Monday, 1 October 2018

Management Skills

Business management is more than simply telling employees what to do. Managers must understand business organization, finance, and communication, as well as have a thorough understanding of their particular market and relevant technologies and policies.

While managers are not necessarily the most important people in the organization, their work is critical to helping everyone else work together seamlessly.

Management vs. Leadership Skills

Management skills overlap with leadership skills, as both involve problem-solvingdecision-making, planning, delegation, communication, and time management. Good managers are often good leaders. And yet the two roles are distinct.

Management focus on the technical “how” of accomplishing tasks. Leaders, in contrast, focus on the “why,” motivating and inspiring their subordinates.

The critical role of a manager is to ensure that a company’s many moving parts are all working properly together. Without this integration, problems can arise and issues can “fall through the cracks.”

Management Skills

Most management skills are related to five basic, fundamental functions: planning, organizing, coordinating, directing, and oversight.

Planning
Individual managers may or may not be personally involved in drafting company policy and strategy, but even those who aren’t still must be able to plan. You might be given certain objectives and then be responsible for developing ways to meet those objectives. You may need to adjust someone else’s plan to new circumstances. In either case, you’ll have to understand what your resources are, develop time tables and budgets, and assign tasks and areas of responsibility.

Organizing
Organizing generally means creating structures to support or accomplish a plan. This might involve creating a new system of who reports to whom, designing a new layout for the office, or building strategy and planning around how to move through a project, how to move toward deadlines, and how to measure milestones.
Aspects of organization could also mean helping leaders under your guidance manage their subordinates well. Organization is about planning and foresight, and requires an ability to comprehend the big picture.
Coordinating
Managers must know what is happening, what needs to happen, and who and what are available to accomplish assigned tasks. If someone is miscommunicating, if someone needs help, if a problem is being overlooked or a resource underutilized, a manager needs to notice and correct the issue. Coordinating is the skill that lets the organization act as a unified whole.
Directing/Delegating
Directing is the part where you take charge and tell people what to do, otherwise known as delegating, giving orders, and making decisions. Someone has to do it, and that someone could be you.
Oversight
Oversight means keeping track of what’s going on and setting right anything that gets out of place. It might include anything from reviewing business models and checking for inefficiencies to checking to make sure a project is on time and on budget. Oversight is the maintenance phase of management.

Interpersonal skills

Management jobs are all about people and being able to build successful relationships is integral. If you want to lead a team you'll first need to earn the respect of your colleagues and to do this you need to know how to effectively deal with other people.
Setting time aside to get to know your team members on both a personal and professional level, perhaps through social activities or team-building training, while still maintaining professional boundaries, will go a long way to earning their respect.
You need to demonstrate your managerial qualities and authority while maintaining the ability to play your part as a member of a team.

Forward planning and strategic thinking

It's a manager's job to think of the big picture, so as well as focusing on today's tasks and responsibilities you need to plan for the future. This means setting priorities in line with company goals, reviewing systems and policies, and attending training and managing the CPD activities of your team. As a strategic thinker you'll encourage innovation and change in order to make your team and the organisation as a whole more productive and profitable.

Communication and motivation

Effective leaders must master all forms of communication including written, verbal and listening skills. As a team manager you're the line of communication between frontline staff and senior management, so you'll need to be able to communicate with a variety of people from entry-level employees to heads of departments and CEOs in a number of different ways such as via email and social media, over the phone and in presentations, meetings and one-to-ones.
As a leader you'll need to establish a trusting relationship with your employees so they feel comfortable sharing information with you and vice versa. To ensure that lines of communication remain open you'll need to make yourself readily available and accessible to your employees to discuss any issues or concerns that arise. Putting in place an open door policy or weekly or monthly team meetings should facilitate this. When communicating let your staff know that they matter by keeping eye contact, smiling and listening attentively.
Projecting an open, positive attitude at work goes a long way to creating a happy and healthy work environment. Don't shut yourself off or put yourself on a pedestal. Simple things such as active encouragement, recognising achievements and taking an interest in the lives of your employees boosts morale and ensures that staff feel valued by the company. If people are a product of their environment, a positive workplace creates happy, motivated employees.

Organisation and delegation

On a day-to-day basis a manager must juggle multiple responsibilities so excellent organisational skills are vital. You will need to manage your own workload, oversee the work of other employees, attend meetings and training sessions, carry out appraisals and review company policies. Sloppy working practices, tardiness and a general lack of organisational ability will not be tolerated at this level and could set a bad example to your staff. Effective organisational skills reduce stress, save time and ensure that important deadlines are met.
Many managers ease their own busy workload by delegating tasks to colleagues. To do this effectively you need to analyse and identify the skills of your employees and assign duties to each depending on their skillset. Delegation is far from a sign of weakness and can in fact multiply the amount of work that a manager can accomplish, while developing an employee's confidence and skills.

