Effectively communicating to your employees will result in a more efficient operation and will help achieve the bottom-line objectives of any company, business, or basic interaction. As a manager, your communication skill is critical in directing the actions of your employees. This basic managerial skill course in communication will enable you to become a better manager for yourself, and for your organization. You will learn how to communicate effectively, which will help you to maximize “work through others” to get the job done.

There are many components to communication. Consider verbal communication skills, listening skills, written memorandums/email, telephone skills and non-verbal communication. Also, reflect upon all the people we communicate to: subordinates, peers, supervisors, customers, and groups of people. In addition, ponder some of the reasons, why we communicate: to get and give information, to discipline subordinates, to make assignments, and so on. 

We will not be able to explore every facet and component of communication. Rather, we will focus on the general principles of effective communication that apply to most situations and we will point out important things to remember for some specific situations.  We will use only as much “theory” as needed to gain basic understanding of communication problems. Primarily, we will discuss what you can do to become an effective communicator.

Our Objectives

Upon completion, you will be capable of:

1) Recognizing communication problems and barriers.

2) Implementing techniques to resolve communication problems and barriers.

3) Demonstrating the basic general rules of effective communication.

4) Using special techniques in specific communication situations.

This is designed to do more than just give you information on communicating. Rather, it is set up to teach you skills which you can apply in your day to day routine.

What is Communication?

Communication is simply the sending of a message to another person. The person sending the message first needs to formulate the message in his head. This involves determining the meaning that the sender intends to convey to the other person. To formulate the meaning of the message, the sender usually draws upon his background attitudes, perceptions, emotions, opinions, education, and experience. 

The message is then sent to the listener through both verbal talking and non-verbal gestures. The person receiving this message then interprets its meaning. To do this, the listener uses his background, attitudes, perceptions, emotions, opinions, education, and experience. 

Effective communication exists between two persons when the person receiving the message interprets it in the same way as the sender intended it. Sounds really simple doesn’t it?  Well, it can be.

Who is Responsible for Communicating Effectively?

Managers share the responsibility in communicating effectively with the individual employees themselves. The manager is 100% responsible for communicating effectively with their employees.

This includes establishing an open and trusting climate for communication, as well as demonstrating good communication techniques to their employees. The employee is 100% responsible for taking advantage of the “climate for communication” to express what is important and relevant. For example,it is expected that a manager will ask “are there any questions?” after giving an employee an assignment, but it is also expected that an employee will say, “I have a question”, if one should occur to the employee, without waiting for the manager to ask. 

Why Managers Need to be Effective Communicators?

o Communication is used so frequently that “we cannot afford to do it poorly”.

o Communication has a special power: to create interest, stimulate action, achieve agreement, foster enthusiasm.

o Communication is the primary method that managers use to direct their employee’s behavior.

o Communication is the basis for almost all other managerial skills. It is involved in delegating duties to subordinates, motivating employees, demonstrating leadership  abilities, training new policies and programs, and counseling performance problems, etc.

Barriers to Effective Communication

o Supervisor inaccessible.

o Supervisor buried in work.

o Supervisor always in a hurry.

o Supervisor maintains a pre-occupied expression; little eye-contact with employees.

o Supervisor only informal with his peers or boss (never with subordinates).

o Supervisor tells employees to “write it up” instead of promoting discussion.

o Supervisor never asks, “How’s it going?”.

Where do Difficulties in Communication Arise?

The basic source of misunderstanding between two persons are communication failures that occur when the receiver understands the meaning of a message differently than it was intended. We do not always communicate what we intend.

Communication failures arise when there is a gap between what the sender meant and what the receiver thought the sender meant.

Communication failure can be caused by:

o Being so preoccupied that you do not listen to what other are saying.

o Being so interested in what you have to say that you listen only to find an opening to work your way into the conversation.

o Being so sure that you know what the other person is going to say that you distort what you hear to match your expectation.

o Evaluating and judging the speakers, which makes the speaker guarded and defensive.

o Not being able to “see past the words” and get the emotional message of the sender.

o Not trusting the speaker and becoming suspicious of what is being said.

Setting the Stage for Effective Communication

Even before the first word is uttered, various factors are already at work that can affect the success or failure of our communications.  Let’s examine these factors to see what role they play. 

Communicator’s Appearance

Before we ever say a word, others have been receiving messages from us. We communicate to others just by the way we dress and groom. In the book Dressing for Success, the author notes that other people conclude about 17 different things about us just on the basis of how we appear.

Many businesses utilize a dress code to guide people to the appropriate type of attire. It use to be traditional within the business world for men to wear a coat and tie. This conveys to others that we are professionals. In addition, conservative colors are preferred to more outspoken colors. This communicates seriousness, stability, and a “down-to-business” attitude. Recent changes have occurred in this area, just always remember that people do make conclusions about you based on your appearance.  Understand the expectation as it relates to dress code and insure you are in tune with the company position. 

Communicator’s Past Conversations

Communication experts tell us that the credibility of the communicator, as determined by past conversations, is a critical factor in effective communication. Credibility refers to the attitude the listener has toward the truthfulness and trustworthiness of the sender’s statements. When a listener views the sender as dependable, knowledgeable, reliable, warm and friendly, emphatic, and non-selfish, the message that is sent will be more likely to be received. Unless we seem credible to the receiver. our message will be discounted and we will not be able to communicate effectively with him.

Communicator’s Personality

The personality of the communicator plays a part in both the formulation of the message and in how the message is communicated. Each individuals beliefs, opinions, prejudices, feelings, biases, and personal experiences enter into the development of a message. Most of the time this happens quickly, automatically, and out of habit. In addition to influencing what we think and say, our personalities also play a role in how we say the message. You may know of an instance where two managers sound completely different in conveying the same exact message to a listener. For example a result oriented manager may talk in short, concise, action-oriented sentences, while another manager may end up in a long discourse including many details and side points.

The Communication Situation

The situation and circumstances surrounding our communication plays a part in determining its success or failure. Although many types of situations affect the messages we send, one particular type that can easily distort our messages is communication under stress. Stress, by its very nature, makes it difficult for us to “think clearly”. In a stress situation, the meaning of the message can be distorted; subtle shades of meaning can be confused; pieces of information can be forgotten; minor points may seem more important than major points. In addition, the wording of the communication may suffer. Uncertainty, nervousness, and confusion can creep into the speaker’s voice, resulting in a less assertive statement. 

