Eng. Lourival Tavares, president of the Board of Directors, gives a lecture on “Management Skills”.
Mining is going through a period of crisis accentuated by instability of metal prices in international market, occurrence of socio-environmental conflicts and decrease in investments made in development of mining operations. Therefore, the Chamber of Mines of Peru promotes the development of management skills in mining among the professionals in charge of organization management, as this will contribute to reduce impact of problem on the mining business.
As part of the program to be presented at the “International GeoMet 2016 Mining Congress”, a series of specialized courses are scheduled to be presented. Members of the Board of Directors and Advisory Council of the Chamber of Mines of Peru will be in charge of developing the “Short Courses”.
For example, president of the Board of Directors of our institution, Mr. Lourival Tavares, will speak on “Management Skills in Times of Crisis”, which is fundamental for today’s mining industry.
“It is necessary to promote development of management skills in companies as a measure to optimize management of organizations during a period of crisis; which consists of improving performance of all human resources available for achievement of objectives. These include improving production processes, reducing costs and improving relations with rural communities and state authorities,” said Eng. Tavares.
Among the skills referred to by the specialist, we can mention that managers must become leaders in their organization. Therefore, it is necessary that they connect with employees, to gain their trust and respect; in order to identify together strengths and weaknesses; not only of group, but also of leadership they exercise.
During the current period of uncertainty and instability in which the extractive activity is developing, companies have chosen to increase the specialization of management staff in order to optimize results of group management.
A specific case of this occurred on July 12, 2015, in Mexico. A total of 25 managers and personnel managers from 14 mining companies were trained in the Human Resources Management Seminar of Human Talent Committee of the Zacatecas Mining Cluster (Clusmin). “A worker committed to the company will always increase performance, but as managers we must know how to generate identification”, highlighted the entity at that time.
One factor that has influenced the development of the mining crisis has been the increase in socio-environmental conflicts between companies, communities near influence area and state authorities. In this sense, managers must develop management skills aimed to reducing consequences of these situations in mining; such as optimizing development of action programs and socio-environmental responsibility strategies to improve living conditions.
Managers must also generate progress and development for the surrounding communities and preserve the stability of the environment. These types of actions will improve level of acceptance of mining operations in those sectors of society that reject them.
Another of managerial skills that mining managers must acquire and improve is the optimization in the management of work teams, which will facilitate the achievement of results within the companies. One factor that must be taken into account is to promote open communication among all members.
When structuring groups, managers should evaluate the total quality variable. This refers to the need for cooperation and participation of all those involved, highlighting values such as the commitment of management and the adherence of people to the philosophy and objectives of the companies.
The correct management of teams generates benefits for the company. For example, it raises motivation and responsibility of personnel; as well as improves work environment, communication, level of polyfunctionality and quality of service or product. At the individual level, each employee optimizes his or her training level, satisfaction, and safety in the work development.
Every manager must know how to delegate. In this way, the people group in charge becomes effective in achieving objectives. For this purpose, it is important that everyone is clear about tasks, resources, responsibilities and deadlines to fulfill them. In addition, he should encourage cooperation rather than rivalry, because a poorly managed competition can become a dangerous element; as it could cause members to not help each other and to hide information from each other.
Finally, another important skill is related to success of effective presentations. Time in mining is short and, therefore, when these presentations are made, the objective is to introduce and make employees becoming familiar with the work plan, generate impact and cause a behavioral change among the collaborators.
This requires an adequate management of the available resources and an appropriate time management, which involves exhibitor to be concrete and use technology at hand (images, videos, statistics, etc.).
Poor organization of mining industry cause that projects are not developed within the established deadlines, which produces unforeseen expenses. It is therefore detrimental, especially in times of crisis.
On the other hand, completion of work within scheduled periods generates greater profitability. As example, we have the case of the Peruvian company, Buenaventura, which in January 2015 ranked first in the ranking of mining companies in Latin America.
Eng. Lourival Augusto Tavares, President of Board of Directors of the Chamber of Mines of Peru, will be in charge of the presentation of this outstanding topic. He has 44 years of professional experience developed in several Latin American countries. As part of his outstanding trajectory stands out his performance in important companies such as Bayer do Brasil, Petroleo Mexicano, Pluspetrol, among others.
