Developing Effective Management Skills

The objective of any employee in an organization is to manage the resources under him including people to achieve the goals of the organization. In order to manage the resources of the company in an effective manner, an employee needs certain skills. The objective of this program is to impart certain basic skills to the employees so that they are able to manage the resources of the company in an effective manner. This program is a flexible program offering the understanding of various management concepts necessary to enhance the management skills of employee for performance improvement. The topics included in the program will depend on the needs of the company. The details of the standard program are given below.

(a)What is professionalism?
Lack of professionalism is what leads to most of the conflicts, delays in decision making and customer (internal & external) dissatisfaction in an organization. But what is "professionalism?" Most people have misconception of what professionalism is. Our definition of professionalism is that "all decisions should be made in the best interest of the organization even if it hurts an individual's personal interests." Our definition suggests that teamwork would be "automatic" and there will less conflict in an organization. Automatic teamwork will lead to higher levels of customer (internal & external) satisfaction. In addition, a manager will be able to lead his team in an effective manner if he acts professionally. Apart from being motivational, discussion on this topic will generate an awareness among the participants that all decisions and actions should be taken in the best interest of the company which is critical for customer (internal & external) satisfaction and for the success of any organization.

This definition also serves to bring home the point that we need to serve our internal customers including subordinates properly ignoring the biases, the petty politics and egos. So long as the work to be done or information to be obtained is in the best interest of the company, the same should be done. This will lead to automatic external customer satisfaction.

(b) Importance of Customer Satisfaction (Internal & External) "A Different Perspective"
The cost of attracting a new customer is estimated to be five times the cost of keeping a current customer happy. It requires a great deal of effort to induce satisfied customers to switch away from their current suppliers. Unfortunately, most marketing theory and practice center on the art of attracting new customers rather than retaining existing ones. The emphasis traditionally has been on making sales and transactions rather than building relationships. The focus has been on pre-selling and selling rather than on caring for the customer afterward.

Importance of retaining customers through customer satisfaction will be highlighted by discussing an example whereby a successful company can grow without any marketing effort. In fact, it will be suggested that such a company can eliminate the marketing department completely. It is found that this example generates a lot of discussion among the seminar participants and ultimately the participants realize the importance retaining customers with higher levels of customer satisfaction and effective after- sales-service. All employees play a key role in retaining customers. Similar there is a cost of internal customer dissatisfaction. When the work of the company is delayed or the quality suffers because one internal customer has not satisfied another internal customer, the cost of such an action ultimately results in the following :

• Losing a customer
• Increasing the cost of product or service of an organization which would ultimately result in losing a customer.
• Low quality of service again resulting in losing a customer.

We hope after discussing this concept, the participants will increasingly become more aware of the need to increase internal customer satisfaction which can automatically result in higher level of external customer satisfaction. External customer satisfaction will be automatic with higher levels of internal customer satisfaction.

SESSION 3/4
Good interpersonal relations between the employees helps getting things on time resulting in internal and external customer satisfaction. Good interpersonal skills are essential for achieving this. It is important what you say but how you say it is critical. Some simple thoughts on how to build relationships with internal customers will also be discussed.

Second Day

(a) Delegation
One of the major reasons why managers are not effective is because they are afraid to delegate. This session will assist managers in understanding the benefits of delegation and how it can assist them in becoming more effective.

(a) Time Management
Even though, we all know time is important yet most of us do not how important it has become in the current high tech world. In today's world, the next source of competitive advantage for a company could lie in nano-seconds or minutes. The basic concept behind all the technological improvement is how to save time. In most organizations, more than 80% of the time is spent on activities which add no value. The ultimate goal of all organised activities is to create and add value greater than the cost of producing it. The results achieved will to a great extent depend on the way time is spent. Also, one of the greatest difficulties people face is how to manage their own time effectively.

This session is designed to motivate people to achieve better results and get more out of life by using time and talent effectively.
(b) "Reminders" - How they waste time?
According to the experience of our Director, Avinash Narula, "reminders" are the major time wasters in an organization. "Reminders" also waste the time of an individual irrespective of whether he is receiving a reminder or sending a reminder. As such, this session will discuss with examples about how "reminders" waste everybody's time and how tremendous amount of time can be saved just by eliminating and / or reducing the need for sending and receiving reminders.

(a) Team Building
With the globalisation of Indian economy, the level of competition is increasing at an exponential level. To meet the challenges of globalisation and increased competition, it is necessary that employees cooperate with each other in order to meet the challenges posed by fast changing technology and marketplace. In addition, the decision making is becoming more complex requiring the input of various people who have the expertise in different areas. As such, in most organizations it is no longer possible to work single handily. One requires persons from other functions and specializations to cooperate and collaborate to achieve the objectives of an organization. The employees of an organization have to work as a team to achieve success not only by themselves but also for the organization.

This session is designed to increase the importance and awareness of the benefits of teamwork in an organization among the participants and providing the necessary inputs to assist the participants to become effective team players.

(b) Leadership - Characteristics and Attributes
In order to be an effective manager, a manager should develop and acquire leadership skills. Characteristics and attributes that managers need to acquire in order to become effective leaders with be discussed. The contents will have an appropriate mix of theory and practical applications with more emphasis on the later. In order to make the program more interesting, we will incorporate some games/activities. The training program will be highly interactive, that is, participants will be involved in discussion.

Format
The contents will have an appropriate mix of theory and practice with more emphasis on the later. The training program will be highly interactive, that is, participants will be involved in discussion. The Trainer will use examples from his own experience as a business executive and entrepreneur to illustrate and strengthen understanding of the subject.