Good business management skills come in handy for any workplace. Some company environments may feel like a drama club, where the managers are deeply invested in politics and interpersonal relations within a given organization. Developing business management skills fosters good relationships between managers and fellow workers. These skills provide a blueprint for managers on how to deal with subordinates, as well as help strike a balance.
Business management skills often go hand in hand with leadership skills. It is no wonder that good managers are almost always good leaders. These skills, which can be taught or acquired, include interpersonal, conceptual and technical skills.
The following are examples of critical business management skills for good managers:
1. Decision Making Skills
The ability to make decisions is an important business management skill to have. Decisions have to be made for any business to carry on with its day-to-day activities. More often than not, managers find themselves making decisions consciously or subconsciously. Poor decision making may destabilize performance while a manager who makes good decisions enhances good performance.
If decision making is left to everyone within the organization, no set objectives would be realized.
2. Delegation Skills
Also known as directing, delegation is the act of assigning duties and responsibilities to subordinates or employees. A manager must have the ability to manage the workforce in an efficient way. Delegation enhances efficiency as work is transferred to the most skilled and knowledgeable people in that particular regard. Employee accountability, together with quick and easy outcomes, is also a consequence of delegation.
3. Problem Solving Skills
This business management skill involves identifying the problem, generating alternatives, evaluating the alternatives and implementing solutions. Whether you are solving the problem internally or externally, the issues may be simple or complex. The manager is never to come out as attacking or picking a side. He/she should focus on the bigger picture.
4. Planning Skills
By definition, planning is the formulation of targets to achieve optimum satisfaction of needs using available resources. It ensures efficient use of resources, the realization of objectives and proper management of risks and uncertainty.
5. Communication Skills
This is an important skill often crucial for middle managers since they relay information vertically and horizontally in the organization’s hierarchy to achieve their set goals. Communication skills are essential for planning and decision-making, particularly if you are communicating in the public relations industry. Good communication ensures the efficient working of an organization.
6. Motivating Skills
Have you ever worked so hard so that you could get that promotion or salary benefits? You probably laboured just because you knew you stood to gain something at the end of the day. That is how powerful motivation is. It brings out the best in stakeholders and more so employees. Choosing a motivation tactic depends on certain factors; these include team personalities, team culture, and many more.
A manager may also choose to use either intrinsic or extrinsic motivation. Extrinsic motivation is when we get motivated to perform to avoid a punishment or earn an award. Intrinsic motivation, on the other hand, is satisfying to oneself.
7. Organizing Skills
This refers to the creation of some structure, which assists in the realization of set objectives. It is the relationship between work, people and resources used to achieve common goals. It ensures the organization runs without any hitches.
8. Coordinating Skills
A manager must be aware of what needs to be done. Knowledge of the availability of labour and resources is also key to accomplishing assigned tasks. It ensures the organization acts and works in unison.
9. Oversight Skills
A manager is expected to oversee the daily happenings in a given organization to ensure anything that gets out of place is set right. It is often the maintenance phase in management.
10. Empathy
When a manager empathizes with the employees, they can understand what motivates their actions. It also involves perspective talking, which is crucial in understanding the root cause of problems and helping solve them.
11. Transparency Skills
As humans, we tend to have a bias that is more scared of ambiguity than risk. It is therefore essential for a manager to provide as much information as possible on the underlying issues. For example, if a rumour starts within an organization that the company is going bankrupt, it is up to the manager to communicate transparently on the steps they are taking to resolve it.
12. Humility
Managers need to appreciate that even the smartest people are prone to getting things wrong. Some managers, however, have gigantic egos and are not ready to change their minds even if it is the right choice.
13. Create a Safe Working Environment
Great leaders are always willing to protect their people. A case in point is a construction site where employees do not wear protective gear to protect them from getting injured in case of an accident. It is the responsibility of the management to ensure safety.
Clearly, no organization can function efficiently and effectively if the managers lack the skillsets to run things. Management skills are not only fundamental to managers but also to professionals who are seeking to give themselves an edge. Securing employment today has become a very competitive undertaking. Acquiring the above skills will make you, the prospective employee, more appealing to an employer.