THREE SKILLS OF A GENERAL MANAGER
Technical skills are the ability to apply the specialised procedures, techniques and knowledge required to get the job done. Technical skills are most important for team leader and lower level managers. (Williams and mcwilliams2010), in Virgin airline Australia company there are many people have technical skills, for example the internal communications specialist ,they need have very strong communication skills, because their job is developing and executing an integrated internal communications strategy, and ensure all communications and materials effectively reflect Virgin Australia’s key message. They have strong desire to work and they are very hard working. They also have very strong organizational skill they will organisation the job very well, they belive that , they are the important part of the Virgin their working can help Virgin group develop in a better way.
Human skills are the ability to work well with others and encourage others to express their thoughts and feelings, are sensitive to others need and viewpoints and are good listener and communicators (Williams and mcwilliams2010). Richard Branson is the CEO of Virgin group. He is a very successful businessman, because he found the biggest individual group in Britain. In his new book, he said that “Virgin way is about listening, learning, laughing and leading. The one of the key to doing way we do things is nothing more complex than listening, listening intently to everyone.”(George2014). Sometimes he will stops people where they work and ask them some questions. He will listen to employees, because he reckons that listening can help learning from the employee. He also encourages employees to work in other Virgin companies. “I like to encourage all our employees to apply for jobs at other Virgin companies that they find interesting.”(Richard 2012). “To be truly inspiring for employees, he launched the shot-in-the-arm business in earlier 2012 which is retaining the core-value of the rest of the company. Branson also gives staffs unlimited vacation days, if the employee feel hundred per cent will finished work and not damage the business they can get the vacation without application.” (Time 2014)
Conceptual skills are the ability to see the organization as a whole ,understand how the different parts affect each other and recognize how the company fits into or is affected by its environment. (Williams and Mcwilliams2010) Now people do not only want to travel on earth, they also want to travel out of earth. Richard has decided to work on space travel, he predicts future Virgin Galactic developments, as well discussing growth around the world. (Virgin travel, 2011) Richard will lead the company to create the space voyage to people who want to have a space trip. The sky is not the limit that some people want to travel, but they can’t afford it. He thinks that this area have a lot of possibilities and it is also a huge business opportunities for Virgin group. He also predicts they will be the only commercial space company in the world, before 2016. This will explore a new business area for Virgin, also according to Richard’s words “l think the world will be a better place in 10 years’ time than it is today, the star are certainly looking a little closer already.”(Hall, S. 2014).
Reference list:
- Bradt, G. (2014). The Virgin Way: Richard Branson's Leadership. Retrieved from https://www.td.org/Publications/Blogs/Management-Blog/2014/09/The-Virgin-Way-Richard-Branson-Leadership
- Branson, R. (2012). Richard Branson on Inspiring Employees. Entrepreneur. Retrieved from http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/224932
- Frizell, S. (2014). Business Magnate Richard Branson Gives His Staff Unlimited Vacation.TIME.com. Retrieved from http://time.com/3431284/business-magnate-richard-branson-gives-his-staff-unlimited-vacation/
- Hall, S. (2014). The future of space travel: Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic to-do list - Virgin.com. Virgin.com. Retrieved from http://www.virgin.com/travel/the-future-of-space-travel-richard-bransons-virgin-galactic-to-do-list
- Preston, J. (2015). Richard Branson: how to energise your employees - Virgin.com. Virgin.com. Retrieved from http://www.virgin.com/entrepreneur/richard-branson-how-energise-your-employees
- Virgin Australia. (2015). Job details - Business Improvement Specialist | Virgin Australia. Retrieved from http://careers.virginaustralia.com/cw/en/job/495939/business-improvement-specialist
Williams,C. and McWilliams,A. ( 2013) MGMT: (2nd Asia Pacific Edition), South Melbourne Vic.: Cengage Learning
Paris, April 30th 2015