Biggest Challenges Faced By A Resource Manager At Mercer
Michelle's biggest challenge as a Resource Manager at Mercer involves navigating diverse personalities and communication styles across multiple teams, making it "difficult...managing people and managing work." The need to prioritize competing demands from various stakeholders, each viewing their issue as "the most important problem," requires skillful expectation management.
Communication, Problem-Solving, Prioritization, Teamwork, Stakeholder Management
Advizer Information
Name
Job Title
Company
Undergrad
Grad Programs
Majors
Industries
Job Functions
Traits
Michelle Reid
Resource Manager
Mercer
University of Texas at Austin
NA
Advertising, Public Relations
Consulting & Related Professional Services
Human Resources (HR)
Took Out Loans, Greek Life Member, Transfer Student
Video Highlights
1. Managing diverse personalities and communication styles within a team.
2. Prioritizing tasks and managing expectations of multiple stakeholders with competing needs.
3. Balancing the needs of various teams and navigating the complexities of a multi-faceted business environment
Transcript
What are some of the biggest challenges that come with being a resource manager?
As a resource manager, you're dealing with people, and people can be challenging. You're working with so many different people across the company, with different personality types, working styles, and communication styles.
Working with diverse groups can be frustrating and difficult, especially when their communication styles or personalities differ from your own. This is something anyone working with people will tell you; it's not always straightforward and can be challenging.
It involves managing people and work to ensure tasks are completed by other teams. You need to make sure people are doing what they need to do so you can do what you need to do.
Beyond that, you're working with many stakeholders. Although the ARMAs don't necessarily report to anyone, we support the sales team, the accounting team, and the project managers. They all have needs from us, and each person views their problem as the most important one.
Therefore, you need to be able to assess these issues and prioritize what is truly the business's most important problem. This involves managing expectations and communicating that you have a lot going on. You need to explain that some things need to be handled first and that others will be addressed later.
It's about prioritizing in a way that satisfies everyone, though you can never make everyone happy. So, in that sense, it's a bit about managing expectations.
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