INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT

THE ANALYSIS OF MANAGER’S SKILLS

By: Tran Linh Chi
Lecturer: Nguyen Duy Ly

MGT 101 | IB1502 | June 16, 2020

 Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION.............................................................................................. 3
LITERATURE REVIEW & ..................................................................................... 5
CRITICAL ANALYSIS ......................................................................................... 5
1. TECHNICAL SKILL...................................................................................... 5
2. COMMUNICATION SKILL................................................................................ 5
3. DECISION-MAKING ..................................................................................... 6
Difficulties & Recommendation .......................................................................... 7
a. Continuously learning .................................................................................... 7
b. Be curious: ............................................................................................. 7
CONCLUSION ................................................................................................ 8
APPENDICES: QUESTION LIST.............................................................................. 9
REFERENCE LIST: .......................................................................................... 10

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 INTRODUCTION
Nowadays, management in practice is a lengthy and complicated process. Managers need to
face myriad challenging so as multiple situations. Their job is complicated even more by
rapid changes, unexpected disruption, and both minor and major crises (Griffin,2018).
Therefore, managers need more than one skill to complete the task perfectly.

The purpose of this report paper is to dissect some manager’s skills in their company. An
interview has been carried out to collect data for this project. To be more reliable, the Priority
Relationship Manager of Techcombank was asked a list of questions about her job as a senior
manager and the skills which she think are necessary during the management process. The
writings following will be analyzing skills both she had used to manage and she thinks a
manager should have.

The table below is some information about the manager I had interviewed to complete this
report.

Full name: Nguyen Thi Thu Hang

Date of birth: 19/04/1976
Accommodation: Tay Ho, Ha Noi
Telephone number: 0979819476
Email: hangntt16@techcombank.com.vn
Education:
- Graduated Literature and Linguistics Teacher
Education at Hanoi National University of Education
in 1999.
- Graduated Financial Accounting at Banking
University in 2010.
- Complete the Manager course, organized by Techcombank, in 2012.
Occupation:
- Literature teacher in Yen My high school (1999-2007)
- Teller and accountant in Techcombank (2010-2015)
- Priority’s Financial advisor in Techcombank (2015-2018)
- Priority Relationship Manager in Techcombank (2018 to now)
- Head of financial advisory department in VPS Securities (2019 to now)

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About the companies which she is working for,

Firstly, Techcombank, it is one of the leading commercial banks in Vietnam with a

sustainable financial foundation and outstanding product-service portfolio. With the target
become #1 bank and the leading business in Vietnam, Techcombank perfectly focuses on
five core values Customer centricity, Innovation & Creativeness, Collaboration for common
objectives, Self-development and Work efficiently (Vision, Mission, and Value, n.d.). For 27
years, Techcombank constantly trying and making efforts to improve and develop. Especially
in recent years, it take a lot of awards about service quality and working efficiency as Best
bank in Vietnam 2018 (awarded by Euromoney), Best Trade Finance Bank in Vietnam 2018
(Awarded by: Global Banking & Finance Review), Vietnam House of the Year 2019
(awarded by Asia Risk magazine), Bank partner of the year 2019 (awarded by Asia trusted
life agents & advisers),...
Website: https://www.techcombank.com.vn/trang-chu
Hotline: 1800 588 822

Secondly, VPS Securities, established in 2006, VPS Securities (VPS) is one of the largest
securities firms in Vietnam with charter capital of VND3,500 billion (USD150 million) and
total assets of over VND10,274 billion (approximately USD442 million) as of June 30, 2019
(VPS Introduction, 2019). VPS provides a comprehensive set of products and services to
institutions and individuals with key business areas include: securities brokerage & trading,
financial services, investment banking, finance advisory and research. For 14 years, VPS
becomes more and more sustainable and prosperous. Especially, in 2019 VPS received two
important awards
The Best M&A Advisor of the Year 2018-2019 (by the M&A Forum Vietnam) and Best
Investment Bank 2017-2019 (by Alpha Southeast Asia Magazine), and many other
achievements.
Website: https://www.vps.com.vn/Default.aspx
Hotline: +84 1900 6457

