A significant factor that affects how an organization moves forward is the management skills of the people in key places — managers, supervisors, executives. Decision-makers need to be on-point in the way they manage resources like manpower, finances, and time in order to help propel their company towards greater success. In the same vein, people who wish to pursue greater heights in their respective careers also need to display the right management skills.
Take a look on the most compelling and essentials management skills:
- Accurately assessing and effectively managing performance
- Leadership
- Seeing the bigger picture (and/or vice versa)
- Sincere in building genuine professional relationships
- Thinking out of the box
Why management skills are important
One cannot emphasize enough how essential it is for an organization’s management team to possess the right set of basic, simple, yet utterly profound set of skills to achieve success as the company moves forward. Especially in an operating environment where competition is fierce and customers’ and consumers’ needs and wants change ever so often, having the right management skills means having the right tools to steer the company in the right direction. Taking the importance of these management skills for granted can result in a business’ failure. Poor management skills lead to mistakes, and mistakes carry with them a cost — and not just financially. Management skills affect a brand’s relationship with both its employees and its customers — upon whose satisfaction the success of the company depends on. Satisfied customers mean larger chances for repeat business and can potentially become brand advocates, and satisfied employees mean smoother operations and higher productivity. Successful and effective managers know that successful employees — the cornerstone of many organizations — need to be motivated and incentivized to work efficiently, honestly, productively, and creatively. Bad managers and bad management skills drive people away.
Moreover, having the right management skills drive growth and development, another two important characteristics organizations should have in this world where technology, trends, and customer preferences constantly change. Having the right management skills ensures that the organization is equipped to respond to and overcome new challenges, keeping it relevant and current.
The short of it is this: Utilizing the right management skills create win-win situations that benefit all parties involved.
>> Recommended reading: How to Develop Leadership Skills in Your Team
Management skills to guide you to success
There are a lot of helpful management skills leaders and managers can utilize to drive their respective organizations forward. We’ve compiled some of the more compelling and more essential ones. Remember: the success of your company hinges a lot of how you learn, adapt, and put to practice these management skills.
1. Accurately assessing and effectively managing performance
Manpower is the lifeblood of many companies. This is why part of the necessary skillset of the effective manager is the capacity to properly assess and management employee performance. This includes keeping and recruiting key talent, keeping employees motivated and dynamic, managing both individual employees and teams, and so on.
There is a consensus that performance management is a very important factor in business operations, according to research from Deloitte, which indicates that 78% of executives considering the matter to be a “high priority.” Furthermore, another Deloitte study indicates that 83% of managements that are successful in executing performance management see a boost in the quality of interactions and conversations between employees and managers. This in turn leads to a much more harmonious and smooth working relationship between all parties involved, where there are less misunderstandings and less miscommunication, allowing for the faster finishing of tasks and achievement of goals.
Especially in a growing economy where the talent level is high and (many millennial) employees have different perspectives about work, managers should be more attuned to the individual needs of workers in the workplace, as opposed to the old Industrial Age model mindset that saw employees as nameless worker bees in a large colony. Managers’ skills in performance assessment and management allow the organization to have more fulfilled, satisfied, and motivated workers who are more willing to commit to the company’s goals and see them come to fruition.
2. Leadership
It may sound simple and trite, but the importance of true and effective leadership in the workplace has been proven over time, and it continues to be a core skill set that managers should have — at least if they want their teams and their organizations to be successful. Some are born leaders, but leadership can be learned — as long as one is equipped with the right mindset. Leadership means lifting up the team and the organization to a level where everyone’s on the same page goal-wise, and ensuring that everyone is on-track and motivated to see those goals accomplished.
Another important facet of leadership is not only to be able to spot talent, but to nurture it. Leadership focuses on utilizing strengths, but also working towards solutions for weaknesses. This allows manpower deployment to stations / areas that may not actually just need the extra hands, but also where individuals can grow, learn new things, and have access to more and better career paths. Leadership is much more about facilitating cooperation between stakeholders, because it is also a way for everyone to have a more seamless and smoother working relationship with peers and co-workers.
Another key element that defines true leadership is the ability to take feedback not just from peers and superiors, but also from people lower down on the corporate ladder, without becoming defensive. Leaders recognize that they fail and commit mistakes too, and acknowledge that there is always, always room for improvement. Leaders don’t just call the shots, but they should also be able to take being called out for a misstep or blunder.
3. Seeing the bigger picture (and/or vice versa)
It’s an essential management skill to be able to see multiple perspectives of an issue or goal. Some managers get too fixated with the running of their teams that they tend to fall short of the larger goals; others do the opposite and focus too much on the larger goals, forgetting to take care of the smaller details that are also just as important. Skilled and successful managers know their place in the organization and determine how best to work with others. They keep their eyes on the proverbial prize, and do not allow their sense of perspective to be skewed by any sort of misplaced bias or pride.
Having a good sense of perspective also means that good managers stay in the loop — they know current events, market movements and trends, and so on. They display an open-mindedness that allows them to see the merits of new things and new methodologies, instead of clinging to outdated techniques or visions. While very conscious of the present, skilled managers keep their eyes straight ahead and constantly move forward.
4. Sincere in building genuine professional relationships
“Truly great managers want to know your story, they want to get to know you as a person not as simply someone who is filling a role on a team,” says an article on Forbes. This tack makes employees feel more valued, but also allows the manager to better understand employees more, and possibly discover a skill or talent that would have otherwise remained untapped and dormant. Fostering sincere professional relationships means that team members, colleagues and peers will tend to be more willing to put forward any concerns, allowing for faster problem solution and much more efficiency and productivity — as miscommunication always leads to a waste of both time and manpower.
We cannot stress the importance of communication enough — employees, co-workers and executives who work hand-in-hand day in and day out need open and honest channels of communication between themselves in order to keep things running smoothly. Successful managers are mindful of this, which is why they value and put a premium on their professional relationships.
5. Thinking out of the box
Skilled managers recognize the fact that not everything can be defined by the traditional way of doing things. Possessing creative and critical thinking allows and drives innovation in customer service, product and/or service development, and the like. While the traditional ways of doing things do deserve respect and acknowledgement, so do other means to accomplish goals. Take Adidas, for example. While collaboration between sports brands and athletes were very common, the once-struggling company decided to partner with a rapper — the controversial and already famous — Kanye West instead, even allowing him to create and design his own line of shoes. And thus the Yeezy was born, and now Adidas is nipping at the heels of its primary competitor, Nike. Adidas took the risk and took an unconventional idea and made (and continues to make) it a means to make itself more visible (especially to the millennial generation) and generate more revenue.
>> Recommended reading: Do You Have Time Management Skills?
Final word
Management cannot function without the right tools at their disposal to help keep things running efficiently. This is why Runrun.it prides itself as one of the most intuitive workflow management platform where leadership is equipped to make informed decisions. Things like the Smart Time Tracking feature (one of many) allows for better time monitoring and management. A more exhaustive tool the Dashboard, is filled with useful applications that can be utilized to generate data that can again, be used to develop initiatives and strategies that benefit the organization’s internal workings, as well as the company’s relationship with customers and clients. What’s more, the platform is customizable and can be modified to for your company’s culture and specific needs.
