them to appropriate resources inside or outside your company. Youll carry your underperforming employees to a point, and then beyond that point youll have to ease them out of your organization. Youll be humane, but you have to balance the needs of the organization with the needs of the employees. 4. Dealing with Outstanding Employees Some of your employees obviously outperform the others. Thats good news for your organization, but it presents its own set of challenges. Outstanding employees need special treatment. You want them to keep doing an exceptional job but that usually means that youll have to pay them special attention. They need recognition for their talents and efforts. They need encouragement, training and guidance. And above all they need to know that they have a career path in your company, even if that career path takes them out of your organization.

Youll be tempted to hold on to your outstanding employees and keep them from being promoted out of your organization. You shouldnt do that. When an employee star outgrows your organization, the best thing for your company is to make sure that the employee finds a home in another part of your company where he or she can continue to contribute. And ultimately, youll be rewarded for your good deed of helping the employee achieve his or her potential. Your reputation as a team player and good manager will grow, and your own career will be enhanced. 5. Hiring the Right People No matter how happy your employees are, youll get occasional turnover. And if your organization is successful then youll often find that your budget and headcount will grow as you are assigned more and more responsibility. Either way, youll need to hire. Hiring is easy, but hiring the right person is extremely difficult. The trick in hiring is to get an understanding of how an employee will actually perform the work not just how the employee does in interviews. Interviews are seldom a good predictor of work and work habits, so going beyond the interview is crucial. Ive sometimes used unconventional interviewing techniques. Ive done the traditional interview, but then Ive tried some things that gave me a better feel for how the interviewee will perform in an actual work situation. For example, for some programmer positions, I had the prospective employee spend some time with his/her future coworkers, going through a task that the current employee was doing. Getting feedback from the current employee (who had a vested interest in finding someone who would carry a part of the workload) made a big difference in our choice for some potential new hires. And the process also increased our acceptance rate for job offers, since the job applicants had a better feel for the environment into which they were being hired. 6. Responding to a Crisis No matter how much planning you do, things will go wrong. An employee will get sick at a critical time. A weather disaster will hit your facility and disrupt your plans. A crime will be committed maybe a theft or even something that harms an employee. Planning is a part of managing, but perhaps more important is a managers ability to change plans on the fly in response to changing conditions. When a crisis hits, you have to be able to deal with it calmly, quietly and without being overwhelmed by stress. 7. Continuous Improvement No matter how good your organization gets, it can do better. Theres always some type of improvement that can be made: a change in a process, a better working environment, better employee motivation, more focus on the essentials. If you ever get to the point where you honestly have no idea how to improve things further, then you should either (a) seek outside advice, or (b) look for another job. Theres always a better way, and you have to keep looking for it.

Conclusion Management is complicated. It requires skill and motivation. But most of all it requires commitment the commitment needed to rise to these seven challenges.

Expectations For a Manager

During the 30 years I spent running papers I discovered some characteristics that I found valuable for my department managers to possess. I didnt want them to just be a boss. I expected them to be leaders. My expectation for the management staff was high and I was seldom disappointed. I always clearly shared my expectations with them and they responded. My staff and management were always highly regarded in the office, in the community and in the industry.

I want to share with you some of my expectations for managers and supervisors as they lead the people at your newspaper and shopping guide.

Be a Positive Leader You will set the tone for the entire staff in your department. If you are down and acting as if you are fighting against the world your staff will feel that same way. Your example is the personality reflected throughout the entire department. I expect you to be a positive leader. You are always setting an example for your staff to follow. Is it a good example, or a bad example?

Be a Follower As the manager and leader it is your responsibility to see that everyone follows the procedures set by our management team. This is difficult at times, especially if you dont agree with the procedures. You should share your opinions when the policy is being set. However, once the policy or procedure is set it is your responsibility to make sure it is followed.

Be a Teacher Help your staff learn to do their job better. Share the workload without being the one who does all the work and keeps all the glory. Generally, people like to work hard and be a valuable contributor to the success of the business. After all, this is their place of employment too. They like to work for a successful business and they love to contribute to that success. Encourage them to learn more about their work. Give encouragement to those who perform well. Reprimand those who do not perform well. Nobody likes to work with a slacker. The workload has to be picked up by those who are performing well. It is not fair to punish people for doing their job well to cover for those who arent carrying their load.