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 LITERATURE REVIEW &
CRITICAL ANALYSIS
1. TECHNICAL SKILL
According to Andrew DuBrin, technical skill involves an understanding of and proficiency in
a specific activity that involves methods, processes, or techniques. Technical skills include
the ability to prepare a budget, layout a production schedule, prepare a spreadsheet analysis,
and demonstrate piece electronic equipment. Some people think that this skill is just
important for first-line managers but in general, it makes a big role for all levels of the
manager. There is rarely or almost no one can do the manager even the first-line manager
from the first step. We all need time to do as a staff before to be a manager. This time is
excellent to gain not only technical skill but also the experience. Besides, it is a chance to
express yourself, to make other staffs or even managers know about you. It is extremely
helpful for your manager position.
Mrs. Hang said that the first position she does when joins Techcombank was teller and saler,
the lowest position in human resource structure. She had done this position for 5 years,
promoted to Priority’s Financial advisor (2015) and now she is a Priority Relationship
Manager (from 2018). Eight years she spent learning specialized skills, gain experiences,
express herself as a person not only has great technical skills but also has a nice soft skill like
communication and working in a group. As a manager, she uses technical skills to help her
staff find the wrong, improve their skill by giving them the most effective pieces of advice.
In this way she kills two birds with one stone, improving the efficient working of staff and
making closer the relationship between manager and staff.

2. COMMUNICATION SKILL
In today's hectic world, we rely heavily on sharing information, resulting in greater emphasis
being placed on having good communication skills. Good verbal and written communication
skills are essential to deliver and understand information quickly and accurately. Being able
to communicate effectively is a vital life skill and should not be overlooked (Beqiri, 2017).
Possessing great communication skills is crucial for a manager. It can determine how well
information is shared throughout a team, ensuring that the group acts as a unified workforce.
How well a manager communicates with the rest of his/her team also determines how well
outlined procedures can be followed, how well the tasks and activities can be completed, and
thus, how successful an organization will be (What are Management Skills?, n.d.).
Communication skills make an important role not only within a company but also among
many companies, even between countries. Of course, in this situation, the community is

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promoted up to a very high level, which is not only communication but as well as the
cooperation of communication, professional knowledge, psychology, …
“She almost understands all I think and I feel. She knows how to motivates our team at the
right moment. We always feel satisfied when working with her”- one of her staff told me.
Mrs. Hang has nice listening skills. She understands what the speakers mean very quickly,
especially she can know how the speakers feel by their voice. She makes everybody sense be
respected and comfortable when business presenting or even informal stories sharing. She
also indicates about eight-year as a literature teacher. It helps her become more subtle and
efficient in communicating with another person.
Some documentaries divide communication and motivation as two individual aspects of the
manager’s skills but I think communication is a larger aspect and includes motivation.
Motivation is remarkable in business; BBC wrote in a business context: “Motivation is about
the ways a business can encourage staff to give their best. Motivated staff care about the
success of the business and work better”. We have many ways to motivate or encourage
everybody and direct motivate or motivation in talking is the most basic and easy way. For
instance, instead of saying “it is your task, you must complete on time by any price”, we can
say “I know your task is a little bit hard but I believe you can complete on time. So, take it
easy!”

3. DECISION-MAKING
This is one of the most important skills of a manager, it with conceptual skills are elements
that make the difference between managers and staff. Griffin said that “effective manager
must have good decision-making skills” and the CFI website wrote, “A good manager needs
to possess great decision-making skills, as it often dictates his/her success in achieving
organizational objectives”.
Managers need to face numerous challenges to multiple situations, as well as to make myriad
decisions, whether knowing or not. Sometimes she/ he needs to make a decision suddenly, no
time to consider or find information. Of course, it is a key component in a manager’s success.
Decision making is always not easy and usually not entirely rational, follow Andrew DuBrin.
There are many factors influence decision-maker: past experiences, a variety of cognitive
biases, an escalation of commitment and sunk outcomes, individual differences, including
age and socioeconomic status, and a belief in personal relevance (Dietrich, 2010). But the
good manager is able to consider and limited these effects to make the best choice. The
decision-makers do not always have true choice. Sometimes, they may be wrong but, in most
situations, they identify soon and fix it before too late.
Hang share with me that making a decision is very important, it impacts on many aspects.
Two years ago, she had to face off an immediate decision. She had not known anything about
the employment contract of a special staff. She said because of security problems she can’t
share more but it is an extremely hard decision. Luckily that time she had the right choice, if
not she even may be lost her work.