Communicating Effectively – Verbal Communication

Verbal communication means talking. The goal in communicating verbally is to convey a message to another person so that the other person understands it exactly as the person talking intended it. A well communicated message is one which the other person can accurately repeat back in his own words. Verbal communication can be made more effective by:

o Talking about specific rather than general situations.

o Using concrete language, e.g., “merchandise” rather than “stuff”.

o Using words familiar to employees; explaining unfamiliar words.

o Including an example to illustrate the point.

o Giving sufficient detail to convey the point.

o Giving details slowly and in order.

o Making it a practice to address the five “W” questions in the  topic (if applicable).

Who is involved?

What is the situation; how did it begin?

When will it occur?

Where is it taking place? What you think, believe, feel?

Why will it happen? Why is this important?

 Nonverbal Communication

Nonverbal communication refers to the gestures and body positions that accompany ones speaking. All people display certain gestures or lack of them when talking. It is important to be aware of your nonverbal communication, for it plays a big role in making your total communication effective. 

Effective communication occurs when a person’s verbal message and nonverbal message both “say the same thing”. Problems in communication occur when the speaker’s words say one thing, but his gestures and body language says something else.

Types of Nonverbal Communication

All of the following “says something”. In the specific context, they should correspond and reinforce the spoken message.

o Eye contact.

o Position of our arms and legs.

o The distance we stand from others when talking to them.

o Where we sit at a table or in relation to others.

o Smiling.

o Nodding or other head movements.

The manager can use nonverbal behaviors in two ways. First, when speaking, he can monitor his own nonverbal behavior and try to make sure it corresponds and emphasizes what he is verbally saying.

For example:

o When taking charge of a situation, the manager should have good eye contact with his subordinates, stand in a straight posture, use a firm but not overbearing voice,and point to what he wants done. 

o Upon noticing customers, the employee should smile to indicate friendliness, make eye contact to acknowledge the customer’s presence, tun his body in the direction of the customer to indicate his willingness to help if needed.

The other way a manager can use nonverbal behavior is in “listening to what others are really saying”. If the manager notices the employee saying one thing verbally but another thing non verbally, then the manager should suspect that the verbal message being said may be somewhat “incomplete”.

Active listening skills is what separates the good from the great. Learn to listen with your ears, eyes and perception paying attention to both the verbal and nonverbal communication.

For example:

An employee who says that he would feel comfortable doing a task but who exhibits folded arms, crossed legs, and tensed neck muscles might not be feeling as comfortable as he thinks. The manager who suspects this might need to keep his eye on this situation.

Written Communication

In written communication, the simpler, shorter, and more direct the better. This can be remembered by the equation:

Effectiveness = Conciseness = Completeness

Try the following tips for achieving concise and complete communication.

o Use simple words; your goal is not to impress your reader with your vocabulary, it is to get the point across.

o Make sure the words exactly express the thought; different words can slant the entire message of your point.

o Make the sentence structure clear; poor grammar, run on sentences, etc., can distort the point you want to make.

o Use a different paragraph for each complete unit of thought.

o Make sure all of the necessary information is included.

o Anticipate questions and include the answers in your message.

o Use only essential words and phrases.

o Make sure your facts, dates, times, etc., are correct.

o Consider the tone of the memorandum. Make sure it doesn’t contain antagonism or    preaching. I highly suggest that if you are upset about something, it is OK to    write out your thoughts and ideas for making the situation better.  Then make sure you do not send it, until you read it the next day. You will find in most cases that what you want to say does not change, but how you say it will change dramatically once you are over the emotions you attached to it.

o Make sure it is neat in appearance.

Remember all written memorandums have a dual purpose: you want the reader to receive your message and you want to do it the shortest, quickest way possible without leaving out necessary information.

All memorandums written in this way will be a good reflection upon you.

Phone Conversations

Talking on the phone lies between face-to-face communication and written communication in regard to information we can receive from the other person. Phone conversations do not give us access to the body language of the other person, hence, we miss the nonverbal cues accompanying the words. On the other hand, phone communication does allow us to take into account the tone of voice the other person is using, unlike written communication/email. 

Voice tone can be used in two ways. First, we can vary our voice tone to reinforce what we are saying verbally. Managers can convey competence, sincerity, and trust through the tone of their voice when talking to customers or employees.

Secondly, we can pay attention to other people’s tone of voice, much like nonverbal behavior, to check on unspoken feelings and thoughts. To do this accurately, practice listening to both the words and the tone of the voice that carries the words.

When talking to someone you have spoken to before, pay attention to changes in their usual voice qualities. Some people speak slow, loud, or clear. When these people change their normal voice qualities, they are communicating something extra to us. It is up to us to look for cues to detect what these changes in customary

voice tones mean.  Remember, you can’t talk to someone on the phone and someone in front of you both at the same time and do justice to either party.  

Communicating to a Group

Communicating to a group can be as simple as making an announcement r as complex as running a training program requiring much group participation. Much of what has been presented in this training applies to communicating to a group. Pre-communication factors, such as your appearance, credibility, and the specifics of the situation plays large part in establishing a successful presentation. Talking effectively and using nonverbal body language to correspond to the spoken words can all be used in group settings. A particularly skillful speaker can even “read” the nonverbal cues of the group as a whole and use this information to adjust his talk.

Listening

Why you Should Listen to Your Employees

o Employees might have helpful ideas.

o Employees might know causes of problems in the workplace.

o Employees might be able to warn me about potential problems I haven’t yet recognized.

o How employees feel about things can be a tip-of future problems.

Ways of Not Listening

o Signing routine papers.

o Sorting papers.

o Allowing long telephone interruptions.

o Sneaking looks at the time.

o Gazing out of the window, or at distractions passing by.

o Maintaining pre-occupied facial expressions.

o Calling orders to other employees in between sentences.

o Fidgeting nervously, shaking foot, playing with gadgets, coffee cup, etc.

Inhibiting Communication from Your Employees

Avoid the following to prevent cutting off future communication from your employees:

o Blaming the employee who gave you bad news.

o Getting angry.

o “Falling apart”.

o Demanding the employee to justify work that is reported to be not going well.

How should you react to news:

React to bad news by remaining objective; keep your emotions under control; switch to a “problem-solving”, “let’s get this situation corrected” approach. Respond to good news with praise, acknowledgment and appreciation.

