MANAGING PEOPLE
VOCABULARY
Management is nothing more than motivating other people.
Lee lacocca, US industrialist
STARTING UP
A) What qualities and skills should a good manager have? Choose six most important from the list. To be a good manager you need to: like people, enjoy working with other, give orders, listen to others, make suggestions, judge peoples abilities, plan ahead, be good with numbers, make good presentations, be persuasive
B) If you are managing people from different cultures, what other qualities and skills do you need?
LISTENING
GOOD MANAGERS
A) Nigel Nicholson is Professor of Organisational Behaviour at the London Business School. Listen to the first part of the interview and complete the notes, using up to three words each time. Managers of people 1. To be a good manager, you need to understand that there are themes which , such as families, or the fact that everyone wants to make a difference and needs to be respected. 2. In addition, you also need to understand how everyone is to the way you, as a manager, are. 3. The secret is to try to know what the world looks like of another person. 4. In order to do that, you need to be very good at asking questions and .
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MANAGING PEOPLE
VOCABULARY
B) Listen to the second part of the interview. Decide which statement best summarises Nigels view of the changes in the way people behave at work. 1. 2. 3. 4. The time people spend reflecting unfortunately reduces the amount of work they do. People have to spend more time at work and are therefore under a lot of pressure. People live very fast but should not forget to take time to stand back and reflect. If people live too slowly, they cannot see whether what they are doing fits into a bigger picture.
C) Listen to the third part of the interview. Decide whether these statements are true (T) or false (F). 1. 2. 3. 4. Cultural differences are entirely superficial. Individual differences between people are more important than cultural differences. When you work in another culture, you realise that all people are the same. You have to remember that people are unique and different individuals.
D) Work in pairs or in small groups. Discuss these questions. 1. What would you find difficult if you had to go and work in a very different culture from your own? 2. What advice would you give to a foreign manager who is going to manage staff in your country?
VOCABULARY
VERBS AND PREPOSITIONS
A) Verb and preposition combinations are often useful for describing skills and personal qualities. Match the verbs (1-7) with the prepositions and phrases (a-g). A good manager should: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. respond listen deal believe delegate communicate invest a) in their employees abilities b) to a deputy as often as possible c) to employees concerns promptly d) with colleagues clearly e) with problems quickly f) in regular training courses for employees g) to all suggestions from staff
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MANAGING PEOPLE
B) Which do you think are the most important qualities in Exercise A?
VOCABULARY
C) Some verbs combine with more than one preposition. For example: He reports to the Marketing Director. (to a person) The Sales Manager reported on last months sales figures. (on a thing) Say whether the following combine with someone or something. Someone 1. a) report to b) report on 2. a) apologise for b) apologise to 3. a) talk to b) talk about 4. a) agree with b) agree on 5. a) argue about b) argue with D) Complete these sentences with suitable prepositions from Exercise C. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. I agreed her that we need to change our marketing strategy. I talk my boss every Monday at our regular meeting. We argued next years budget for over an hour. He apologised losing his temper. We talked our financial problems for a long time. The Finance Director argued our Managing Director over profit sharing. I apologised Paula for giving her the wrong figures. 8. Can we agree the date of our next meeting? Something Both
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MANAGING PEOPLE
TRANSCRIPTS: 9.1 9.3 I: What do managers need in order to be good managers of people?
VOCABULARY
N: They need to understand that there are things that motivate everyone and these are some very familiar, common themes like, people care about their families, peopleeverybody wants to make a difference, everybody needs to be respected. But then the most difficult thing is to understand how everybody is unique and different, and different to the way you, as a manager, are. And the secret here, therefore, is to try to know what the world looks like from, through the eyes of another person, of each other person who reports to you. In order to do that, you need to perfect the art of asking questions and listening to people, and asking not just any questions but questions that really tell you about what a person's drivers, unique motivators are, and what a person's concerns are in this situation that you share. I: What changes haw you noticed recently in the way people behave at work? N: Er, I think we, everything is moving much faster. We used to be, er, going at 50 kilometres an hour, and now we're going at 150 kilometres an hour. People are doing, trying to do more and more in less and less time. And the most important thing is to stand back and take a, a strategic view, as from a helicopter, you might say, to see where what you're doing fits into a bigger picture, um, and to make time to reflect. We don't reflect enough - it's one of the things that gets driven out, gets destroyed by the amount of time pressure that we're under. So standing back is what I would recommend people to do. I: Managing international teams can present particular problems. How can managers prepare themselves for this? N: The hardest thing of course is to figure out what you take for granted that other people don't take for granted. Er, we, and it's because we take it for granted that we don't even think about it - the assumptions that we make. You step into another culture and you need to realise that you might understand what you don't take for granted any more, but do you understand how much other people are taking for granted in the new culture? Otherwise, you know these cultural differences, although they are very important, to some extent are superficial. The real differences are still the important differences between people. You go and walk, work in another culture and just because people look the same through your eyes, that doesn't mean to say they are the same. They are unique and different individuals and you really need to remember that.
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