Strategic Operations Management
Part A: Reflective analysis
Personal skill to be developed: Effective Communication Skills for strategic operations management.
Introduction
It is the duty of Strategic Operations Manager to examine their organizations to determine the underlying strengths and weaknesses as well as the operational opportunities beneficial to the organization once undertaken. Strategic operations managers make recommendations on the different internal and external factors affecting the organization to minimize risks and establish the appropriate corresponding remedies to achieve the organizational goals (Kieran et al., 2020). T effectively carry out these duties; a strategic operations manager needs to have undisputable communication skills. With effective communication skills, strategic operations managers can effectively motivate organizational teams and boost their morale towards goal achievement; effective communication helps solve organizational conflicts, communicate organizational goals, coordinate different departments of the organization and improve general organization’s output.
Effective strategic communication is instrumental in delivering vital information to crucial organizational stakeholders. With the prevailing market trends due to globalization and technological advancement, different business operations are interconnected through strategic communication (Wolniak, 2019,p1-4). With effective communication, a strategic operations manager will understand the effectiveness of delivering crucial business-messages to crucial audiences for the intended outcomes. Improving my communication skills as a strategic Operations Manager will help me master the different communication patterns applicable to diverse audiences in the organization for extracting expected feedback.
Effective communication is the backbone of effective strategic operations management. For the success of organizations, communication should be sufficient. Different undertakings in the organization are conducted via communication. It’s through communication that various departments within the organization are harmonized to work towards a common applicable organizational goal (Huanchu and Power 2016,p.69). Communicating procedures and passing orders to different levels of staff members within the organization requires effective communication skills as a strategic operations manager.
Organizations need effective communication platforms for dealing with legal affairs facing the organization. Business and the law go hand in hand. Organizations need effective communication channels for addressing legal issues facing the organization and its undertakings; for instance, in cases of conflicts between the organization and the surrounding community, or disputes between the organization’s undertakings and legal dilemmas (Teck and Karuppiah 2020,p.20-24). To effectively solve the legal issues facing the organization, which are critical determinants to the organization’s survival, the organization’s strategic manager must have effective communication skills; otherwise, the organization will shut down under legal matters.
This paper seeks to address the importance of effective communication skills as a strategic operations manager, the criteria for acquiring and improving communication skills as a strategic operations manager, and indicate how effective the efforts have been in improving my communication skills, which are a crucial necessity for organizational strategic managers.
Methods of improving communication skills as strategic operation managers
When addressing issues at an organizational level, focus on the issue, not the person. Strategic operations managers are obligated to solve conflicts and discuss different aspects of different stakeholders in the organization. To effectively address these issues and gain the effective communication skills needed for a strategic operations manager, when solving problems, especially through verbal communication, I focused more on the issue rather than the person presenting the issue (Lindberg et al. 2017, p7-10). Focusing more on the person deters you from addressing the issue effectively due to attitude and pre-judgments. When you focus on the issue rather than the person, you learn how to handle different clients and satisfy them despite their social ranks. This helps you as a strategic operations manager to be capable of solving various conflicts despite their positions.
Cultural competence is instrumental in acquiring effective communication skills for strategic operations managers. The cultural disparity is a significant hindrance to effective communication at organizational levels. As the organization’s strategic operations manager, I deal with many clients from different cultural backgrounds. It’s through cultural competence that effective communication can take place, which is significant for the organization’s undertakings (Rupp 2019,p447-450). To gain effective communication skills, I had to be culturally competent; being capable of striking effective communication processes with clients from different cultural backgrounds successfully. As a strategic operations manager, lacking cultural competence will hinder effective communication between organizations and clients from different cultural backgrounds, which will be advantageous to the organization’s competitors.
To gain effective communication competence as the organization’s strategic operations manager, try to be genuine rather than manipulative. Upholding the values of honesty and integrity play a significant role in winning the trust of your juniors and other members of the staff (Turner et al. 2017). To improve my communication skills as a strategic operations manager, I had to focus on upholding honesty and integrity, which entails telling issues as they are, not as you want them to be. By upholding honesty and integrity, you gain the communication skill of speaking truth, which is instrumental in gaining trust from other organizational members, motivating teams, and solving conflicts in the organization. The duties of the strategic operations manager become easier to execute when he has the junior staff’s backing, which is difficult to secure with poor communication skills, untrustworthiness, dishonesty, and low levels of integrity.
