7 management skills to improve your life and career!
Are management skills important?
Think about every area of your life.
Whether it’s your finances, health, career, relationships or goals, proper management is needed to create order.
Similarly, management skills help companies weather uncertain market conditions, stay competitive and survive in the world.
Given their value, what do management skills look like?
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What are management skills?
Management skills refer to competencies that enable individuals to control a company’s resources. Some of these competencies include:
- Financial management– maintaining company accounts, financial records and capital.
- Human Resource Management – developing the company’s talent and resolving staff issues
- Supply chain management – regulating distribution and transportation networks
- Technological management – designing and maintaining technical infrastructure
- Self-management – these refer to those personal skills that enable you to manage your own capabilities – time management, budgeting and keeping your stress levels in check.
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Why are management skills important?
Management skills are crucial when:
Creating an organised organisation
Without proper management of resources, a company would be subjected to disorder and chaos. This chaos could lead to the downfall of the company. For example, if finances are not properly managed the company may be subjected to revenue loss, wastage of capital or bankruptcy.
High employee turnover
You’ve definitely heard before that people don’t leave bad companies; they leave bad bosses. Poor human resource management leads to low morale, lack of productivity and eventually high staff turnover.
Fostering growth and achievement
Proper planning is an important management skill. Without planning, a company lacks clear direction on accomplishing its goals and vision. If nothing is accomplished, the business is denied growth and remains stagnant.
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7 types of management skills
Seven highly valued management skills include:
Creating a culture of high achievement
One important management skill creates a culture that encourages achievement, collaboration and consistency. Cultivating collaboration and consistency allows an individual to be respected by their team and acknowledged by superiors.
Interpersonal skills (communication)
Every great manager knows how to communicate. Communication skill can be broken down into:
- Knowing what to say – discussing the subject matter at hand
- Knowing how to say it – understanding that the manner in which you speak (your tone, speed and pitch) are just as important in delivering a message.
- Knowing who you’re speaking to – language should be tailored when speaking to different audiences. You would speak differently to your CEO as compared to your best friend.
Delegation
The intrinsic value of this management skill involves putting the right people in the right place to perform the right task. Finding the right people involves identifying and analysing their skills, strengths and weaknesses.
Upon analysing their skill set, they can be assigned responsibilities suited towards their interest and capabilities. Interested and capable employees feel empowered when putting their competency to work.
Strategic planning
An effective manager has to develop strategies for hiring the right staff, building procedures and systems, managing workload, developing competitive plans, managing budgets and accomplishing project deadlines. Strategic planning therefore, is necessary to organise these responsibilities and utilise a company’s resources to its optimum potential.
Innovation & Creativity
Nowadays, managers must get creative when growing their companies in the midst of recessionary economies, maintaining staff amidst frequent market layoffs and adapting team members to new remote working arrangements.
Recognising & rewarding staff
Not every mundane task has to be praised. However, effective managers know to not assume that, ‘it’s only their job and they’re supposed to’. Skilled management periodically recognises the contributions of the team to let them know they are valued and appreciated.
Time management
Contemporary business experts argue that time, not money is actually the most valuable resource. Money can be replicated but lost time can never be recovered. An effective manager therefore, uses time wisely.
Proper time management involves getting work tasks completed while minimising the need for extensions or employee overtime. Another practical display of effective time management is optimising meetings productively. Meetings ought to have clear goals to ensure proper updates are given and new action items discussed.
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How can you improve your management skills?
Common ways to improve your management skills include:
Gaining experience
Skills are best taught and sharpened when put into action. If you’re seeking to update your management skills, place yourself in situations where they are required. Joining sport teams, student clubs, volunteer groups or community associations develop your people skills and ability to manage tasks, time and thinking.
Start with your personal
To manage others effectively often requires you to effectively manage yourself. Make some personal goals. Organise your schedule to balance your time between work and family. Improve your finances by reducing spending and increasing savings. Start taking better care of your health, make time for loved ones, hobbies, grow your network and keep your mental health in check.
Find a mentor
Reach out to persons within your network whose managerial skills you respect and admire. Ask if they would be willing to mentor you and provide practical management insights.
Look for historical role models
If you’re unable to find a suitable mentor within your network, you definitely need to expand your contacts. In the meantime, go to your local library or research the internet for biographies and examples of great business managers and leaders. Learn from their principles and incorporate some of their strategies into your own management style where appropriate.
Watch, listen and grow
If reading isn’t quite your thing, podcasts, videos and online seminars and audio books can teach you many effective management principles as well.
How do you show off your management skills in a job search?
Management skills when job hunting can be displayed by:
- Managing your knowledge. Have you performed sufficient company research or studied the demands of the labour market? What about researching the role and knowing the job description inside out?
- Managing your activities – tailoring and sending out applications, professionalising your social media, networking, engaging in productive ventures, building references and securing recommendations.
How do you show off your management skills in your resume?
Proper management skills in your resume and cover letter means being updated to reflect your latest accomplishments. These documents, when properly managed should also be:
- Tailored to the specific job position you’re applying
- Easy to skim
- Free of all grammatical errors.
- Highlighting your most compelling and relevant accomplishments
How do you show off your management skills during an interview?
During an interview, proper management involves managing your appearance and performance. Is your interview attire professional? Have you practiced your speaking tone, the length of your responses and controlling your body language?
You must demonstrate that you can manage yourself. Arriving late, lacklustre responses, sloppy appearance and disengaging body language will not only come across as insulting, but illustrate poor management skills.
