Essential skills to be a successful manager?

So you have done your MBA or scrum certification. Do you think that is enough to be a successful project manager ? Many of us do think that doing certification or getting degree is the only requirement to become a successful manager but that’s not the real case.

Project management is a process. It’s not a tool or technology that you can learn in one shot. It’s an evolving learning where every day you will learn something new and using that experience you have to apply your skills to get more better and better in terms on efficiency.

Tool or Technology can only help towards achieving you the end result in better way.
Management is the process of getting activities completed efficiently and effectively with and through other people.

There are five steps in management which are initiation, planning, execution, monitoring and control, closure.

Let’s see what are essential skills to be a successful manager.

• Problem Solving and Decision Making

This is where most managers either get stamped in to good or bad books. However, the type of decisions you make should not ideally make you a good or bad manager; rather how you make such decisions is what need to be the deciding factor.

• Planning and Time Management:

Although you may be entitled to certain privileges as a manager, that does not necessarily mean you could slay time as you please. Planning ahead of time for events and activities that you foresee in your radar and taking the necessary initiatives as well as precautions as you move along are undoubtedly, some of the main expectations from managers.

• Delegation

Becoming a good manager does not mean carrying out every task by him/herself.  Many managers mishandle delegation either because they do not have enough confidence in their co-workers and subordinates or because they do not master the techniques of delegation.

Therefore, the key for delegation would be to identify the individuals that are capable of carrying out the task, delegating the work with accurate instructions and providing enough moral support.

• Communication Skills

Nothing could be ever accomplished in the world of a manager without him or her being able to accurately, precisely and positively communicate their instructions, suggestions or feedback to others.

Therefore, you should be extremely careful in picking out your words. A ‘Can-Do’ attitude is something that can be easily portrayed through your words. When your communication bears a positive note, it will run across your audience almost contagiously.

• Managing Yourself & Leading Others

In your managerial position, you are exposed to both the executive layer and the working layer of an organization which makes you the ham in the sandwich. Therefore, you may find yourself squashing and thrilling in between when it comes to many decisions.

The number one rule in managing yourself is to realize that you are a professional who is being paid for the designation that you bear in the company. If you remember this fact, you will always remember never to take any issue personally.

Always draw a line between your managerial persona and your actual persona. It is good to bond with coworkers at a personal level while maintaining a distance in your profession. Therefore, you will also be required to draw a line somewhere.

And most importantly, you will become the sponge that absorbs heat from the higher strata of the company and delivers the minimum heat and pressure to the lower strata. Therefore, you will need to practice a fair share of diplomacy in your role.

So we have seen that management is not an easy task. Specializing above skills will take a time and is a continuous process.

For any manager he or she has to be a good leader first. It’s an saying that “leader need not to be a manager but manager has to be a good leader”. I will write essential skills required for a good leader in my next blog…

stay connected…bye for now.