| Module 6: Occupational Health Management - Section 7: Principles of Management |
| OHM 7.2: Qualities of a Manager |
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Cognitive complexity.
This is the ability to handle complex situations, with lots of contradictory information and a variety of perspectives. This is the ability to seek out information even if that information creates contradiction and ambiguity. It involves thinking strategically and being able to integrate information in a way appropriate to the context. Cognitively complex managers are able to sweep in a number of perspectives and are not fixed in their thinking and narrow in their views. All of us tend to work off a fixed set of assumptions that influence how we interpret the world. We need to challenge these assumptions and ensure that other perspectives are included before taking decisions. Managers need to be aware of the Mental models that they hold and how this influences their decisions and actions. This in turn will influence how they make sense of the world and make decisions.
Communication:
This is not only about language proficiency, but an awareness of how one communicates, the body language used, the level of language and jargon used and at times the patronising attitudes adopted towards those who are not proficient in one’s own language. This involves treating others as adults and with dignity and respect. It involves the ability to give and receive critical feedback.
Authenticity:
Managers are required to be aware of their personal thoughts, feelings and assumptions - and to be genuine. It is important to be mindful of how one’s own feelings and assumptions can influence a situation. The authentic person is a real person with integrity, who can manage anger, frustration and disagreement whilst maintaining dignity and integrity of the other person. Refer to: "The Ladder of Inference".
Empathy:
This is the ability to enter into another’s situation in a way that allows for fuller appreciation of the other person’s position. This is about understanding - not about agreement, sympathy or judging.
Active listening:
Active listening involves the process of listening to and thinking through alternative approaches to precisely identify positions before taking a decision.
Self esteem:
Self esteem is a quality that involves self respect, but not to the detriment of others. It combines a sense of pride in one’s own strengths coupled with a realistic acknowledgment of one’s own weaknesses. It involves an ability to learn from mistakes and failure and grow through a process of critical awareness. Such a person will radiate humility and not arrogance.
Risk taking:
Managers need to be willing to take stretching but reasonable risks in order to achieve their personal goals and the goals of their organisation. This requires a willingness to be flexible, and open and to expose oneself to a variety of perspectives. It also requires a willingness to make mistakes and to allow subordinates to make mistakes in order for learning and development to occur.
Tolerance of ambiguity and contradiction:
This quality requires the ability to endure, with patience, equivocal, indistinct and contradictory situations. It involves the need not to have to understand everything that is happening in a particular situation in order to feel secure as well as the ability to accept (rather than the need to solve) contradiction.
These qualities are consistent with ensuring a management style that would ensure that interpersonal relationships are of an "adult-adult" nature (as opposed to resorting to "adult-child" or "child-child" interactions). They are essential to facilitating staff development and motivation, conflict resolution, reduction of stress and ensuring that the manager does not loose focus on the goals of their organisation/service.
These are deeply held, often subconscious sets of assumptions about how the world works. They affect our perception and evaluation of the situations we encounter. They ensure we use the least mental effort, which leads to using stereotypes and using rules of thumb. Although we are often capable of great creative leaps, most of the time our thinking is pretty "conditioned", our ideas follow well-defined tracks, inroads in our minds that we have built there through:
We need to be mindful of how our mental models affects our thinking and aware that other people might hold different mental models to ours. This does not make them wrong and should not be judged for holding a different view. The challenge is to embrace this diversity of perspectives and see it as a potential for bringing out new and creative ways of thinking and acting.