To gain effective communication skills as a strategic operations manager, Empathize instead of remaining detached. The disparity is a crucial aspect of organizational success. As the organization’s strategic manager, gaining effective communication skills, entails upholding diversity, and empathizing with other people’s opinions rather than being detached (Englefield et al. 2020, p18-21). By actualizing this skill, the strategic operations manager motivates staff members by helping them bring out the best in themselves, build strong organizational teams, and acknowledge each member of the organization’s contribution, which makes organizational goals achievable.
As the organization’s strategic manager, flexibility is crucial for acquiring effective communication skills. Flexibility in communication entails exercising the freedom of thought and liberty of thinking as the organization’s strategic operations manager. This entails being capable of accommodating different views and opinions from different organization’s stakeholders. It’s through the different views that creativity, innovation, and the disparity is achieved in an organization, which transforms into a fast achievement of the organization’s goals (Voight et al. 2017). To achieve this flexibility, which is a significant attribute of effective communication, I had to attend many meetings with different clients from different ranks and departments, then try to stay objective, not tight-fisted to my ideas only, but also being open to criticize and build on the opinions of others. Besides, by attending meetings with different clients, you learn different things from different subjects in management. For instance, by attending H.R. meetings, you understand H.R. dynamics among other departments, making you competent to communicate effectively with people from these distinct departments, fastening the achievement of the organization’s goals.
To gain organizational communication competence, a strategic operations manager should aim to earn respect and not just talk for the sake. As a strategic operations manager, you conduct different formal communications involving the organization (Goldenhar et al. 2019,p263-266). To gain communication competence and improve my communication skills, I had to focus on talking to earn respect, rather than engaging in more informal communication patterns. Communicating to earn respect entails being objective, open-minded, and molding the communication to stay business-oriented.
Importance of effective communication skills in improving productivity
It is through effective communication channels and processes that organizations can have excellent employee relations. Strategic operations managers need effective communication skills to communicate with different clients at different organizational levels effectively. At an organizational level, strategic operations managers use effective communication skills to break down communication barriers, establish a conducive organizational environment, to create functional teams and to motivate them (Nabi et al. 2017,p2). Effective communication is essential for coordinating the different organization’s departments to achieve the organization’s goals. Through effective communication skills, senior organization staff like strategic operations manager can disseminate duties and orders to the junior team, give directives and supervise efficiently. Besides, it’s through the latter that strategic operations managers master different dynamics of communication, like upward and downward organizational communication. Through excellent employee relations, staff members can raise their issues, resolve conflicts appropriately, and make achievable goals.
Effective communication is essential for improving the organization’s overall performance. Strategic operations managers are the backbone of an organization’s success. With effective communication skills, strategic operations managers will clearly communicate the organization’s strategic plans, mission, organizational culture, and goals; moreover, disseminating duties will be made easier (Ozyilmaz and Taner, 2018,p 10-15). Through effective communication, the strategic operations manager can identify employees’ weaknesses and organize for training, aimed at improving the organization’s general productivity. Effective communication is the backbone of successful business organizations.
Effective communication helps organizations withstand global competition and helps organizations cope with the prevailing market trends like globalization. With the prevailing market trends like globalization, organizational strategic operations manager must possess excellent communication skills to enable the coordinate employees from different multicultural demography to create a robust workforce needed for the organization’s goals achievement (Udin et al. 2019,p 11-117). If the organization’s strategic operations manager has excellent communication skills, the organization will attract qualified personnel from diverse cultural backgrounds, hence increasing competence and creativity in the organization, which is instrumental for organizational growth and goals achievement.
Robust communication skills help strategic operations managers solve multigenerational issues in organizations. Conflicts result when employees from different generation setups find themselves working together in organizations. Besides, as a strategic operations manager, you need effective communication skills to help you communicate effectively with employees older than you and those younger than you; without making them feel offended or looked down upon Khosravi et al. 2019,p 545-549). With this communication prowess, strategic operations managers effectively handle multigenerational issues in the organization effectively. For instance, Generation X and Generation Y will not get along with millennials in a working environment; effective communication skills are therefore essential to solve these issues, motivate them, communicate the organization’s goals and get them working together for the common organizational goal.
Effective communication increases accountability in organizations, which is essential for improving the organization’s general productivity. When the strategic operations manager has excellent communication skills, clear instructions are issued and issues well-articulated; hence employees know what is expected of them, which increases accountability, thus transforming into increased output (K.H.A.I.N.G. et al. 2019). When instructions are issued clearly, employees become aware of what is expected of them. With the motivation resulting from effective downward communication, employees surpass their senior’s expectations, hence improving the organization’s overall productivity.