Be a Student Always schedule time to study. You must try to improve your personal performance by learning to do your job well. As a manager, your job is to accomplish the goals of the company through people. Getting things done through people is a complete description of a manager. Spend time reading and doing research to improve your management skills.

Change Everything Never accept the answer That is the way we have always done it. Be willing to improve every way we do business. In order to remain competitive in todays marketplace we must be ready to change the way we do business in an instant. Always look for a better way. Always justify the expense. Make the task more efficient. Make the task easier. Make the task less costly. Improve working conditions. Improve the quality. Always justify the expense. Always look for a better way.

Never Compromise Integrity - Always be fair. Treat staff and customers with respect. Treat them the way you expect to be treated. Always be honest. Never lie to a staff member, customer, supervisor or yourself. Always be nice. You can create enemies with your attitude. You can also create friends with your attitude. Always respect your staff. Loyalty and dedication to the job come from loyalty and dedication to the boss. These attributes come from the example you set. Are you loyal and dedicated? Most importantly, do you appear loyal and dedicated? Your actions are under constant scrutiny. Never speak a bad word about your staff, your customers or your company and its management.

Dave Baragrey is a business consultant and sales trainer for Publishers-Edge, a Special Section syndicate for print and on-line special sections, and Consulting business specifically designed to help newspapers and shopping guides. Website www.Publishers-Edge.com, www.Coupon-America.NET and www.SpecialSectionOnLine.com E-mail dbaragrey@Publishers-Edge.com Leadership Quotations

Managers are people who do things right, while leaders are people who do the right thing. - Warren Bennis, Ph.D. "On Becoming a Leader"

Leadership is the desire and ability to inspire individual achievement, while a leader is just a guy at the top of the heap worried about his own - Keith Mullen

The best example of leadership, is leadership by example. - Jerry McClain of Seattle, WA

If it's a good idea, go ahead and do it. It is much easier to apologize than it is to get permission. - Admiral Grace Hopper

The most important quality in a leader is that of being acknowledged as such. - Andre Maurois

You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing you think you cannot do. - Eleanor Roosevelt

Leadership in today's world requires far more than a large stock of gunboats and a hard fist at the conference table. - Hubert H. Humphrey

All of the great leaders have had one characteristic in common: it was the willingness to confront unequivocally the major anxiety of their people in their time. This, and not much else, is the essence of leadership.

- John Kenneth Galbraith, U.S. economist, "The Age of Uncertainty"

The real leader has no need to lead - he is content to point the way. - Henry Miller

It's amazing how many cares disappear when you decide not to be something, but to be someone. - Coco Chanel

Most of the ladies and gentlemen who mourn the passing of the nation's leaders wouldn't know a leader if they saw one. If they had the bad luck to come across a leader, they would find out that he might demand something from them, and this impertinence would put an abrupt and indignant end to their wish for his return. - Lewis H. Lapham

Leadership consists not in degrees of technique but in traits of character; it requires moral rather than athletic or intellectual effort, and it imposes on both leader and follower alike the burdens of self-restraint. - Lewis H. Lapham

I am a leader by default, only because nature does not allow a vacuum. - Bishop Desmond Tutu

If one is lucky, a solitary fantasy can totally transform one million realities. - Maya Angelou

People ask the difference between a leader and a boss. . . The leader works in the open, and the boss in covert. The leader leads, and the boss drives. - Theodore Roosevelt

The final test of a leader is that he leaves behind him in other men the conviction and the will to carry on. . . . The genius of a good leader is to leave behind him a situation which common sense, without the grace of genius, can deal with successfully. - Walter Lippmann

There is no such thing as a perfect leader either in the past or present, in China or elsewhere. If there is one, he is only pretending, like a pig inserting scallions into its nose in an effort to look like an elephant. - Liu Shao-ch'i

Our flag is red, white and blue, but our nation is a rainbow-red, yellow, brown, black and white-and we're all precious in God's sight. - Jesse Jackson (b. 1941), U.S. clergyman, civil rights leader. Speech, 16 July 1984.

