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Likely to Succeed as an Executive?

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This activity is important because as a future executive, you must be able to determine whether your managers are ready to succeed as an executive. Now, more than ever, employees are held accountable for their actions and for results. In the past, people at many companies could show up$,$ do an OK job, get a decent evaluation, and get a raise equal to the cost of living and maybe higher. Today, managers must do more, and do it better. Career success is most likely if you are competent at the four functions of management and are flexible, creative, and ambitious. You will need to learn how to think strategically and convey your business vision, make decisions, and work in teams. You will need to deliver competitive advantage and thrive on change as you perform the interpersonal, informational, and decisional roles essential to management.

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The goal of this activity is to demonstrate your understanding of the skills required to be a successful top$-$level manager or executive.

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Review the text material on three broad skills managers need, and then read the following short case. When you have finished reading the case, answer the questions that follow.

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Isabel McDonald, a young manager in a large software firm, has been identified as a potential candidate for a newly created executive position in her organization. Her employees say that she's like a whirlwind$$that she approaches each task with a passion for identifying the core underlying problem and crafting solutions for those problems. In that respect, they call her "CSI" boss because she is like a passionate detective on the lookout for problems to solve with her highly developed technical skills. She loves her job because it is what she wants to do$.$ That's probably why, when her employees interact with her, she seems to be so passionate. She chooses which tasks she wants to take on$.$ Her whirlwind nature drives her to be very action$-$oriented. She can walk into any problem or situation and immediately take action. She calls it "her intuition," and says she is proud to not get bogged down with "analysis paralysis." "Plans are for those without intuition," she says. And, she's not afraid of failing. If something goes wrong, she doesn't dwell on it$$sometimes$,$ she doesn't even know it has gone wrong because she's off to another problem. Employees are often reluctant to bring problems to her attention for fear of being ridiculed. As her employees describe her, she really is like a whirlwind$$a fast$-$moving one!

Which of the following captures how Isabel decides what to work on$?$