Forward planning and strategic thinking

It's a manager's job to think of the big picture, so as well as focusing on today's tasks and responsibilities you need to plan for the future. This means setting priorities in line with company goals, reviewing systems and policies, and attending training and managing the CPD activities of your team. As a strategic thinker you'll encourage innovation and change in order to make your team and the organisation as a whole more productive and profitable.

Problem solving and decision-making

As a manager you'll be tasked with spotting and solving problems on daily basis. This requires outstanding attention to detail and the ability to remain calm under pressure. To ensure that your team is productive and that the workflow runs smoothly you'll have to think on your feet when problems arise. Creative thinking will help you to come up with innovative solutions that minimise the impact on your team and the business as a whole.
Thinking on your feet also comes in useful when you have to make a snap decision about how to successfully complete a task or meet a business goal. Being able to quickly weigh up the pros and cons of a situation and make an informed decision is essential.


Problem solving and decision-making

As a manager you'll be tasked with spotting and solving problems on daily basis. This requires outstanding attention to detail and the ability to remain calm under pressure. To ensure that your team is productive and that the workflow runs smoothly you'll have to think on your feet when problems arise. Creative thinking will help you to come up with innovative solutions that minimise the impact on your team and the business as a whole.
Thinking on your feet also comes in useful when you have to make a snap decision about how to successfully complete a task or meet a business goal. Being able to quickly weigh up the pros and cons of a situation and make an informed decision is essential.

Mentoring

As well as being business-focused decision-makers, managers also need to play a supportive role. If you've reached this senior level you have proven experience, knowledge and skills and it's your job to pass this knowledge along and share your skills with other colleagues.
This involves training and advising staff and building their confidence and skills. In a management position you're charged with overseeing the continued professional development of all employees and will be the driving force behind the progression of team members.

Let's face it—In Management, the one thing you can be certain of is constant change, added responsibilities and rising expectations. The most successful managers are those who learn to increase their flexibility, expand their managerial skills and close gaps. You need to become a multidimensional manager. In short, you must be willing to invest in yourself and your people.
The top 6 skills that make a great manager are:
  1. Leadership
  2. Communication
  3. Collaboration
  4. Critical Thinking
  5. Finance
  6. Project Management 

Three Types of Managerial Skills

Robert Katz identifies three types of skills that are essential for a successful management process:
  • Technical skills,
  • Conceptual skills and
  • Human or interpersonal management skills.

Technical Skills as One Part of Management Skills

As the name of these skills tells us, they give the manager’s knowledge and ability to use different techniques to achieve what they want to achieve. Technical skills are not related only for machines, production tools or other equipment, but also they are skills that will be required to increase sales, design different types of products and services, market the products and services, etc.
For example, let’s take an individual who works in the sales department and has highly developed sales skills achieved through education and experience in his department or the same departments in different organizations. Because of these skills that he possesses, this person can be a perfect solution to become a sales manager. This is the best solution because he has excellent technical skills related to the sales department.
On the other hand, the person who becomes sales manager will start to build his next type of required skills. It is because if his task until now was only to work with the customers as a sales representative, now he will need to work with employees in the sales department in addition to the work with customers.
Technical skills are most important for the first-level managers. Whet it comes to the top managers, these skills are not something with high significance level. As we go through a hierarchy from the bottom to higher levels, the technical skills lose their importance.

Conceptual skills present knowledge or ability of a manager for more abstract thinking. That means he can easily see the whole through analysis and diagnosis of different states. In such a way they can predict the future of the business or department as a whole.
As a first, a company includes more business elements or functions as selling, marketing, finance, production, etc. All these business elements have different goals even completely opposed goals. Think about marketing and production as a business function and their specific goals. You’ll see the essential difference. The conceptual skills will help managers to look outside their department’s goals. So, they will make decisions that will satisfy overall business goals.
Conceptual skills are vital for top managers, less critical for mid-level managers, and not required for first-level managers. As we go from a bottom of the managerial hierarchy to the top, the importance of these skills will rise.

Human or Interpersonal Managerial Skills

Human or interpersonal management skills present a manager’s knowledge and ability to work with people. One of the most critical management tasks is to work with people. Without people, there will not be a need for the existence of management and managers.
These skills will enable managers to become leaders and motivate employees for better accomplishments. Also, they will help them to make more effective use of human potential in the company. Simply, they are the essential skills for managers.
Interpersonal management skills are essential for all hierarchical levels in the company.


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