For managers to be effective, they must have good management skills.
These management skills will ensure that he/she can effectively direct, guide, and delegate those workers the manager is responsible for overseeing.
In this article, we discuss the essential skills every manager must have to be effective, as well as the different types of management skills needed for different positions.
We cover project management, time management, conflict management, self-management, team management, stress management, people management, office management, and change management skills, along with how to develop them to advance in your management career.
The Essential Management Skills Pyramid
Let’s begin with a look at the levels of the management skills pyramid:
- Level 1 – This level is basic management skills and includes planning, organizing, directing, and controlling.
- Level 2 – Once you have mastered the skills of level 1, you’ll build on the skills from level 1. In level 2, you will build on your training and couching, motivational, and employee involvement skills.
- Level 3 – Management skills that you will develop in level 3 are much more complex. This is where we will focus. These are the skills that will be most beneficial in assisting you in developing your management career and in providing you with opportunities to advance in your field.
Navigating the Different Types of Management Skills
Different managers will require different skills depending on the type of management position they hold.
For example, a manager that oversees a team of assembly line workers would require an entirely different type of management skills, than a manager that oversees the human resource department.
Let’s have a look at some of the most important skills,
- Project Management Skills
- Time Management Skills
- Conflict Management Skills
- Self-Management Skills
- Team Management Skills
- Stress Management Skills
- People Management Skills
- Office Management Skills
- Change Management Skills
1. Project Management Skills
Project management is key to the success of any business.
Project management skills are a combination of many skills including the ability to plan, organize, budget, and manage the resources at hand. You must also be able to bring a project to completion by or before the due date.
When a person has good management skills, they are in demand by employers who recognize the value of these skills. After all, if you can successfully manage projects to completion, you are affecting the company’s bottom line in a positive way.
Good project managers are able to work well in a team environment, and they are able to pull their team together. They will use techniques like brainstorming to build cohesion with their team, and to bring fresh ideas to the forefront. The team is often involved in making project decisions, although the final decision does lie with the project manager.
2. Time Management Skills
There’s a saying “time is money” and nothing could be truer than in the business world.
A skilled manager will be able to ensure that the employee’s time is used widely and in a productive manner. Regardless of the type of business idle time costs the company’s money, because the employee is still being paid. A top-notch manager will be able to organize and delegate tasks so that there is minimal idle time. This includes creating schedules for the day/week/month, allocating time according to the task at hand, and breaking projects into manageable segments, then overseeing the entire process to confirm the plan is working.
3. Conflict Management Skills
Conflict is a fact of life, and yet it is often overlooked within companies.
When conflicts arise between employees, manager, wages, policies, among other issues, managers must have the appropriate conflict resolution skills to resolve the issue at hand. The process of conflict resolution often involves negotiating and mediating.
However, it also involves implementing procedures within the workplace to reduce the number of conflicts. These preventative measures are key to a company running smoothly. Conflict management skills include Developing the Code of Conduct, which will maintain the work ethics of the company. You will also need to be a good listener and mediator so that you can talk with the employees, and actually “hear” what the conflict is about.
4. Self-Management Skills
Self-management is the ability to plan, organize, implement, and complete tasks, and then take responsibility for your success.
It requires you to lead others, develop relationships with those individuals, and communicating clearly.
Self-management skills include:
- Decision making – ability to make decisions as needed.
- Goal setting, plan how to achieve those goals, and track completion of those goals.
- Prioritize – Know what tasks are most important and prioritize accordingly.
- Scheduling skills – prepare in-depth schedules and stick to them.
- Be flexible and able to adapt to changing circumstances.
- Self-evaluation of your planning, implementation, and performance
- Self-motivation – the ability to take one’s own initiative.
- Self-intervention – ability to intervene when necessary.
- Self-development
- Self-assessment of your proficiency
- Have a positive attitude.
- Supervise – delegate responsibility and supervise others for completion of those tasks.
5. Team Management Skills
Team management is a key part of every organization.
Whether the team already exists, or you are putting a team together it’s a challenge that the team leader must be strong enough to face. Let’s look at some of the key things the team manager is accountable for and the associated skills.
- Delegate to your team – no matter how great your skills if you can’t delegate you will fail as a team manager.
- Motivate your team – different individuals are motivated differently.
- Develop your team – teams are made up of a number of different people all with different skills and outlooks and you as team manager will have to be able to pull all of these personalities together.
- Communicate with your team – you must work closely with your team and you must be able to clearly communicate with them at all times.
