Analysis and Summary: Principles of Management

The document discusses the challenges of developing leadership skills in technology companies given the task-oriented nature of tech workers and fast pace of growth. It provides several recommendations for technology firms to improve leadership including formalizing leadership development processes, focusing on data to initiate programs, valuing leadership equally to technical skills, engaging tech professionals through practical training, and encouraging coaching. Overall the key is for tech companies to establish formal leadership training and reward programs as they mature to retain talent and improve organizational performance.

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Analysis and Summary: Principles of Management

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ANALYSIS

ANALYSIS AND SUMMARY

PRINCIPLES OF MANAGEMENT Assignment #01 The article By ROBERT M. FULMER AND BYRON HANSON states the issue that its difficult to develop leaders in technology sector. It was concluded that the speed of the industry's growth, along with the type of workers it attractsyoung and with backgrounds in engineering and sciencedoes, indeed, lead to some unique challenges. The article offered several ways to improve leadership in an organization. Leadership is the ability to guide a group towards the achievement of goals. There are several ways in which a company can improve its leadership skills, and train people accordingly. Firstly its essential to formalize the system. Many high-tech companies are young, so their systems and procedures for grooming leaders aren't well developed. As tech companies grow and mature, the need to set up more formal leadership-development processes becomes crucial to retaining key employees. The difficult part is to decide the right time to do it. Tech companies that wait too long, risk disorganization and the loss of good people. But those that put formal systems into place too soon risk restricting the entrepreneurial climate that is a founding principle of successful high-tech start-ups. Deciding the right time is crucial for any organization. A Successful company will know when the companys performance is worsening. Secondly it is crucial to Focus on Data. While in other industries, data is important in several departments, tech professionals require details too. They simply love it. This can be use to initiate leadership development at these firms. One of the most efficient ways to improve leadership skills in employees is to measure the dedication with which they try to improve the careers of others. Measurement can be done is two ways, either calculating the percentage of managers tasks and the tasks completed or it can include a detailed analysis analyzing environments created by leaders in a firm. More over it is extremely essential to Value Leadership. Helping tech professionals see the value in leadership can be difficult. People who are tech professionals are more task-oriented. They get more satisfaction by building new products; therefore it will be difficult to change their work style to managing people. As a result, they may be reluctant to give up hands-on involvement in day-to-day projects. To fix this, tech companies need to create a corporate culture in which leadership is rewarded and respected as much as technical expertise. Managers who see themselves primarily as technical experts are less likely to spend time developing subordinates than those who see leadership as their main role. In addition, most people will listen differently to feedback from a person they view as a team leader as opposed to someone they view as a technical colleague. Another important way is to engage the Audience. Tech professionals are smart, practical and also fast learners. They switch from one concept to another quickly; therefore it is essential to make them learn

ANALYSIS

the fundamentals of leadership. More over they wont be keen on learning concepts on leadership, for this reason companies should design courses that match to their standards and also fulfill the purpose of learning. That should include real world problems and simulations. Getting senior executives involved in trainingnot as talking heads but as teachers and facilitators who add value through their experience, observation and feedbackalso is valuable. Lastly it is essential to Encourage Coaching. It is an important tool for developing effective leaders. And usually tech companies have difficulty in establishing coaching programs which are effective. The main reason for this issue is that these companies employ and reward people who are the smartest and not those which help counseling lower level team members. If these companies want to encourage effective coaching and mentoring, they need to reward and give recognition to people for doing it. It would serve as motivation. Some tech companies have embraced "peer coaching"an approach in which colleagues in similar positions work together for a few days and then provide feedback to each other on what they observed. A peer-coaching relationship places coaching at a collegial level rather than at a leader/subordinate level, which can be more easily accepted and respected in a technology-company culture. Peer coaching can remove some of the baggage that goes along with receiving coaching from your boss. The feedback tends to be based on "what I've seen here," rather than "who you are."

Analysis: I agree with the article that it is hard to have good leadership skills in technological firms since employees and managers of such firms are task oriented rather than relationship oriented. Task oriented are those people who focus on work task while relationship oriented are those people who focus on inter personal relationships. It is extremely crucial to have leaders in an organization because they are people who have set and defined goals for others to follow. Leaders lead an organization and help others to follow and improve their performance. The ways mentioned in the article will help technological companies to improve leadership skills. However I also believe that a leader should act according to the situation as well. A person who is relationship oriented is not a good leader. A person who is relationship oriented and also acts according to the situation is an effective leader. Moreover efficient training programs must be determined. It is important to identify the specific behavior or diagnostic skills that the trainee lacks. If leaders are to be successful in a program that involves a substantial change in behavior, they must see the merit in learning new leadership behaviors and perhaps abandoning old behaviors. For a leadership program to be successful it is important that it should be conducted regularly and also evaluations should be conducted regularly to see its effectiveness.