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What are the traits of Great Manager?


Buckingham (2005) argued that mediocre managers play checkers, great managers play chess, and great leaders lead people toward a better future. Average managers consider their subordinates as similar pieces, black or white, and they will try to mold them toward ideal employees, as the managers think. On the other hand, great managers recognize different strength and weakness of their employees, similar to different pieces in the chess game which have different movement capability. In addition to that, great leaders are the one who is selfless, empowering personnel and team, developing leaders, make people as a priority, develop visions, and able to bring their subordinates to better future (BlueSteps, 2010, June 3). Leader and manager need different skills set.
Buckingham’s metaphor above adequately describes and differentiate the above managers and leadership role. Treating employees as a similar individual is an inheritance from the industrial revolution period, when the labor’s tasks were standardized and repetitive, hence labor was considered more like tools or machine, instead of humans. This is easier since one manager perhaps can manage hundreds of employees and treat them the same. In opposite, it is more difficult to become great managers. After recognizing their employees’ differences, great managers will need to facilitate them to perform, according to their particular traits, strengths, and weaknesses. To do this, the great managers will need to do extra works than the average managers, since they sometimes will need to change and redesign the tasks, to match with the employees’ skill set and traits. However, if they succeed, they will unleash the maximum potential for their employees, which eventually will improve their organization’s performance. On the other hand, leaders are someone who has visions which are followed by others. Leaders lead by example and always strive to bring change, to make their followers better.
Is the same set of qualities required for a manager are also required for a project manager? Not really. The project manager has a finite timeline to finish his/her tasks while the department manager has an ongoing process (Edmunds, 2019). The department manager should have a long-term vision, to develop his/her department, while project manager focuses on short-term goals, to finish his/her project as per scheduled time, budgeted cost, and defined scope/quality. Moreover, usually, employees work under department manager and only work temporarily under a project manager. Therefore, a project manager should understand office politics and able to tackle it, while department manager should at least has a working knowledge of each job each of his/her department members performs (Edmunds, 2019).
In conclusion, it is not easy to become great managers, however, it is worth to try since employees, organizations, even the world will get great benefits from it. Treating employees similarly has been outdated, nowadays the world becomes more inclined to humanism, which recognizes and appreciate differences among employees.
References
BlueSteps. (2010, June 3).  What Makes a Great Leader? 12 Key elements of Leadership Success. Retrieved from: https://www.bluesteps.com/blog/12-key-elements-of-leadership-succes.aspxBuckingham, M. (2005) What Great Managers Do.  Harvard Business Review. Retrieved from: https://hbr.org/2005/03/what-great-managers-doEdmunds, S. A. (2019). Difference Between Managing a Project & Managing a Department. Retrieved from https://work.chron.com/difference-between-managing-project-managing-department-1356.htmlxx

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