Is 2020 the Year to Build Key Management Skills?
Entrepreneurs aren’t always the best managers, but they need to have management skills in order to be successful, get the keys to building your skills and your team this year.
Successful managers are sought-after in many industries. This type of individual displays a wide range of traits and talents that ensure the prosperity of a company, and help to boost the morale and productivity of wider teams. If you’re looking to take the next step on the career ladder and strive to become an effective manager, check out these vital skills that you should build upon in 2020.
Communication skills
Communication skills are a vital part of becoming a better manager. They are a critical factor in this type of role and are an area that should continuously evolve with the situations you face in an organization. There are several types of communication skills to learn, and a corporatecoachgroup.com course can help you identify the aspects involved. To give you a summary of the kind of things you need to think about, take a look below:
Verbal communication – This type of connection isn’t just about the words we say; it’s how we say them. Learning about how to deliver effective presentations, judgments, and decisions is crucial to ensure everyone understands and works to the specifications. Keeping communication, professional, courteous, and clear is essential.
Listening – This might seem an obvious element when communicating with people. However, managers should strive to become a good listener rather than immediately looking to respond. Listening also means you can learn and feedback effectively.
Nonverbal communication – Identifying nonverbal communication is also vital in this process. You don’t have to speak for your face to say it all, and this is especially prevalent in stressful situations. Avoiding negative hand gestures and facial expressions to avoid miscommunication is vital in the working environment.
Digital communication – If you’ve ever read an email and taken the way it’s written out of context, you’re not the only one. However, when we’re in a rush to communicate both internally and externally, sometimes digital communication can lead to significant miscommunication. Learning to take a consistent tone in all digital correspondence ensures mixed messages are avoided, and you can work with teams to bring a brand voice to your written and digital interactions.
Improve time management skills
It’s often a natural trait of a manager to have excellent time management skills. However, in small businesses, this can be challenging to manage when you have a smaller team to complete tasks. Letting go of the reigns is crucial in these instances, and managing project time and planning for any overlaps ensures everything runs smoothly. It’s also important to remember that teams rarely need to be micro-managed, and if they are, it can hamper results.
Some areas that can improve and build upon your time management skills include:
Delegation – By using your team’s talents effectively, you can delegate tasks to boost productivity. Managers can sometimes find it difficult to entrust someone to do jobs; however, building this trust is crucial to managing time and projects more efficiently.
Set deadlines – In all good time management scenarios, everyone needs to be on the same wavelength. It will not help your cause if teams are not working to the same deadlines or timeframes, and each person needs to understand their role in reaching the target. By setting deadlines and planning each stage well, you can ensure overruns are reduced, which eats into precious time on other projects.
Encourage collaboration – Some tasks may need to be carried out in isolation, but most often, working with others improves timings and productivity. Encouraging collaboration in teams can play a massive part in making projects successful. However, it’s important to place people that complement each other together. There’s no point in having a team where everyone can do everything to the same level, as diversity opens up different ways of thinking and approaching tasks.
Develop your emotional intuition
We’re all human, and a part of being a manager is to recognize the challenges that teams face in everyday working environments. These issues can be work or home-related, and in most cases, cannot be ignored. Fine-tuning your emotional intuition allows you to become more receptive to changes in behavior and conduct in the workplace. This skill also connects you with your employees on a deeper level and enables you to work through problems to find solutions that work for both parties.
Employees may struggle in certain aspects of the job, so there’s no point piling on more when they clearly can’t cope. Empathizing and taking a holistic approach to your management style will help reap the rewards in a happier and more productive team.
Be open to feedback
No one should be immune to feedback. Much like, as a manager, you give staff feedback on performance and development; it’s also a great idea to be receptive to feedback too. Creating a feedback loop is a great way to keep the conversation going. In management, it’s easy to get bogged down with the endless list of things to do, but if your overall style needs tweaking, it’s essential to listen and learn from your manager and your team. Working on management skills and progressing your journey will also show employees your journey, which can prove a morale boost and transparency to the team. Being open to development opportunities and becoming a role model will also improve your standing and resilience within the company.
There are several key areas that can build your management skills for the coming year. Check them out below:
- Be honest and open with all levels of staff
- Become an effective decision maker and solve problems with the entire team
- Be authentic as people will always gravitate towards are relatable
- Hone your influencing skills
- Perfect your negotiating talents
- Understand the bigger picture and appreciate how each part of the company works together for a common goal
- Learn effective planning and strategy skills
- Praise and reward a job well done
- Learn how to deal with conflict and miscommunication
There are several elements to becoming a successful manager, and each of the above areas can help you take your career to the next level.
