What makes a good department head?
Good communication skills are an important part of department management because the department manager acts as a communications conduit both from management down and from the people in the department up.
A good department head must be able to internalize corporate goals. Then he or she should apply them to the work in his or her department, using those goals as a guideline for making decisions, assigning priorities, and developing new projects.
Effective management of any department—large or small—requires the same management skills used in directing a larger segment of the organization—an entire division or facility. These skills are difficult to acquire, but they're highly transferable from one situation to another.