Active Listening

Active listening is comprised of three separate and important skills: attention skills, following skills, and responding skills. Attention skills are those actions you take to put the talker at ease, to non verbally show you are listening, and to best “pay attention to” what the other person is trying to say. Maintaining eye contact, eliminating distractions, and concentrating on both the verbal and nonverbal are examples of attention skills. 

Following Skills

These are the skills we use to encourage the conversation along; to get the point the person is making. Nodding our heads, saying “uh-huh”, “I see”, and “go on” are following skills. Asking appropriate questions to bring out the point is a following skill as is allowing silences without jumping in. All following skills serve two purposes: to indicate to the speaker that you are “with him” and to help him get the point across.

Responding Skills

This is where we determine if we received and interpreted the message as the speaker intended it. Say something like, “If I understand correctly, you are saying … ” and go on to paraphrase that we understand, using our own words. Check out the facts and ideas, the main point of what the speaker said. It is only after we are sure that we understood the message as intended, can we then evaluate, judge, take action, or supply an answer or comment.

Communicating on the Job – Who We Communicate To

Before the message is formulated and communicated, we become aware of who we will be sending it to. How and what we communicate can change depending upon who is the intended audience.

Upward Communication

If we will be communicating to our immediate supervisor, our message might be prepared, formulated, and presented in a specific manner. For example, if we need to seek assistance from our supervisor, asking an open-ended question will result in more information than a question that can be answered yes or no.

Peer Communication

If the communication is intended for a peer, the message might be less “formally” prepared and presented. For example, less background information might need to be given since the peer can “easily relate” to the situation to be described.

Downward Communication

The manager who is communicating to his subordinate may need to do so in a different way than to others. Clear, concise, directions might be the format for much of the messages the manager gives to his employees. In addition, the manager may follow-up many of his messages with, “Do you have any questions?”.

Checking For Understanding

When communicating with employees, it is always a good idea to check for understanding. Simply take a second and ask ” recap for me what I have asked you to do.” By doing this, you can clear up any missed communication that may have taken place.  This step is helpful for both parties as it allows them to communicate back to you that they heard and understood your direction. This is a critical step in delegation of tasks.

Communicating With Customers

Communicating to a customer also affects how the message is formulated and delivered. Messages conveyed to customers need to be totally accurate and delivered in a professional and friendly manner.

Purpose of the Communication

When we talk to someone, we usually have a purpose. The purpose of the communication differs depending on the situation and who we are addressing. A manager may communicate for any of the following reasons:

o To motivate employees.

o To teach, instruct, or explain a task.

o To counsel an employee.

o To seek information or assistance.

o To correct an employee’s behavior.

o To be persuasive.

o To socialize.

With each of these purposes, the communication changes in order to accomplish our goal.

One of my favorite leaders use to say, that you will have  become a master of communication when you are able to tell someone where to go and to have them looking forward to the trip! 

Internet Download Manager (IDM) is a tool to increase download speeds by up to 5 times, resume and schedule downloads. Comprehensive error recovery and resume capability will restart broken or interrupted downloads due to lost connections, network problems, computer shutdowns, or unexpected power outages.

If you do not want this software any more, the following is the specific steps to uninstall Internet Download Manager in Windows XP.

Step 1: Exit the unwanted running program and go back to desktop.

Step 2: Click Start> All Programs> Internet Download Manager (IDM)

Step 3: Click Uninstall IDM. You will be presented a welcome window wizard and then choose Default option

Step 4: Click Next

Step 5: In the pop-up window, press Finish button to perform Uninstall. You will see a dialog box which inform you to reboot your computer

Step 6: Save your work and close all running applications. Then click OK to reboot your computer otherwise you can not remove all of the components of the unwanted program from your computer

Step 7: After you have restarted your computer, please click Start menu and then All Programs. If the unwanted program still exists, right-click it and select Delete to delete the empty program.

Step 8: Check the Program Files folder in your system drive (usually in Local Disk C) to see whether there is a folder called Internet Download Manager and if it is there, simply select the folder in the Windows Explorer and press Shift+Delete to remove it permanently.

If you operate the above steps properly, you will successfully remove the unwanted software.

Match Preparation in Football Manager 2011 allows you to not only work on your pre-match setup but it gives you the ability to train your team with regards to their tactical proficiency. It’s not an obvious training module, but it should be looked at as if it was part of the training system. Training covers only Technical and Physical attributes, whilst it’s Match Preparation which trains a players tactical attributes.

In order to create a rewarding training routine via MP, you have to repeatedly work on the same tactical setup. If you work on improving one formation you will see the familiarity bar rise as a result of the team becoming more comfortable with that system. This is why it’s important not to ‘chop and change’ your tactics too radically when they’re not working very well for you.

Aside from the training aspect of MP, you should note that the “Special Focus Areas” setting is excellent for exploiting the opposition’s formation or setup. You should look to do your pre-match scouting (more below) and then utilise this module to make your team focus on one method of exploiting the opposition’s weaknesses. It’s important to remember that selecting an SFA will distract the team from other areas of their game, but if you get the SFA setup to correctly exploit an opponent who are – for example – weak at corners, then you might find the result is far more positive than simply opting to operate within your own style of play.

Remember, setting the MP workload will have an effect on the Training workload, so try to find a balance for your team. It’s all about considering if you want to work on the team as a unit or on players as individuals – then make setting the sliders to the levels you want. I’d personally work on the team more than the players, then when the team is at a good level, lower the SFA workload and focus on improving the individuals. Obviously, finding a balance is still vital, so don’t be extremely biased to one focus area.

Let’s take a deeper look at the Special Focus Areas.

Team Blend

This allows you to focus your players on better understanding how their team-mates work with the ball. By using this SFA, you’re able to build a team unit, rather than have 11 strangers playing in your side.

Defensive Positioning

This allows you to ‘drill’ your team in the art of defence. The best teams are the hardest to exploit in defence, and by focusing on this area, you’re able to lower the risk of player’s being in the wrong position when under pressure at the back and give them direction on how to function as a defensive unit, rather than relying on the defenders to do all the defensive work.

Attacking Positioning

This allows you to ‘run plays’ with the team. With this SFA, you’re able to influence the players into attacking in numbers, rather than attacking as individuals. This allows you to have players in better attacking positions when crosses enter the box, or when counter-attacks are being executed. With this, you’re able to have your team working ‘in tune’ when they’re attacking.

Defending Set-Pieces

This allows you to train the team to be more proficient when defending corners or free-kicks. Having a team who know exactly what needs to be done and how the players around them will be reacting when the ball comes at them, is something you will really benefit from when they’ve mastered this Special Focus Area.

