Organizational Behavior - CD-vel [antikvár]

What Defines a Successful Manager? Meet Lakshmi Gopalkrishnan (see photo). She has undergraduate and master's degrees in English from Delhi University and Georgetown University, respectively,and is completing her Ph.D. in English at the University of Washington. In 1995, she began working for Microsoft in Redmond, Washington. Lakshmi currently manages a team of 16 full-time employees and a varying number of contractors in Denmark, North Dakota, and Washington. She oversees a team of Web designers and marketing specialists; and she is responsible for marketing and Web strategy on a range of Microsoft products and solutions. "My background is basically journalism," says Lakshmi."But I think I'm effective as a manager because I've developed my skills at managing individuals and teams. I've learned the importance of creating a compelling vision, the need to hire complementary skills, and how to inspire and challenge my team. For instance, I've learned that a clear and compelling vision inspires people to be part of something bigger than themselves. I've also learned that it takes time to understand what motivates each person. Each person brings a highly subjective lens to work every day, and it's important to understand differences. With senior contributors, for instance, my value might be limited to providing appropriate 'air cover' in negotiations. With more junior employees, I need to be much more hands on." Lakshmi Gopalkrishnan has learned what most managers learn very quickly: A large part of the success in any management job is developing good interpersonal, or people, skills. Managers need to be technically proficient in their area of expertise, but technical knowledge is not enough. Successful managers, entrepreneurs, and employees also need interpersonal skills in order to work with others.^ ¦