Good managers are quite rare, and becoming a good manager can enhance your career prospects significantly. Whether you have recently completed your time in education or have been working for a number of years, there comes a time for most, when you hope to progress into a management position.
If you are driven to apply for a management position because of better pay or the increased responsibility, there are some key skills you'll need to pass the interview and be successful in your role.
We've gathered the 8 Skills that you need to be a good manager below:
Building successful relationships with your colleagues, both seniors and direct reports, are critical to your success in a management job. If your objective is to lead a team of people and report your views into the directors and owners of the business you work within, you'll need to earn the respect of both those above and below you in the management hierarchy.
One of the easiest ways to earn the respect of your colleagues is by committing time in your diary to get to know your team on both a personal and professional level. Finding out:
These are great ways of learning about your team and earning their respect. Once you have their respect, it will help you demonstrate your managerial qualities and authority, whilst maintaining the ability to play your part as a member of the team too.
The expression of one's thoughts from one mind to another is the premise of communication. Sounds simple, but ensuring that the communication is an accurate representation of your thoughts is more difficult. To be a good manager, you must master all forms of communication. Whether you are looking to convey a message in writing or verbally, if the communication is important, we recommend:
Combining all of these communication points should drive you towards communicating professionally and with authority.
As a team manager, from time to time you may have disruptions or moments of disconnect within the team. These moments can be extremely negative to the output and efficiency of your team's work. Critical to target setting and a unified team is motivation. There are two types of motivation:
A good manager will be able to distinguish between those who respond best to positive motivation, and those who respond best to negative motivation.
The impression that managers are often juggling multiple tasks and 'spinning plates' is not an inaccurate portrayal of reality. Quite often, as a manager you have complex challenges and responsibilities that need to be fulfilled on short deadlines, and all requiring complex and differing effort. A good manager needs to have excellent organisational skills.
Managing your own workload, alongside those of others, while scheduling and running through team appraisals, taking management meetings and reviewing department/company policy successfully require:
The most common perception of what management is, is often delegation. Delegation is the process of handing tasks down to your team members to do, to enable you to complete your workload.
While delegation is important for a manager, a good manager needs to delegate efficiently. First, you need to analyse and identify the skills of your employees. Then, assign duties based on their strengths and the surplus time they have available to absorb the task. The key rules for delegation are:
Mastering delegation will not only reduce the stress within your team, but it will bring cohesion and increase efficiency.
When you are in a managerial position you will be faced with challenges and problems every day. Burying your head in the sand and ignoring problems will often only make the problem grow in size and importance. So, as a manager you must learn how to make decisions in the best interests of your team, and solve problems when they arise.
More often than not, you will be required to resolve issues 'on the spot,' and thinking on your feet is something that you get better at doing with time. Here are some tips:
Figuring out how to put your personality to one side to consider the best interests of the team when faced with problems is a key traits of a good manager.
Commercial awareness, according to research, is one of the most significant factors in the difference between a good manager and an exceptional manager. It is also, according to recruiters, the one management skill that the majority of recent graduates lack.
Commercial acumen comes from a combination of factors, but a lot like experience, you can't buy it. It comes from exposure to situations and the results of your actions and those of the marketplace in general.
But, while you can not buy commercial awareness, you can enhance your ability to develop it and speed up the process:
Unfortunately conflict is inevitable, as it's impossible for all of your team to agree with you. And it's even less likely is that they will agree with each other! Conflict management is the process of limiting the negative impact of conflict within your team, whilst increasing the positive opportunities arising from it.
Enhancing learning opportunities and group outcomes are the benefits from a good approach to conflict management. There are some simple steps to assist you in your approach to dealing with conflict:
You cannot successfully become a good manager without being committed to improving yourself gradually over time, and becoming a great manager is something that can take years to achieve. Yet, having awareness of what it takes to become an exceptional manager is critical to reaching your career goals.