Attacking Set-Pieces

This allows you to train the team to be more clinical when attacking corners or taking free-kicks. Having a team who know where players are going to run or where the ball is going to be placed, can make the difference when it comes to taking advantage of an attacking set-piece.

Institutes offering project management courses grant certification upon completion of the terms. However, since it is now one of the fastest growing professions, online trainings are now available. Not only is it more convenient for home-based preferences, it also helps as a lookout for career prospects. Having a certification of completion and excellence is definitely an edge for you when you try out in the industry.

The PMP Certification, which is the most comprehensive among all the others, provides foremost knowledge and experience on project ideas. Preparatory and practice exams are downloadable. You can also get personal feedback from your instructors over the web. Available online are IT, construction, health care certifications and others.

Professional certifications demonstrate more advanced and special online courses also on IT, construction, health care, and global projects. Experienced project managers and those on the senior level are entitled to a thorough expertise on the field with this kind of certification. You will be able to acquire new skills and venture into greater depths in the industry and related domains. Enrolling in an online program that offers this will enable you to grasp focus on contemporary strategic management.

Aspiring associate project managers need not worry about getting a certification with online training courses. The CAPM (Certified Associate designation) is especially designed for project group members. Going deeper, this guarantee is aimed at the overall progress of a project by the extensive help of associate project managers. Since they are the ones who act as a sidekick to the seniors, their experience, educational background, and knowledge of the job are measured in these courses. Eventually, they are to be given an online assessment exam to see if they are qualified.

All in all, these certifications are a lot helpful in getting project management jobs that suit you best. There are online courses that you could surely get around to if you’re looking for convenience and less cost.

Whether you are a new or experienced project manager in the construction, engineering, or real estate field, this article is for you. Sure, the job market is not as strong as it used to be, and career prospects are lean, but there are still thousands of construction projects happening each day, on a global scale, and every single one of them requires one or several project managers.

A project manager has lots of different definitions and responsibilities depending on several factors, including: what your experience level is, are you a General or Specific Project Manager? Are you PMP certified, etc. Nevertheless, almost all project management positions have one tie that binds – you MUST be able to simultaneously manage several projects in various stages of completion, as well as various employees of ranging experience levels and proficiencies. Depending on your level of experience and focus, you may lean more toward one or the other, but both skills are required to be successful.

With that said, all you have to do is drive 20 miles in any direction of your house and chances are you will find new homes being built, older buildings being renovated, streets being repaved, and/or shopping centers receiving a badly needed facelift or touch-up. Unlike days past when all you needed was a friend or connection at a construction company and a pretty good reputation, today’s construction job market is different. You need an effective construction resume to help get you through the door and into the position you want.

So what is the best strategy for success? Here it is – be proactive. What does this mean for you? Try this strategy on for size: Take a drive and find 3 different projects that interest you. Once you have these 3 projects, find as much information as you can about the position. This includes the owner of Construction Company, the general contractor, the sub contractor, engineering firm, etc. and write the information down in a pad you designate solely for this task.

Then when you get home take a look at your resume. I mean a good look at this document and ask yourself, “Does this resume reflect me?” Is the resume updated, have you reviewed the information carefully, does it bolster and highlight your achievements, has it been spell-checked and grammar-checked? In other words, is this the one document you want someone to look at as the first representation of you, for the position?

If the answer is yes, then do your best to locate the company’s fax or email, be sure you are sending your resume and cover letter from a professional email address (not: Beerbongparty@ partydude. com ) and send the resume and cover letter attention HR or Ladies and Gentlemen. If your resume is not in a good shape, do NOT waste the opportunity, rather secure the services of a certified professional construction resume writer or writing service to assist you in getting your resume into fighting shape!

Good Luck!

A major problem for the PM is the fact that most of the people needed for a project must be “borrowed”. With few exceptions, they are borrowed from the functional departments. The PM must negotiate with the functional department managers for the desired personnel, and then, if successful, negotiate with the people themselves to convince them to take on these challenging temporary project assignments.

Most functional managers cooperate when the PM comes seeking good people for the project, but the cooperative spirit has its limits. The PM will be asking for the services of the two types of people most needed and prized by the functional manager: first, individuals with scarce but necessary skills and, second, top producers. Both the PM and functional manager are fully aware that the PM does not want a “has-been”. A “never-was”, or a “never-will-be”. Perceptions about the capabilities of individuals may differ, but the PM is usually trying to borrow precisely those people the functional manager would most like to keep.

A second issue may reduce the willingness of the functional manager to cooperate with the PM’s quest for quality people. At times, the functional manager may perceive the project as more glamorous than his or her function and hence a potent source pf managerial glory. The functional manager may thus be a bit jealous or suspicious of the PM, a person who may have little interest in the routine work of the functional area even if it is the bread and butter of the organization.

On its surface, the task of motivating good people to join the project does not appear to be difficult, because the kind of people who are most desired as members of a project team are those naturally attracted by the challenge and variety inherent in project work. Indeed, it would not be difficult except for the fact that the functional manager is trying to keep the same people that the PM is trying to attract.

The subordinate who is being seduced to leave the steady life of the functional area for the glamour of a project can be gently reminded that the functional manger retains control of personnel evaluation, salary, and promotion for those people lent out to projects.

Unless the PM can hire outsiders with proven ability, it is not easy to gather competent people; but having gathered them, they must be motivated to work. Because the functional manager controls pay and promotion, the PM cannot promise much beyond the challenge of the work itself.

Motivation problems are often less severe for routine, repeated projects such as those in construction, or for projects carried out as the sole activity of an organization. In such cases, the PM probably has considerable de facto influence over salary and promotion. Frequently, the cadre of these projects is perceived as temporary, risky, and important, about all the PM can offer people is the chance to work on a challenging, high-visibility assignment, to be “needed”, and to operate in a supportive climate. For most, this is sufficient incentive to join the project.

A story has it that when asked “How do you motivate astronauts?” a representative of NASA responded, “We don’t motivate them, but, boy, are we careful about whom we select”. The issue of motivating people to join and work creatively for a project is closely related to the kind of people who are invited to join. The most effective team members have some common characteristics. A list of the most important of these follows, but only the first is typically considered during the usual selection process.

