3.4. People in charge of big business empires may be re-ferred to, especially by journalists, as magnates, moguls or ty-coons. Who are (or were) these famous businesspeople (a–f)?
media}shipping magnate oil |
moviemedia mogul shipping |
property software |
a
press
tycoon
) Randolph Hearst (1863–1951) b) Masayoshi Son (b. 1957)c) Rupert Murdoch (b. 1931)
d) Aristotle Onassis (1906–1975) e) J. Paul Getty (1892–1976)
f) Donald Trump (b. 1946)
3.5. Discuss the following questions with your partner:
1. Who are your country’s most famous enterpreneurs? What are they famous for?
2. Are leaders born with leadership skills or can such skills be learned?
3. What are the characteristics of a true leader?
4. Universities, hospitals, banks and government are known to require the bureaucratic type of leader in its organizations to en-sure quality, increase security and decrease corruption. Do you agree with such decision?
5. Why is the charismatic leadership style good for employ-ees that needs close supervision to perform certain tasks?
6. Is the democratic type of style recommended or not when decisions are needed in a short period of time or at the moment?
7. Do you think you have the qualities of a good manager / leader?
8. Would you be authoritarian or approachable?
7
3.6. Complete the following article with your own ideas. Be ready to make a project ‘a Manager of the XXI century’:
The most important contribution that psychology has made to the field of business over the past years has been in determining the key traits of acknowledged leaders. Psychological tests have been used to determine what characteristics are commonly noted among successful leaders. This list of characteristics can be used for devel-opmental purposes to help managers gain insight and develop their leadership skills.
The increasing rate of change in the business environment is a major factor in this new emphasis on leadership. While in the past, managers were expected to maintain the status quo in order to move ahead, new forces in the marketplace have made it necessary to expand this narrow focus. The new leaders of tomorrow are vi-sionaries. They are both learners and teachers. Not only do they foresee important changes in society, but they also have high ethical qualities and work to build integrity in their organizations.
The traits of an effective leader include the following. 1. Emotional stability
2. Dominance 3. Enthusiasm 4. Honesty
5. Bravery
6. Practicality
7. Self-assurance 8. Prudence
9. High energy 10. …
4. TIME MANAGEMENT
Text 4
Read the text and remember words and word combinations in bold type:
In any business, it is important that managers should be ef-fective. They must be able to achieve their objectives, and to ‘get the right things done’. The problem is that there are so many pres-sures on managers, reducing their efficiency. For one thing, their
8
work is fragmented. Most days, they are doing a number of tasks, some fairly trivial, others highly important.
The manager also faces another difficulty. He finds that other people take up a lot of his time, so that he has little time of his own. He must constantly respond to the demands that others make on his time.
Things do not get better as he climbs higher in the organiza-tion. In fact, they get worse. The higher he goes, the more demands will be made upon his time.
Effective managers learn how to manage their time. They cut out unproductive activities. They never forget that time cannot be replaced.
Before being able to control his time, the manager must find out how he is actually using it. He must know where it goes. The best way to do this is to record how he uses time. The usual meth-od is to log the tasks he performs. Either he or his secretary keeps an exact record of how he spends his working day or week. The manager should not rely on memory when logging time. One way of logging time is to note down all the activities and indicate how long they took.
This logging of time should be done once or twice a year. It shows the executive how he actually spends his time at work — not how he thinks he spends it.
Once the manager has an accurate picture of how he uses time, he can analyze the time log. This will help him to re-think and re-plan his work schedule.
As a result of this analysis, the effective manager will start getting rid of unproductive, time-wasting activities. He will learn to say ‘No’ more often to people demanding his time. He will start turning down some of those requests to give speeches and attend luncheons. He will, in short, be more discriminating in using time.
He will also get rid of some activities which can be done just as well by someone else. Knowing how to delegate is an essential skill of a manager.
Having recorded and analyzed time, he can now re-shape his schedule. It is up to him how he does this. The manager works out all the jobs he must do in the coming day or week. Then he lists the tasks in order of priority. He also sets deadlines for carrying out the more important activities.
9
Peter Ducker, the American expert on management, believes that effective executives work systematically to manage time. They must acquire this ‘habit of mind’, this ability to use time efficient-ly.