If you obey all the rules, you miss all the fun. - Katharine Hepburn

E pluribus unum. (Out of many, one.) - Motto for the Seal of the United States. Adopted 20 June 1782, recommended by John Adams, Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson, 10 Aug. 1776, and proposed by Swiss artist Pierre Eugene du Simitiere. It had originally appeared on the title page of the Gentleman's Journal (Jan. 1692).

If we cannot end now our differences, at least we can help make the world safe for diversity. - John F. Kennedy (1917-63), U.S. Democratic politician, president. Speech, 10 June 1963, American University, Washington, D.C., on Russo-American relations.

In organizations, real power and energy is generated through relationships. The patterns of relationships and the capacities to form them are more important than tasks, functions, roles, and positions. - Margaret Wheatly Leadership and the New Science

Whoever is careless with the truth in small matters cannot be trusted with the important matters. - Albert Einstein

Life is change. Growth is optional. Choose wisely. - Karen Kaiser Clark

The quality of leadership, more than any other single factor, determines the success or failure of an organization. - Fred Fiedler & Martin Chemers Improving Leadership Effectiveness

Don't be afraid to take a big step when one is indicated. You can't cross a chasm in two small steps. - David Loyd George

There is no contest between the company that buys the grudging compliance of its work force and the company that enjoys the enterprising participation of its employees

- Ricardo Sempler

Excellence is not an accomplishment. It is a spirit, a never-ending process. - Lawrence M. Miller

The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality. The last is to say thank you. - Max DePree

When what you are doing isn't working, you tend to do more of the same and with greater intensity. - Dr. Bill Maynard & Tom Champoux Heart, Soul and Spirit

Every organization must be prepared to abandon everything it does to survive in the future. - Peter Drucker

A friend of mine characterizes leaders simply like this: "Leaders don't inflict pain. They bear pain." - Max DePree

Ah well! I am their leader, I really ought to follow them! - Alexandre Auguste Ledru-Rollin

Dictators ride to and fro upon tigers which they dare not dismount. And the tigers are getting hungry.

- Winston Churchill

A new leader has to be able to change an organization that is dreamless, soulless and visionless ... someone's got to make a wake up call. - Warren Bennis

I used to think that running an organization was equivalent to conducting a symphony orchestra. But I don't think that's quite it; it's more like jazz. There is more improvisation. - Warren Bennis

When the effective leader is finished with his work, the people say it happened naturally. - Lao Tse

Most of what we call management consists of making it difficult for people to get their jobs done - Peter Drucker

I start with the premise that the function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers - Ralph Nader

Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity - George Patton

To lead people, walk beside them ...

As for the best leaders, the people do not notice their existence. The next best, the people honor and praise. The next, the people fear; and the next, the people hate ... When the best leader's work is done the people say, "We did it ourselves!" - Lao-tsu

Unless commitment is made, there are only promises and hopes... but no plans. - Peter Drucker

Hell, there are no rules here--we're trying to accomplish something. - Thomas A. Edison

Good plans shape good decisions. That's why good planning helps to make elusive dreams come true. Lester R. Bittel The Nine Master Keys of Management

Never mistake knowledge for wisdom. One helps you make a living; the other helps you make a life. - Sandra Carey

Understanding human needs is half the job of meeting them. - Adlai Stevenson

Leadership is understanding people and involving them to help you do a job. That takes all of the good characteristics, like integrity, dedication of purpose, selflessness, knowledge, skill, implacability, as well as determination not to accept failure. - Admiral Arleigh A. Burke

Lead and inspire people. Don't try to manage and manipulate people. Inventories can be managed but people must be lead. - Ross Perot

We must become the change we want to see. - Mahatma Gandhi

Drowning in data, yet starved of information - Ruth Stanat in The Intelligent Organization

A competent leader can get efficient service from poor troops, while on the contrary an incapable leader can demoralize the best of troops. - General of the Armies John J. Pershing

