In today's business world, proficiency in management skills is essential for career growth and success. Managerial skills can be defined as attributes or abilities that are essential for every leader and manager to succeed and fulfill specific tasks expected from them by the organization.
Management makes human efforts more productive. It brings better projects, plants, equipment, officers, products, services, and human relations to our society. Improvements and progress are constant watchwords. The roles and responsibilities of a manager include performing functions like planning, organizing, staffing, directing, and controlling. A manager is responsible for managing a department or team and handling several administrative tasks. Managers need to administer and coordinate resources effectively and efficiently to ensure their usage in the successful accomplishment of the business objectives.
A manager's role starts with understanding the business objectives and performs the goal setting for his department and team. He needs to mobilize and utilize the resources to accomplish the desired results within predetermined constraints of time, effort, and cost. The manager administers the day to day management of effective utilization of resources like men, materials, machines, methods, money, and markets.
Managers to be successful have to know how to do things efficiently and effectively, so they are indeed a unique scientific and artistic combination in practice. Management skills can be defined as the set of abilities and efforts applied by the managers in order to effectively achieve the organizational goals.
To accomplish all these tasks a manager needs proficiency in many skill areas like great communication, time management, organizational awareness, problem-solving, decision making, and creativity clubbed with other essential leadership skills.
You may want to work on the following skills for enhancing your success, more particularly when you get into a managerial position.
As a manager, you are responsible for controlling and managing your team in order to accomplish your business goals. You also need to refine your Leadership & Management Skills in order to motivate, influence, and enable other employees to make a meaningful contribution to the success of your organization. A strong foundation on Leadership Theories and understanding of various Leadership Styles will help you easily fulfill your responsibility as a manager.
Towards realizing the organizational or project/program goals you need to have strong project management skills. Know the goals of your organization, understand the project scope and objectives, build an effective team by selecting the right subordinates, and delegate work by letting subordinates decide issues within their respective spheres of operation and check to ensure that the results being obtained are satisfactory. Planning is the process of setting goals, developing strategies, and outlining tasks and schedules to accomplish organizational goals. A plan well laid is half the job done.
A team leader is someone who provides guidance, instruction, direction, and leadership to a group of individuals for the purpose of achieving the desired objectives. The team leader monitors the quantitative and qualitative achievements of the team and reports results. As a manager, you should select your group members carefully and continuously motivate them and try to minimize the conflicts among them. Strive to attain effective interpersonal relationships. Visit the section on team leadership to learn more about team management. Delegation is the assignment of certain duties and responsibilities by the manager to the subordinates. However, the manager still remains accountable for the work delegated.
Communication is an act of sharing ideas and information. There are three types of communication written, oral and gestural. A manager should focus on improving his communication skills as well as human relations. One can strengthen human relations by speaking and listening effectively and trying to examine the situations from the other person's viewpoint.
Creativity can be defined as looking where all have looked but seeing what no one else has seen. Creativity is the art of doing things in a different way that leads to new and unexpectedly better results. Learn to develop creative solutions to business problems using Creativity Tools.
Problem-solving and decision-making are important skills for business and life. Problem-solving and decision-making are closely linked, Problem solving often involves decision making. Being able to make decisions and solve problems effectively is necessary for every manager to produce end results.
There is no doubt that strategic management tools and techniques are important parts of the manager's day to day life. The manager needs to participate in the strategic management process and perform analysis and planning. A manager should view management as the opportunity to set strategic direction by influencing other people favorably and should also evaluate what’s achieved and, if necessary, take remedial action. Managers should know the business strategy and work towards making a business unique and successful.
Effective stress management helps the manager to effectively deal with organizational and personal stress. Stress management tools help you to be happier, healthier, and more productive. The ultimate goal is a balanced life, with time for work, relationships, relaxation, and fun. Express personal feelings and understand the feelings of others and look for the best in others. Make sure each group member is assigned the work best suited for that person and encourage members to assume responsibility.
Organizations need to change to stay relevant. Change management strategy is critical to not only humanizing change but making it last. Managers act as agents who cope with change and bring about change for the betterment of the organization.
Time Management is more than just managing time. It is about controlling the use of the most valuable - and undervalued - resource. It is managing oneself in relation to time. It is setting priorities and taking charge of the situation and time utilization. To improve time efficiency managers should spend time on matters that are really important and plan and follow through on programs.
