Attributes of a good Manager

University Degree Business and Administrative studies

MGT240 Unit 1 Individual Project

Hiring the good Manager

Keith Rowell

November 20, 2004

Attributes of a good Manager

Customer Service Manager

This position will report direct to the vice president of the Service division. The qualified candidate will possess the follow basic management skills:

Planning – Be able to define the company’s goals and establish strategies to obtain those goals. Must be able to write a comprehensible implementation plan to coordinate the department’s activities.
Organizing – Must be able to recognize what is needed to be done, how it is to be done, and who is going to get it done.
Leading – Must be able to motivate his/her subordinates, while resolving any conflicts.
Controlling – Must be able to monitor assigned tasks and productivity to ensure that they are being accomplished in accordance with company policies.

Conceptual skills: Must have the ability to analyze information/data in order to solve business problems. Must identify and take advantage of opportunities for innovation. Must be able to recognize and identify inefficiencies within the department and implement solutions. Must be able to subtract critical information from massive amounts of data. Must be able to formulate that critical information into some kind of a meaningful report. Most have a working knowledge of systems and today’s technology. Must be able to learn and work within our business model.

Communication skills: Must be able to express his/her ideas through excellence writing skills. Must establish credibility with his/her colleagues, peers, and subordinates. Must be a good listener and know when to ask question. Must be able to prepare and give good presentations. The presentations must be well written and have good supporting graphics.
Effectiveness skills: Must ensure that the company and department objectives are being met in the most effective and efficient manner. Must be able to observe the operation and implement improvements that will increase the efficiency of the process. Must be customer oriented. Must be able to multitask. Demonstrate good negotiating skills. Must set performance standards for both internally and externally. Must have good project and time management skills for setting priorities and activities.

Interpersonal skills: Must have good people skills for coaching and mentoring subordinates. Must have a good understanding of how to work with people of different cultures and gender. Must possess the ability to network within the organization in order to promote harmony between departments.

The following questions are designed in order to demonstrate how the candidate can think on their feet and in a stressful situation. There are no incorrect answers; the answers are only to evaluate how the candidate would react in different situations. The candidate’s answer should indicate how much experience the candidate ...

This is a preview of the whole essay

Interpersonal skills: Must have good people skills for coaching and mentoring subordinates. Must have a good understanding of how to work with people of different cultures and gender. Must possess the ability to network within the organization in order to promote harmony between departments.

To the interviewer: The italic items at the beginning of each question in parentheses are the characteristic that you are looking for in the candidate’s answers. Do not read these items out loud.

(customer focus, interpersonal skills) One of your customer service reps (CSR) has an irate customer on the phone. The customer ordered an item and now they are being told that it is on back order. The customer service rep. can not calm the customer down and the rep is now getting up set too. How would you:

Handle the customer to calm them down?
What would you do to satisfy the customer?
Handle the situation with the customer service representative (CSR)?

(conflict, leadership, interpersonal skills )You have a CSR that is really good at handling their customers, but they can not get a long with the other CSR’s. What action would you take to correct the situation?
(decision making, project management, networking) You are the team leader on a very important project and midway into the project; you realize that you are not going to meet the deadline. What would be your course of action?
(sexual harassment, leadership, interpersonal skills) One of your female CSR’s comes to you and tells you that a co-worker has been sending her emails with sexual jokes in them.

What would be your response to this situation?
Do you find this to be a real problem?
What if the person sending the emails was a very large customer and not a CSR; how would you handle that?

(racial harassment, diversity, leadership, interpersonal skills) You have a subordinate that happens to be from the Middle East and new to our country; you find racial motivated literature being passed around the department directed toward this individual. How would you:

Stop this type of activity in your department?
What would you do if you found out who the person was that was responsible for starting the circulation of this type of materials?
How would you prevent this from happening again?

(ethics) You have been with the company for a long time and have required a large sum of the companies stock through the employee purchase plan. You have been buying the stock for your retirement. You have a very close and personal friend in the finance department and they tell you in confidence that the CEO is going to make a statement to the press tomorrow about the financial state of the company and it is not going to be good news. This news is going to affect the price of their stock. What would you do in the situation?
(motivation, innovation, technology, leadership, interpersonal skills) You are getting complaints from your field sales force that their customers are complaining that they have to wait for a long time on hold before being able to speak to a CSR. When they do get through, to find now that they are at the wrong product group and have to be put on hold again and transferred to that group. You are faced with 2 problems:

One the customers are irate that they have to be on hold for so long and they have to be passed around from one product group to another in order to obtain resolution to their situation. What would you recommend in order to resolve this problem?
Your CSR’s moral is dropping fast because the customers are taking their frustrations out on them. How would you handle this situation?

(product knowledge) A customer had equipment down and needs a tire now. However, the tire that the customer wants is on backorder and it will be 6 weeks before any are shipped. Your company does make several tires in the same size, ply rating, and tread compounds, but in different tread patterns and tread depths. What would you recommend in order to take care of the customer?
(industry knowledge) A customer is looking for a tire for his Cat 992G front end loader. The loader is used in this operation as a production loader and cutting is the number one reason for early tire removal. What TRA tread classification and tire construction would you recommend and why?
(organization, planning, controlling, computer skills) You need phone coverage in the customer service department from 7:00 a.m. (CST) until 7:00 p.m. (CST) Monday through Friday and 7:00 a.m. (CST) until 2:00 p.m. (CST) on Saturdays. You only have 4 CSR’s and the company will not let you hire anymore people right now. The CSR’s are also in the union and their contract states that they will get 15minutes for a break for every 2 hours worked and 1 hour off for a meal for every 4 hours worked. Here is your dilemma:

You have to have phone coverage at all times.
You also have to satisfy the union contract.

In the next office we have a computer setup with Microsoft Excel installed for you. Your task is to setup a spreadsheet that will give you the coverage you need and still satisfy the union contract. You have 45 minutes in which to complete this test. Good luck.

References:

Robbins, Stephen P. and Coulter, Mary. Management, eighth edition. (2005). p.9, p.13 ~ p.23.

Heathfield, Susan M. How to recruit and hire the best: A check list for success. (2004) Retrieved on November, 17, 2004 form website .