1. High-quality technical skill

2. Political sensitivity

3. Strong problem orientation

4. Strong goal orientation

5. High self-esteem

There is no real way of ever knowing that a particular resource will be a good fit for a project team, and acquiring and motivating them can be a political mine field at the best of times, with the continuous justification to functional management that their resources are needed, and convincing them during a projects slow period is particularly taxing. The role of the PM here is to negotiate, negotiate, negotiate, and motivate as best you can. If you are good at it, and this comes with experience, not only will you get the resources you need, but they are more than likely to stay and enjoy the challenge of the project along the way, all with the functional managers blessing.

Although the junior mining sector began crumbling in May, savvy investor Mike Halvorson, president of Halcorp Capital, still ended up having a very busy summer. Welcome to the world of a substantial investor in mining stocks, who gets in early and then enjoys sizeable profits as, one by one, his companies become takeover targets. “I’ve been fortunate,” the humble Halvorson told us, “I’ve gotten associated with top explorationists, the people who do know a quality project.” And because they have credibility, quality projects come to those geologists. Halvorson claims his wealth-building strategy comes from investing in the projects of these credible geologists.

On May 3rd, Glamis Gold acquired Western Silver. “I recognized the project and the main geologist behind it, Tom Patton,” Halvorson explained. “I was a director of Western Silver. I didn’t stay associated for the whole run, but I was there for the best part of it.” August has been his busiest month. As a director of NovaGold, Barrick Gold recently announced a hostile takeover of this company, and which is now being disputed. In mid August, Yamana Gold made a bid to take over the shares of Viceroy Exploration, which has proven and probable gold reserves in excess of seven million ounces in Argentina.

So how does someone emulate Mike Halvorson’s success in picking major winners in the mining sector? “The average investor is going to have a tough time,” he commiserated during our phone conversation. “If I were an average investor, I would rely on some sort of advisory service, or two or three, to help me pick my stocks.” We both agreed some of the uranium projects weren’t going to make it. “So many of these uranium projects will never see a shovel to the ground, they will never see anything close to production,” he cautioned.

But many advisory services look out for themselves first, then their subscribers, maybe if at all. He advised us to avoid the self-serving ones. “I have a long record with a couple of guys that are honest and have good abilities,” Halvorson said. He subscribes to Bob Bishop’s Gold Mining Stock Report. “I like Bob,” Halvorson told us. “He covers people. He knows a lot of individuals in the industry. One of the gifts, a guy like Bishop has, is he doesn’t try to fit the same model over every company, like a lot of analysts do. He just tries to figure out whether the stock is going up. What makes Bob Bishop better at picking stocks than most of the guys is that he doesn’t walk around with a model. He walks around with instincts and the ability to judge the people involved. He has a great network to check facts out with.”

“I guess for the average person, if they don’t rely on an advisory service, they should go to the (resource) conferences,” Halvorson recommended. Such conferences occur throughout the year. One resource conference takes place this week in Las Vegas. Another popular resource show will be held later in September in Toronto.

Valuing Uranium Mining Stocks

“The (uranium) companies are so new,” Halvorson said. “Some of them aren’t really that acquainted with their own assets, let alone the assets of other companies. It’s not like the oil and gas business where you’ve got … in western Canada, there are a dozen or fifteen blue-chip engineering firms that provide reserve and reservoir evaluations. If you see one of those engineering reports, you can really put a market value on those assets.”

Not so in the uranium business. With uranium assets, Halvorson explained, “A lot it is historical work, some of them are National Instrument 43-101 and some aren’t.” But he warned that despite the regulatory insistence that companies file independent geological documents confirming their resources, “You have to be careful if you run out and buy some 43-101 resources.” He added, “I’m not sure that one would solely base investment decisions on them.”

For example, he described how it might be possible that a company could only solution mine (ISR uranium recovery) the resource. What happens if after doing the tests, the company discovers solution mining won’t work? “That is something that will concern me,” he told us. “I think there are an awful lot of projects out there that are being called ‘good projects’ by companies that have them. And I don’t think these people have a clue as to what is required for solution mining.”

If so, then what should investors be looking for in uranium mining stocks? “At this stage, I would try to look at undervalued companies because that’s the least risk,” Halvorson advised. “I don’t think I would look at the market leaders, per se. Companies like Cameco and Denison are awfully pricey. International Uranium is pricey in my opinion.” So where would Halvorson look today? “I would look at the undervalued ones, the ones that have projects, but for some reason maybe not as much traction in the market,” he suggested. “I think ultimately the market will recognize those values or they’ll get taken over at premiums.”

Two of Halvorson’s favorites came from his network. “I originally got involved in Strathmore Minerals because I knew they had some good properties and some very good consultants and contacts in the business,” he explained. “And, they have David Miller, who really knows the business inside out. Talking to him, I got comfortable with those U.S. assets. So, I literally backed the truck up and bought lots of stock.” Halvorson subsequently became a director of Strathmore Minerals.

Another Halvorson favors is Kilgore Minerals. “With Kilgore, it is because Norm Burmeister had such a good track record with Silver Standard and Bull Run,” Halvorson said. “Norm is the kind of guy who has a great appreciation for an economic play. I got involved with Kilgore fairly early on and was semi-responsible for the stock moving out of the 30 – 50 cent range. Norm has a huge gold property. We both laughed about Kilgore’s major downside, and he added, “There’s a company that if it was aggressively promoted, would probably be trading at maybe three times where it’s at. Their gold property is probably worth what they trade for.”

Halvorson discussed his other uranium holdings, “I was a fairly substantial shareholder of UR-Energy, but you can’t own all your stocks all the time. They had a very good market so I left.” He noted those were his three substantial holdings and that he also has minor holdings elsewhere. One of those holdings, Santoy Resources, comes from his association with Ron Netolitzky, who is also a director of Viceroy. “There’s not anybody who’s got a better track record than Ron of recognizing an economic deposit early,” Halvorson said of his long-time acquaintance. “Ron worked in the uranium field in the 1970s and 1980s, as well as the gold sector, so he knows all about uranium exploration.”

Of the sector, Halvorson believes there is more consolidation ahead with the quality uranium companies. “Some of these guys have got pretty rich valuations, such as SXR Uranium One with their pricey currency and extremely strong market support from Europe and Canada,” he told us. “Because of their market cap, they’re big enough that they can use their currency and do acquisitions.” He spoke highly of SXR Uranium One, “I’ve been to their main project in South Africa. They’re building it. It’s happening. They will be mining. And they are miners.”

