Interpersonal Skill: The Cornerstone of Good Leadership at any Level

Interpersonal Skill: The Cornerstone of Good Leadership at any Level.

In every organization there are managers at different levels. Front line managers interact every day with employees; leading teams at the deck plate level. Middle managers oversee the front line managers and report to the top managers who are responsible for the overall direction of a company and its future potential. According to Organizational Behavior by Griffin and Moorhead, each level of management requires technical, interpersonal, conceptual, and diagnostic skill. The interesting part is that each level of management is different thus each requiring more emphasis on one skill over another (Griffin-Moorhead p12). While I agree that excellent technical skill is more important at the front line manager level then that of higher management, I have to disagree with the authors that interpersonal skill is less important as you move up the chain. Furthermore, I believe that this skill is unique in itself and should not be in the same category as the others as outlined in out text. Interpersonal skill is the ability to “communicate with, understand, and motivate individuals” and in my opinion is tremendously important if one wants to embrace organizational behavior at any level (Griffin-Moorhead P10). While Conceptual, Diagnostic and technical skill requirements fluctuate at different levels, I believe that interpersonal skill remains consistently important at each level of management. Using Frank Blake, CEO of Home Depot as an example, he demonstrates how interpersonal skill is equally important at the top executive management level and proves that it is a leadership cornerstone of any great manager.

The definition of management is “the ability to get things ...

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..., middle and top managers can only benefit from utilizing good interpersonal skills, after all it is what binds everything else together.

Works Cited

Griffin, R., & Moorhead, G. (2010). Organizational Behavior (9th ed.). Mason: South-Western.

Hill, C & McShane, S. (2008). Principles of Management. McGraw-Hill.

Davis Alison, CEO (2010). Employee Morale: Leading from the Ground Up. Communication World, Vol. 27. 22-226. http://egandb.uas.alaska.edu:2048/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=buh&AN=48609142&site=bsi-live

Tobin, R (2010). Frank Blake Home Depots Calmer-in-Chief. Seattle Times.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2012783334_homedepotprofilte05.html

Business Week Staff. (2008). The Best Managers of 2008. New York City: Bloomberg.

http://images.businessweek.com/ss/09/01/0108_best_worst/4.htm