- Manage your team – Managing your team includes ensuring projects and tasks are on track, including handling discipline issues.
Now let’s have a look at necessary team management skills:
- Analyzation Skills – The ability to analyze individual performance. It is important for you, as a team leader, to thoroughly know everything about your team members.
- Organization and Delegation Skills – The ability to organize and delegate tasks effectively based on your team members skills and talents.
- People Skills – You need to have skills to deal with the various personalities people possess/
- Goal Setting Skills -Establish team goals with a focus on developing a common vision and meeting those objectives.
- Communication Skills – Ability to clearly communicate with your team and others in the workplace.
- Decision Making Skills – The ability to encourage brainstorming and collaborative decision making.
6. Stress Management Skills
Stress is a very real occurrence in the workplace.
It can result because the demand on resources exceeds the available resources. This can create a great deal of pressure for one or more staff members, including yourself. Stress management skills are important and include management.
- Monitoring performance and behavior of individual employees to determine stress levels.
- Incorporating effective time management to prevent stress – Use detailed daily and weekly schedules.
- Prioritization – Avoiding excessive workloads and last minute work
- Adaptability and tolerant behavior
- Motivation
7. People Management Skills
People management skills are key to every company.
These skills include the practice of understanding, developing, and delegating people and matching skills to tasks at hand. People management is about leading and motivating your employees to ensure their best performance. People management skills include:
- Listening – both with a focus to understand and with a goal to reply. Most people listen with a goal to get through until it’s their turn to talk. They aren’t really hearing the message. Good people skills mean you listen with the intent of understanding the speaker. There are 3 key benefits to good listening:
- You learn the other person’s wants, needs, desires, and fears.
- You show the other person respect.
- You will not say the wrong thing if you are listening.
- Ask questions that are insightful – On its own listening isn’t enough. Good listening means you will be insightful. Questions are used to:
- Gather information.
- Gently persuade.
- Be motivating and inspiring – Everyone hates a grumpy boss, and no one wants to work for a boss that’s cynical, pessimistic or down. To be a positive leader you need to be able to convincingly talk about the “why” and that the future will be better than now.
- Handle conflict situations – This is a delicate people management skill that you need to master. There are three basic abilities.
- The ability to criticize the behavior of others without attacking or criticizing the person’s character.
- The ability to provide suggestions of acceptable ways out of a conflict.
- The ability to control your words when you aren’t in a very good mood.
- Show trust – At the end of the day, it’s really all about trust. If you don’t trust the other person, or they don’t trust you then you won’t be able to work together or do business. Good people skills involve building trust.
- Inspire productive atmosphere – This is the sum total of all the skills we previously mentioned. You need to make employees feel respected, provide challenges, and offer excellent interpersonal communication skills.
8. Office Management Skills
Office management involves overseeing the office in the workplace.
It involves being able to effectively plan, organize, and control the clerical and administrative employees within the office. This includes communicating clearly with staff, and storing the company’s data safely. Office managers supervise clerical teams and secretarial pools. Strong office management skills are necessary to be a good office manager. Those office management skills include:
- The organization and storage of data
- Paying close attention to details
- Superior communication skills
- Monitor and evaluate the work process
- Issue department level assignments
- Accounting and marketing
- Budget development and implementation
9. Change Management Skills
Change surrounds us – it’s everywhere in the business world, and that’s why it is so important for managers to have change management skills to ensure the company can move forward successfully from the current state to a future state. Management skills you should possess include:
- Setting an example – It is important for management to have the skills to set an example. Employees will look to you for direction relating to business needs, ethics, standards, and behavior.
- Talking to people – No longer is management off limits and tucked safely in their glass tower. Today’s managers must be people orientated and interact with their employees. They get to know their employees, learn about the problems employees are facing, and work with them to resolve work issues.
- Being real – As a manager you implement change. It’s important for you to be honest and as real as possible when interacting with employees. Don’t be afraid to show your emotions. Communicate the change within the organization the – reasons for change, the details/ways to execute the change and the benefits of successful change.
- Be passionate – Learn how to show your passion relating to your vision. Without passion you find yourself tiring and lacking energy – in no time you’ll be facing burnout.
- Critical Thinking – Perform strong critical thinking to decide on the change details.
- Monitoring progress – Monitor the implementation to determine course of actions.
There are many more management skills that can have a positive effect within the organization.
Good managers will continue to build skills throughout their careers.