And that’s the big difference, going back to his comment about some projects which will never see a shovel in the ground. “How do you compare Denison to some of these other companies?” he asked. “That’s part of the difference. Denison looks like it’s priced through the stratosphere, but they are mining. I think if Strathmore Minerals, which is sort of undervalued right now, if we could get Church Rock producing, I think there would be a huge revaluation.”

He sees a bright future ahead for the mining sector, and believes investors can do well if they study companies before investing in them and get the right advice. “For people coming new to the market, I would look for undervalued stocks,” Halvorson advised. “I would probably take a portfolio approach. I wouldn’t buy just one. I would buy several.”

Halvorson expects more consolidation in the uranium sector. “As the companies get more comfortable with everybody else’s share price, and also getting more comfortable with other people’s assets, then you will see people saying, ‘We can use our shares as currency because we’re trading at roughly our Net Asset Value (NAV), but this company is trading at a discount of 30 percent to their NAV. So, if we can do a transaction with them, it’s going to be accretive.'”

That’s not the case right now, though. “You’ll hear companies talking about this wonderful asset they’ve got,” he said. “Then, I’ll go ask somebody I know in the business about the play, and he might say, ‘Oh god, I don’t like that.’ Right now, I don’t think people have any way of judging a lot of these properties. If you remember the analogy I used in the oil and gas business, where you have companies trading properties all the time, it’s because people can rely on engineering.”

Right now, a lot depends upon the underlying commodity. Rising spot uranium prices have helped a large number of the uranium ‘development’ companies, such as Strathmore Minerals, UR-Energy, Uranerz Energy and Energy Metals, move higher. Most recently, according to TradeTech LLC, the spot uranium price reached a new high at $52/pound. Many of the U.S. uranium projects became economic above $30 and $40/pound, which offers investors more opportunity for profit. “I think I’m going to make a lot of money in the resource sector over the coming years,” Halvorson said with excitement in his voice. “But you have to be nimble. If you buy high and just hold, you might just get your money back at the end of the day. If you like the sector and trade around core positions, I think it’s going to be one of the most attractive sectors out there.”

COPYRIGHT © 2007 by StockInterview, Inc. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

The principle aim of this article is to identify and explore multiple dimensions of project failures during the entire life of project execution. Many projects fail, especially IT projects. The only way that companies can get better at performing projects is by learning from projects they have carried out. There are small things which can decide fate of project. These all in project management practice and research, has been to see it as a threat and as something that should, if possible, be neutralized, reduced and followed.

Introduction

In a perfect world every project would be “on time and within budget.” But reality (especially the proven statistics) tells a very different story. It’s not uncommon for projects to fail. Even if the budget and schedule are met, one must ask –

Question – “Did the project deliver the results and quality we expected?”

Answer to this question could be different in different perspective. There is no single method or organizational structure that can be used to manage projects to success. Project failure can happen in any organization and to any project.

There are many reasons why projects (both simple and complex) fail; the number of reasons can be infinite and can fit into different phase of SDLC (Software Development Life Cycle), initiation through go live. Sometimes it’s out of the control of a project manager and/or the team members. Sometimes failure is controllable. Failed projects and people involved with the failure have some things in common. I have tried to draft few critical and most basic reasons based on my experience for project failure and may differ project to project.

From outside view, it could be that all reason will roll up to project manager’s responsibility and accountability however from my perspective it should be collective responsibility.

Here are the some of the common reasons why project fails – based on my experience.

1. Incompetent Project Manager

First possible cause of project failure is the project manager. A project manager who helps steer the project in a timely fashion and provides sound, inspiring leadership can go a long way toward bringing about a successful project. Reasons like “an incompetent project manager” “project manager unwilling to make decisions,” “project problems ignored”, “poor management by the project leader,” “loss of control by the project manager,” and “the failure of the project manager to delegate”, “working as only as coordinator” are most important reason given for project failure.

2. Less Involvement of Project Managers

This is always a topic of debate for project managers: Should they just focus on pure project management activities such as reporting, cost and issue tracking, or should they also dive into ground-level review and design? There is no correct answer. Even the biggest project depends on the success of the smallest components. Every detail contains a seed that can mean the difference between success and failure. On relatively inexperienced teams, project managers must be involved in the details for key activities. This will help them have better control of the effort as well as provide true status of the project to stakeholders.

3. Unavailability to Skilled Resources

Every project has some resource estimations before starting of the project and even every vendor submits key personnel details and profile as part of bidding process to acquire project. However picture is always opposite once project is awarded. Initial resource estimations and loading sheet handed over to project managers as part of sales hand over process but I have seen that project managers always struggle for right skilled resources hence it is necessary that leadership team should understand criticality and provide planned/skilled resources on time to avoid project delay or failure.

4. Lack of Proper Planning

Project managers should have clear projects outcomes visibility and should involve himself./herself right from sales hand over as this phase is critical for project success. If you don’t have a clear focus at the earliest stage of the process/project, you are making things harder on yourself. This would lead to inappropriate estimations and half cooked planning.

5. Lack of Management Support/Leadership Alignment

It is important to ensure that the senior management remains fully engaged throughout the project life cycle. The involvement e.g. through project update sessions imply that they are willing to take appropriate actions to address issues raised by the project team, mitigate the project risks, provide leadership, thus contributing to the project success.

6. Missing Communication

Communication plan plays very substantial role in project success or failure. Plan should contain stakeholder details I.e name, role, contact no. and email, project team details, escalation matrix and other dependent groups. Information distribution details (stakeholder, information detail, distribution methods, format and frequency) should be clearly defined in plan. To save your project from failure, project manager need to establish a clear communication channel.

Effective communication within any organization is important to keep all your team members on the same page, avoid confusions and keep them motivated. By communicating with your team, project managers can develop an environment of trust, proactively kill conflicts, which would bring the best out of your team and eventually lead to a successful delivery of the project.

7. Ignoring Change Management Process

Take a second before your project starts to undergo significant changes, or even before you look for a technology solution. It’s critical to define your change management process steps. A firm understanding of change management principles will serve as a strong backbone for any change management plan. Change is inevitable, irrespective of the size of your project. Whether good or bad, it must be managed well to ensure the project continues without disruption. Every project must have a change control process, and every change request, however small, must go through it. The change’s impact should be documented, approved and presented to key stakeholders so that everyone understands its effect on quality, cost and schedule. The focal point of any leader tasked with change must be to align their team with the vision. Communication is a crucial component in ensuring every team member is on the same page.