The quality of a person's life is in direct proportion to their commitment to excellence, regardless of their chosen field of endeavor. - Vincent T. Lombardi

Where there is no vision, the people perish. - Proverbs 29:18

I have lived some thirty years on this planet, and I yet to hear the first syllable of valuable or even earnest advice from my seniors. - Henry David Thoreau

Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless. - Mother Theresa

An empowered organization is one in which individuals have the knowledge, skill, desire, and opportunity to personally succeed in a way that leads to collective organizational success. - Stephen R. Covey, Principle-centered Leadership

Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power. - Abraham Lincoln

One can never consent to creep when one feels an impulse to soar. - Helen Keller

It is important that an aim never be defined in terms of activity or methods. It must always relate directly to how life is better for everyone. . . . The aim of the system must be clear to everyone in the system. The aim must include plans for the future. The aim is a value judgment. - W. Edwards Deming

The very essence of leadership is its purpose. And the purpose of leadership is to accomplish a task. That is what leadership does--and what it does is more important than what it is or how it works. - Colonel Dandridge M. Malone

We know not where our dreams will take us, but we can probably see quite clearly where we'll go without them. - Marilyn Grey

It is not a question of how well each process works, the question is how well they all work together. - Lloyd Dobens and Clare Crawford-Mason Thinking About Quality

Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

The leader has to be practical and a realist, yet must talk the language of the visionary and the idealist. - Eric Hoffer

In war, three quarters turns on personal character and relations; the balance of manpower and materials counts only for the remaining quarter. - Napoleon I

To manage a system effectively, you might focus on the interactions of the parts rather than their behavior taken separately.

- Russell L. Ackoff

The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them. - Albert Einstein

The final test of a leader is that he leaves behind him in other men the conviction and will to carry on. - Walter J. Lippmann

Leadership should be born out of the understanding of the needs of those who would be affected by it. - Marian Anderson

You may have afresh start any moment you choose, for this thing that we call 'failure' is not the falling down, but the staying down. - Mary Pickford

People are more easily led than driven. - David Harold Fink

Leadership has a harder job to do than just choose sides. It must bring sides together. - Jesse Jackson

What is character but the determination of incident

what is incident but the illustration of character? - Henery James

The trouble is, if you don't risk anything, you risk even more. - Erica Jong

No man will make a great leader who wants to do it all himself, or to get all the credit for doing it. - Andrew Carnegie

The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality. - Max DePree The Art of Leadership

Processes don't do work, people do. - John Seely Brown

Leadership is practiced not so much in words as in attitude and in actions. - Harold Geneen

The task of the leader is to get his people from where they are to where they have not been. - Henry Kissinger

The quality of a leader is reflected in the standards they set for themselves.

- Ray Kroc, Founder of McDonald's

Jingshen is the Mandarin word for spirit and vivacity. It is an important word for those who would lead, because above all things, spirit and vivacity set effective organizations apart from those that will decline and die. - James L. Hayes Memos for Management: Leadership

Uncertainty will always be part of the taking charge process. - Harold Geneen

Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration. - Thomas Alva Edison

You can use all the quantitative data you can get, but you still have to distrust it and use your own intelligence and judgment. - Alvin Toffler

Remember that it is far better to follow well than to lead indifferently. - John G. Vance

The only real training for leadership is leadership. - Antony Jay

Quality has to be caused, not controlled. - Philip Crosby Reflections on Quality

Probably my best quality as a coach is that I ask a lot of challenging questions and let the person come up with the answer. - Phil Dixon

Don't be afraid of the space between your dreams and reality. If you can dream it you can make it so. - Belva Davis

The future is taking shape now in our own beliefs and in the courage of our leaders. Ideas and leadership -- not natural or social 'forces' -- are the prime movers in human affairs. - George Roche, A World Without Heroes

The art of leading, in operations large or small, is the art of dealing with humanity, of working diligently on behalf of men, of being sympathetic with them, but equally, of insisting that they make a square facing toward their own problems. - S. L. A. Marshall Men Against Fire

