Daily activities of a manager

Follow and observe a manager during his or her daily activities. Make a list of the activities he or she engaged in and determine the proportion that can be classified in terms of the four management functions, three managers skills and Mintzberg’s management roles.
Daily Activities of a Manager
There are several activities which a manager performs depending upon the types and size of business. The most common of the activities of the business manager includes:
Team building
Holding staff meetings
Appreciating subordinates
Balancing books
Delegating tasks to subordinates
Asking for employee’s feedback and inputs
Encouraging the employee to utilize their talent
Communicating honestly
Acting in accordance with the goals and objectives of the business
Four Management Functions
Four management functions include:
i. Planning
Defining goals for workers, departments and organization
Setting goals and objectives for employees
Setting overall strategies for the organization
Developing a hierarchy of plans to coordinate and integrate activities
ii. Organizing
Determining the activities required to be done
Assigning tasks to subordinates
Team building for appropriate tasks
Who needs to report whom
What types of the decision to be made (decentralized or centralized)
iii. Leading
Directing employees
Motivating employees
Resolving conflicts
Selecting effective channels of communication
iv. Controlling
Comparing actual performance with the desired performance
Monitoring overall performance of an organization
Rectifying deviations (Stimpson, 2010)
Three Managers Skills
Three essentials skills for managers were first identified by Robert Katz. They are:
i. Technical Skills
ii. Conceptual Skills
iii. Human Skills
Mintzberg’s Management Roles.
Henry Mintzberg has proposed three managerial roles. They are:
i. Interpersonal Roles
Leadership- train, motivate, hire and discipline subordinates
A liaison-contacting outsider for information related to the organization
Figurehead- performing symbolic and ceremonial duties
ii. Decisional Roles
Entrepreneur- must bring new business opportunities
Disturbance handler- having commands of dealing with an uncertain and unexpected situation
Resource allocator- must have the ability to locate resources required to execute business opportunities
iii. Informational Roles
Monitor- collecting relevant information from both in and outside the organization
Disseminator- communicating the information to the other members of the organization
Spokesperson- having the ability to represent the organization positively to outsiders (Stimpson, 2010).