Management offers abundant opportunities. The choice of careers is steadily broadening and covers a wide range of talent and ability. Every major activity in every organization involves the management of personnel. Whether you become an academic or an administrator in an organization or a worker or a field functionary at any level in any field, you need to focus on your career management yourself. Managers are also responsible for providing career direction to their team members.
The concepts and skills discussed throughout our website will be useful to you to adapt them to your work situations for your effective functioning and organizational management or administration.
For yourself always set high standards for proposed levels of achievement and become effective in decision-making. Adopt a questioning attitude to discover and use new ideas and be a leader by getting involved in the action. Evaluate your team members consistently and provide timely constructive feedback and keep working towards increasing personal overall domain and functional knowledge while sharpening your leadership skills.
Technology represents tremendous value if you view it from the proper perspective. IT empowerment also has its various levels in any organization. As a CIO or IT Senior Leader, you should try to move the technology function up the value chain. Learn how to transform your service delivery organization being looked upon as another cost center to a business partner that provides valuable services and brings competitive advantage for the business.
Stress is a product of the busyness of modern life. It has assumed grave dimensions ever since the emergence of industrialism. In fact, stress is a natural, ongoing, dynamic, and interactive process that takes place as people adjust to their environment. Stress can be brought about by positive or negative life events. Distress can cause disease and eustress or positive stress can promote wellbeing and increased productivity. Learn to recognize and be responsible for your stress, and learn the ways to manage stress.
Functional skills are the core competencies that can be transferred to different work areas like understanding of finance is independent and a finance expert can comfortably adapt to a manufacturing or service industry. Functional skills are obtained by understanding the various processes and the principles applicable to a business function. Functional experts are in great demand as they are specialists and required to manage the business processes like human resources, operations, or finance.
Improving Skills & Competencies
Whenever you are looking for a job or having your yearend discussion with your manager, two terms generally referred to be “Skills” and “competencies”. Today success in a career is an outcome of having essential competencies and building required skills. Skills could be a major distinguishing factor for you to move up on the career ladder and jump from one role to another. Leadership skills when combined with relevant domain and functional expertise can transform your entire career growth and help you have a fulfilling career.
Develop your Leadership Skills
There are a number of broad skill areas that are particularly important for leaders. Today's demanding global business landscape is defined by relentless change and rising business complexity, bringing new challenges. Leadership skills provide career-enhancing resources and support you to be exceptionally successful in your career. Leaders need to provide direction to their teams and need to be able to make good and timely decisions to define and support strategic direction for the enterprise.
Reasons behind Wastage of Time
Under-utilization of time may be due to the faulty system or faults of manager/officer/leader or due to lack of planning. There could be many factors driving the procrastination behavior like system issues, personal work habits, and lack of delegation, personality traits, and bad working habits of the leader, failure to tackle interpersonal conflicts, obstacles, and lack of far-sightedness.
Tips for Effective Time Management
After studying and analyzing how time is spent, why time is wasted, and where time is wasted you need to decide about the changes required for effective utilization of time. For this purpose, a large number of remedial measures can be taken by you. The first and foremost determinant of a planned and purposeful utilization of time is to develop consciousness of the value of time at all levels of the organization. Planning, goal setting, and defining priorities are concerns to addressed immediately.
Robert Katz identified three leadership skills called - technical skills, human skills, and conceptual skills as the basic personal skills essential for leadership. Leaders must possess these three skills that assist them in optimizing a leader's performance. Technical skills are related to the field, human skills are related to communicating with people and conceptual skills related to setting the vision.
Team Development by Building Trust
As your team begins to work together, you need to establish a way each team member can exchange ideas and build mutual trust. Successful groups are built on trust and collaboration. A free exchange of ideas, in an open environment, will allow your team to get to know each other and enable you to check on how they work together. Learn some tips to help build team trust and establish personal bonds.
“Level 5 Leadership”, this term was coined by Jim Collins in his book “Good to Great” and it is all about achieving "Greatness" as a leader. This article will explain what we mean by Level 5 Leadership and what the characteristics of a Level 5 leader are. What it takes to achieve greatness as a leader, and what are the steps and strategies that one can use to move up to this top level of leadership.
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