And when we think we lead, we are most led. - Lord Byron

Never hire or promote in your own image. It is foolish to replicate your strength and idiotic to replicate your weakness. It is essential to employ, trust, and reward those whose perspective, ability, and judgment are radically different from yours. It is also rare, for it requires uncommon humility, tolerance, and wisdom. - Dee W. Hock, Fast Company

All serious daring starts from within. - Eudora Welty

. . . As we, the leaders, deal with tomorrow, our task is not to try to make perfect plans. . . . Our task is to create organizations that are sufficiently flexible and versatile that they can take our imperfect plans and make them work in execution. That is the essential character of the learning organization. - Gordon R. Sullivan & Michael V. Harper

In matters of style, swim with the current; In matters of principle, stand like a rock. - T. Jefferson

If you think you can do a thing or that you cannot do a thing, in either case you are right. - Henry Ford

When nothing is sure, everything is possible. - Margaret Drabble

Think of managing change as an adventure. It tests your skills and abilities. It brings forth talent that may have been dormant. Change is also a training ground for leadership. When we think of leaders, we remember times of change, innovation and conflict. Leadership is often about shaping a new way of life. To do that, you must advance change, take risks and accept responsibility for making change happen. - Charles E. Rice, CEO of Barnett Bank

Give us the tools, and we will finish the job. - Winston Churchill

Not everything that is faced can be changed. But nothing can be changed until it is faced. - James Baldwin

The world is round and the place which may seem like the end, may also be only the beginning. - Ivy Baker Priest

There can be many challenges that an HR manager has to face:

# Managing Change: As the organiations are going Global this is one problem faced by many organisations of manging the change in the organisation and how to make people acquanted with the changes.

# Work Culture: Due to acquisition and mergers taking place it becomes important for the HR Manager to develop the work culture.

# Ethics and Values: In the times when we are getting more professional and narcissist, it is very important to have Ethics and values to be in place which also in the long run decides the sustainability of the organisation.

# Managing low attrition rate: More competition also adds to high attrition. Now here is the opportunity for the HR manager to play safe and introduce good retention strategies.

# Balancing work and personal life: Huge responsibility is on the shoulder of an HR Manager to create a balance between the work life and personal life by flexi work hours, paternity leaves (Yes it is what most companies are starting) and vacations are some of the options in hand.

# Stress and Conflict: Long working hours, target pressures, high competition etc adds stress and conflicts in the Organisation. It is the duty of an HR Manager to have proper responses to the stress and conflict before it causes damage to someones' personality.

# Consultative approach: Developing continuous dialogue, open communication, participative decision making is very important for implementing consultative approach. It is an HR Manager who can facilitate such approach to procure participative and democratic culture.

# Restructuring Organisation: As the trend is changing so the organisation structure. The organisation are getting more flatter and simpler.

# Globalisation: Companies are going global due to which the workforce diversity is increasing. Managing these people with different religious, cultural, moral background is a challenging task for the HR Managers in 21st Century.

Hope all these guldelines will help you in your project. You can search for all these topics individually on Google and citehr for more information.

Cheers

Archna Mattamkiran Subject - Re: Problems & Challenges facing the HR Manager in 21st

Hi Karuna,

This is beautiful presentation on challenges to be faced by HR. I got this from our cite HR itself. So, go through this presentation and see if it can be helpful for you....

Also, I am attaching the file HR predictions, also check if it can be useful. It is forecast of HR functions. Go through them to see if you can make out some points from them.

The important thing is, both the files, I got from CITEHR.

THREE CHEERS to CITEHR......

More at http://www.citehr.com/10646-problems-challenges-facing-hr-manager-21stcent.html#ixzz1XM2YW5q8

Students should seize the opportunity at the right time and come out with quick solutions. Only those who are able to innovate or invent would emerge successful, he said.

The world is still recovering from the dregs of recession. Now is the time for implementing the idea of job creation or getting into fields not thought of earlier. Earlier, a management degree was done to enrich only function management skills. But today, it calls for soft-skill development so that managers can get into any field. Students should be resilient. They should consider jobs in sectors that were previously untouched and bring in the cutting-edge knowledge into sectors unexplored before, he said.