Effective communication empowers employees and increases transparency, which leads to increased productivity. Through empowerment, employees’ output is boosted. The more informed employees are, the more productive they will be. With effective communication skills, strategic operations managers communicate essential aspects of tasks to be undertaken by employees, which builds their confidence and makes them feel trusted by the organization, hence increasing their motivation, which transforms into enhanced productivity. Furthermore, those employees with prior knowledge of how to complete a specific task feel motivated to undertake it (Mavuso and Agumba, 2016). Companies that are transparent with their employees and empower their employees through effective communication channels are more productive.
Effective communication helps establish and maintain the organization’s healthy culture. Strategic operations managers are obligated to communicate the organization’s culture to new employees in the organization. To effectively communicate the organization’s culture to new employees, strategic operations managers require excellent communication skills. A healthy organizational culture is instrumental in the organization’s success. A conducive working environment is based on effective communication in the organization. Creating a healthy business atmosphere largely depends on the organization’s strategic operations manager’s capability to communicate effectively, minimize flaws in the organization, and improve productivity. If the strategic operations manager has poor communication skills, employees will find it difficult to confront him and ask for clarifications and express their opinions, which will result in a weak organizational culture, and a bad business environment, which hinders improved productivity.
Effectiveness of selected methods for improving my communication skills as a strategic operations manager
Upholding cultural competence as a vital aspect of effective communication has been instrumental for me when handling cross-cultural issues. To improve my communication skills, I adopted cultural competence as a strategic measure for the latter. The strategy has been instrumental for me when handling cross-cultural matters in the organization. For instance, there is increased productivity due to increased satisfaction levels of employees from foreign cultural backgrounds. Through cultural competence, I can comfortably communicate with these employees, listen to their complaints, express their ideas, and understand them, which makes them feel trusted and essential to the organization, increasing their motivation, which transforms into increased productivity.
Trying to be genuine rather than manipulative when improving communication skills helps become a good leader. Using the approach of being genuine rather than manipulative to enhance my communication skills helped me become an excellent organizational leader, who is not political. Addressing issues genuinely rather than being manipulative helps win the trust of liberal stakeholders in the organization, and helps provide appropriate solutions to the problems at hand. Being manipulative entails avoiding the truth, and luring the majority for your selfish gains. Manipulative leaders do not offer solutions to the organizational issues; instead, the problems pile up, putting the organization at the risk of collapsing. Politically-oriented corporate leaders aim at securing their job positions by being manipulative when communicating. The approach of being genuine when talking rather than being manipulative has helped me gain the trust of key stakeholders and has provided long-term solutions to many underlying problems in the organization, like handling complaints from foreign employees.
Flexibility in communication has helped me coordinate different departments in the organization. Flexibility is an approach that is used to improve my organizational communication skills as the strategic, operational manager. Flexibility in communication entails the versatility to effectively communicate with people from different contexts and share meanings comfortably. As the strategic, operational manager, flexibility in communication helps me coordinate various departments in the organization to work towards achieving the common dream. For instance, it’s my obligation to coordinate the H.R. department, the Marketing department, and other departments in the organization to ensure activities are running smoothly in the organization. Without flexibility in communication as a strategic operations manager, I will find it challenging to communicate effectively with these departments, resulting in a weak organizational culture and a bad working environment, which hinders organizational success.
Empathizing, instead of staying detached, is a significant aspect of effective communication. The method helps you learn to listen to other people’s opinions, which increases creativity and motivation among the junior employees. One way of enhancing inclusivity and promoting diversity in organizations is by listening to different views from all staff members and allowing each employee to air their ideas. This approach leads to increased diversity and creativity, which is essential for organizational well-being. Besides, empathizing with junior employees as a communication strategy makes them feel valued and necessary to the organization, which increases their motivation and transforms into an increased output per employee.
Focusing on the issue rather than focusing on the speaker helps strategic operations managers give the most appropriate solutions to the problems at hand. To improve my communication skills, I adopted the approach of focusing on the issue and not the speaker when communicating. As the organization’s strategic operations manager, you make decisions against your will and the good of the organization. Focusing on the speaker rather than the issue will make you as the strategic operations officer judge based on the other party, not the organization. When you focus on the speaker, such aspects like cultural differences and attitudes may influence the communication process negatively.
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