8. No Risk Management Process

Many projects fail because there is no risk management process as an integral part of the project management process. I am not surprised because I have been on many projects where the risk log is created at the start of the project and then quietly parked, never to be seen again. Then guess what – a perfectly predictable situation arises which no one knows how to react to.

It was in the risk log but no risk response was created so the predictable outcome is a less than optimal project. My own feeling based on my experience is that you ignore risk management in a project at your risk.

9. Inadequate Quality Assurance

Now this is where the technicality comes in. Software projects often fail when no quality assurance activities are planned and no systematic activities are performed to evaluate the quality of development process or ultimate deliverables. This is because managers often fail to project appropriate reviews tests or checkpoints where quality can be verified. Code review is part of this (as defined in #20).

10. Missing Project Management Tools/Framework

Successful projects are based on a methodology or framework that includes project management tools. Right approach can help project managers to stay on top of the project and by using some reliable management tools; project managers can enhance the team’s productivity, can increase accuracy and save time by automating activities like task tracking and managing dependencies.

A great number of unsuccessful project results from missing methodology and framework, which leads to inaccuracy and wasted time. There are numerous project management frameworks and methodologies (like Agile, Iterative) and they can support efficient delivery.

11. Company/Project Culture

Company or project culture should not be supported with political environment. It should support competency, skill, professionalism and transparency. If it isn’t, team members will not be motivated to do their best. Basically, everyone involved must be participated in their part of the project to successfully complete it. Any actions which project managers take to move project execution from the political arena into an objective and analytical one will improve the project’s success. This involves managing and retaining the most highly skilled and productive people. Knowledge is money. It is job of project managers to manage and motivate so that project efforts will experience a zone of optimal performance throughout its life.

12. Inappropriate Prioritization

While some work best on a small number of requirements, others are better suited to very complex projects with many decision-makers. But regardless of when it is done, before a requirement can be prioritized, project managers must consider why requirement is most important from a business standpoint and what would be the impact of this on overall system whether new requirement would add value to overall system or it will be overhead. Project managers should lead prioritization exercise along with all relevant stakeholders. There are a number of possible business considerations, including value, cost, risk, and improve customer experience, stakeholder agreement and urgency variables.

13. Inaccurate Stakeholder Analysis

Stakeholder Analysis is the first step and an important process that successful project managers use to win support from others. Managing stakeholders helps them to ensure that their projects succeed where others might fail. There are three steps to follow in Stakeholder Analysis. First, identify who your stakeholders are. Next, work out their power, influence and interest, so that you know who you should focus on. Finally, develop a good understanding of the most important stakeholders based on Power/Interest grid, so that you know how they are likely to respond, and how you can win their support which can lead project success.

14. Use of Unfamiliar Tools

Tools are definitely needed for project execution and success but unfamiliar tools may lead to chances of failure as well. Sometimes, it can cause many severe problems during project life cycle as the team has to deal with the learning curve of new tools along with usual project tasks and duties. Project managers should ensure that tools are not enforced on project team members, just to utilize for fulfillment of audit compliance unless tools adding some productivity and save some efforts.

15. Change – Always saying “Yes’ to the Customer

Many behaviors can cause a project to fail, but accepting whatever the client says is sure to spell project doom. Initially, a stakeholder might appreciate your flexibility – but that will be overshadowed later by the impact of possible schedule slippage and unmet objectives.. Change is a major cause of project failure. Project specifications can be changed for several reasons: initial planning was not complete or thorough; Senior-level management changed the scope of the work; the client (if not upper-level management) changed the scope of the work; this isn’t to say that you should always tell customers “no.” If you do that, they’ll feel their concerns are not being addressed. Before you commit to something, perform due diligence and analyze the pros and cons of your decision.

16. Bonding between Project Team Members

It is the prime responsibility of project managers to unite the team members to achieve a common goal. The stages a team generally goes through are: forming, storming, norming, performing and adjourning. As a project manager, a good understanding of these stages would help in guiding a team from infancy to maturity which creates needed bonding.

Things can easily go from good to bad very quickly if there is no unity between your team members. Consider a scenario in which all team members are moving in different directions. Could you expect a positive result to come out of this situation? There could be many reasons from personality differences to conflicting interests. All of them contribute towards taking you one step closer to project failure.

17. Unrealistic Expectations

At the beginning of a project, it’s important to set realistic expectations for every member or stakeholders who are a part of the project. If the project kicks off without setting goals for individual team members, they are most likely to lose clarity and focus somewhere in the middle. Project managers must have one on one session with individual team members and help them understand their role in the project. If goals are set before the project is in full swing, the members would have a roadmap to follow that prevents them from derailing the project.

18. Talking Through Problems

Condensing bad news internally for long enough will only seed the explosion later on. It’s is fine to do for a limited period, but you will need to take some time to pull it out, examine it, feel it, and study it so you can find a way to re-channel it, or transmute it into another kind of energy. Quite often we face the dilemma of whether or not to deliver bad news to stakeholders. And too often we forget this truth: Clients have a vested interest in the success of the project. They have every right to know any development impacting the outcome of the initiative. You will end up having this heavy thing on your chest that will never move. You will never understand what it is about. The problem is that we believe that sharing problems will make us weak, and that stakeholders will start to judge us for our short-comings. Maybe they do. But stakeholders having higher interest who genuinely care about project and you very well know these people, will come out and help. Sharing helps you feel less burdened, because you now have less things on your mind. This will also allow you more space to put new thoughts, planning things better.

19. Guesstimates – Efforts

A “guess estimate,” also referred to as a “gut feel,” is based on personal intuition and past experience. But even the most strongly held conviction could be faulty. An inaccurate estimate can leave a project team slogging day and night to meet a deadline. The project might finally be delivered on time-but with a huge effort overrun. If time is pressing, use Function Point technique, Function Points are units of measure for functional size as defined within the IFPUG Functional Size Measurement (FSM) Method and it is the major global functional sizing methodology. Project Manager is responsible for accurate and re-estimation post sales hand over. If efforts guesstimated or not correctly estimated with appropriate tool then it definitely impacts one of all three critical project parameters- Cost, Scope, schedule.

20. Avoiding Code Reviews

Assuming that testing will catch bugs or that defects are fixed faster when you know where code is breaking. You’ll only end up increasing the risk of schedule slippage as the inflow of defects rises during testing and the turnaround time for code fixes increases. Code review helps produce a stable, quality deliverable. Its focus is not only to catch code defects but also to look at critical dimensions that may not get caught during testing, such as code optimization and requirement coverage.