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DIFFICULTIES & RECOMMENDATION
1. Difficulty
As mentioned in the introduction, the interviewee is concurrently a Priority Relationship
Manager and Head of financial advisory department. She needs to manage two individual
group with each one has different tasks, goal, strategies, … It requires not only very good
technical skills but also soft skills (likes time-manage skills, communication skills,
Conceptual Skills,…)
Now she directly manager about 50 people for both two company. Each person has character,
even may be multinational (she said in her Techcombank team has 2 people had born and
lived more than 20 years in broad so they are used to international life-style, it makes a quite
difficult to understand and work together). Understanding staff is one of the most efficient
way help manager reach staff’s sympathy and belief which makes the management become
easier.
Following to Mrs. Hang, company’s work is extremely stress, the staff need almost time,
even more than 8 hours (in regulation), just can complete the task. After a work-day, they
always feel exhausted, they have no time to themselves until weekend. With hard work, they
must be having good pay but in general is seem little bit low, I mean it not deserves for them.
This makes staff’s mind tired and easy to be down-hearted. The manager’s role to motivate
become extra important.

2. Recommendation
a. Continuously learning
As I indicated management in practice is a lengthy and complicated process. To become a
good manager people must continuously learn and improve oneself. Not only be technical
knowledge but also other manager skills. We have many ways to do that. Nowadays there are
numerous manager skills course both offline and online in any time (for even the busiest
person), we can enroll. Other way is making a survey for staff ask them how they think about
the management, what they want in their manager… From the answers we can consider and
improve.

b. Be curious:
“Nothing kills creativity like a risk-averse, play-it-safe leader”. The leader, or in this situation
– the manager, should approach problems with a beginner’s mindset – curious and open to
new ideas (Forbes, 2017). Thinking that oneself is all-knowing, more experienced can create
a narrow minded approach to new problems.

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 CONCLUSION
In summary, the manager in the interview performed well three skills which she thinks is the
most important for a manager: Technical Skills, Communication Skills and Decision-making
Skills. She also has clear explanation and takes herself situations for example. She still done
very well as role of manager but there are some problems in management process, caused by
both internal and external factors, which required her continuously learning and taking more
experience.

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 APPENDICES: QUESTION LIST
1. What is your position in your company?
2. How long have you been in this position?
3. Can you describe a day in your working life?
4. What is the most challenging part of your job?
5. Which manager skills do you apply to your job?
6. Do you know about how your staffs feel about your management?
7. Beside these skills you have indicated, which skills do you think be necessary for a
manager?
8. Why you think these skills is important?
9. Do you think if be necessary to improve your manager skills? (If yes) What can you do
to improve it likes join manager courses, take feedback from staffs, …?

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 REFERENCE LIST:
Gini Beqiri, 2017, The Importance of Communication Skills in Business, June 16th 2020, from
https://virtualspeech.com/blog/importance-of-communication-
skills#:~:text=Good%20verbal%20and%20written%20communication,and%20should%20not%2
0be%20overlooked.&text=Communication%20can%20be%20defined%20as%20the%20process
%20of%20understanding%20and%20sharing%20meaning.
Cindy Dietrich, 2010, Decision Making: Factors that Influence Decision Making, Heuristics Used,
and Decision Outcomes, June 17th 2020, from
http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/180/decision-making-factors-that-influence-decision-
making-heuristics-used-and-decision-
outcomes#:~:text=There%20are%20several%20important%20factors,a%20belief%20in%20personal%2
0relevance.

DuBrin, A. ed., (2011). Essentials of Management. 9th ed. South-Western College

Pub.
Forbes (2017). Council Post: 15 Ways Leaders Can Promote Creativity In The Workplace. [online]
Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescoachescouncil/2017/12/21/15-ways-
leaderscan-promote-creativity-in-the-workplace/#44be8e3358ef

Vision, Mission, and Value, 2015 June 16th 2020, from https://www.techcombank.com.vn/about-
us/about-techcombank/vision-mission
Introduction VPS, 2019, June 16th 2020, from https://www.vps.com.vn/AboutUs.aspx
What are Management Skills?, n.d., June 16th 2020, from
https://corporatefinanceinstitute.com/resources/careers/soft-skills/management-skills/

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