21. Skipping Prototyping

Defects can result from a misunderstanding of requirements and a misinterpretation of stated requirements. Even if requirements are well-documented, they must be validated for correct understanding. Only by a visual walkthrough can users spot the differences in what they expect and what’s being built. Feedback must be planned at various stages throughout a project to reduce risks. These feedback loops will help you spot gaps early and provide enough time for correction. A sketch, wireframe, mockup, and prototype are all unique ways to visually display the requirements of your project with varying levels of detail. Understanding that level of polished output each of these present will keep expectations aligned and communication clear between all the stakeholders.

Conclusion

There could be many different, seemingly independent causes of project failure. However, it becomes clear that many of these causes are actually linked to project managers (which may differ project to project) and their way of execution. Past failure should not discourage project managers from future efforts. Past examples of IT project failures gives us the opportunity to point to the relevant lessons that can be derived from recognizing areas where IT projects is more likely to fail.

Changing the project’s scope not only affects cost, but it also affects schedules and resource allocation. One way to overcome to all causes is that the various stakeholders and project team of the project should be included in a very thorough planning process, thereby maximizing the input from the various vested interests and broadening the understanding of the project manager and team members resulting in success rather than failure. An improvement in success rate of IT projects is possible by putting significantly more focus on general-management activities. With accurate planning, defined goals, clear assignments and effective communication, proactive managers can overcome those odds to master, even the most challenging project and also required support of leadership team which can help project managers to complete more projects on time, within the allocated budget and with expected benefits/outcomes.

I have worked with and managed project managers over many years. Based on my own observations of what I did or did not do well on my projects, and similar observations about other project managers on their projects, I offer my assessment of the top 5 skills of good project managers:

1. Attention to Achieving the Project Goals – In many types of projects, especially technology projects, it can be easy to get wrapped up in the details and the technology and lose sight of the business goals. The focus of the team and the project shifts to a technology goal – for example, building an XYZ system – instead of the goal of solving the business problem. When that happens the resulting system may not meet all of the business expectations.

The project manager and the team need to clearly understand the business goals before detailed planning and work starts on the project. Then, the project manager needs to remind the regularly about the goals and how the project work relates to those goals.

2. Attention to Details – Probably the most-cited skill for project managers is attention to detail, and rightfully so. Projects of any size have hundreds and thousands of little details that must be attended to at the right time and in the right way throughout the course of the project. That’s why senior managers should not manage projects… They are supposed to deal with the big picture, not the details.

It is not the job of the project manager to handle every detail, but it is the project manager’s job to remind the team or ask the team about the details of the tasks they are doing.

3. Communication and Coordination with the Team – The planning and execution of the project is done in the day-by-day, week-by-week grunt work of the project. And it’s done by the project manager working directly with the team to make it all happen… communicating and coordinating about their activities, the dependencies between the activities, the amounts of time to get the activities done, the issues that must be resolved, and so on.

Daily communication and coordination is the core of managing the project. It requires good organization and good people and verbal communication skills.

4. Problem Solving and Communication outside the Team – General problem solving is an important project manager skill because problems and roadblocks must be dealt with frequently. In most business projects, it usually means finding the persons outside of the team whom the project manager or team must work with and taking the appropriate steps to get the problem resolved. It may mean going up the management ladder to escalate the problem and get the necessary attention, prioritization, and resources directed toward the problem.

This particular skill set also involves communicating regular status to management about the progress of the project and issues that might be impacting work results, schedule, budget, etc. It requires excellent people and verbal communication skills and good written communication skills as well.

5. Customer Relationship Management – In business projects, it is important that the project manager maintain a good working relationship with the customer, whether the customer is external or internal. Managing the customer’s expectations is a key part of this – not in a manipulative way, but in an honest and relatively open way. The customer needs to know what is realistic in developing the product and what is not, and customers always like to be kept informed about how the project is going and whether you, as the project manager, are responding to issues in the most effective way.

Managing the customer relationship also involves communication with management – keeping them informed about project issues, whether the customer is happy and quiet or unhappy and likely to escalate. Like several others, this area of performance obviously requires good people and communication skills too, as well as good issues management, which is all about tracking customer issues and managing them to the satisfaction of the customer.

Bottom-Line: There are many skills that a project manager must have, but if he or she does these five well, their probability of success with most projects will be high.

Products that fall into the FMCG category are the opposite of durable goods. They are those items that usually sell for a relatively low price and don’t stay on the shelf for very long. These include items like groceries, soft drinks, toiletry items, and other products that are purchased in large quantities.

Although the average profit made on an FMCG is somewhat small, these items do sell in large numbers. It is the quantity of items that make up the large scale profit in the FMCG market.

FMCG sales jobs are those that work directly with the customer and also include business to business sales. In other words, a sales manager could be a position that works within an FMCG company or corporation and sells products to other businesses, or they can work within the retail market, selecting, direct the staging of, and managing the fast moving consumer goods stocked by a particular store or chain of stores.

The business to business FMCG sales manager is a position with a higher degree of responsibility and usually a higher paying job as well. These managers typically spend their day on high level operations duties.

They may meet with other individuals working in FMCG sales jobs, like individual sales staff who call on other businesses. They may also spend a great deal of time meeting with managers from other areas of the business, such as those working in production, finance, marketing and creative services. This kind of FMCG sales manager is usually an officer of the company within smaller businesses and would be considered a member of mid-level management within a large organization.

FMCG sales managers who work in direct sales within the retail market have distinctly different job duties. These kinds of managers will often spend their day working with retail supervisors or directly with sales associates, depending on the size of the business in which they work.

If the sales manager is overseeing a series or chain of retail stores then he or she may manage store managers or store supervisors in an entire region. In this case the manager will spend a lot of time having conference calls and sales meetings with others in FMCG sales jobs throughout the region.

He or she will likely spend a big part of the day reviewing sales figures, making decisions regarding the products that are carried by the stores in the region, and meeting with other managers over topics of in-store marketing efforts, employee relations and other general operations.

The FMCG sales manager that works within an individual store will have significantly less responsibility. These jobs have the lowest level of compensation of all those which fall under the general job title as well.

Managers in these FMCG sales jobs spend their day organizing store staff, handling customer and employee issues, reviewing the performance of staff, and making purchasing and stocking decisions for the store.