Management Skills Every Good Manager Should Know

Strong Leadership Skills: You don’t have to be a natural-born leader to be an inspirational manager. Leadership can and should be learned. As a leader you need to have strong influence and a desire to make an impact on the people around you. Learn our basic leadership skills in our primer.

Strong Interpersonal Skills: Managers constantly are communicating with others — whether that’s hiring a new employee, solving conflict or trying to bring together a team. It’s incredibly important for managers to have exceptional interpersonal skills. Dive into our interpersonal primer here.

Strong Body Language Skills: Didn’t expect to see body language on this list? Here at the Science of People Lab we believe that nonverbal intelligence is an essential skill for every manager. You need to know how to both decode other people’s nonverbal cues and control your own. Start with our body language primer here.

What Makes a Good Manager (The Ultimate Guide of Dos and Don’ts)

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Who Else Wants To Be A Good Manager In 2023?

“A good manager is not a person who can do the work better than his men; he is a person who can get his men to do the work better than he can.” – Frederick W. Smith

Most employees would do anything to earn the opportunity to become a manager. But why? What makes them yearn to earn this tag?

Ironically, many aspiring managers do not care to dig deep and find out what makes a good manager.

It’s like not preparing well enough for the exam but expecting to take the top spot. They just want to bag the coveted title of a manager without doing the groundwork.

But what makes them yearn to earn this tag? Is it just the respect that comes with the title? Or is it the added responsibility that comes with it? Or, is it simply the feeling of satisfaction in achieving a career milestone?

Well, the answer is all of it. It’s the combination of all of these feelings that pushes us hard to rise above our peers and take charge of one of the most crucial positions in an organization. That said, while the managerial position does have its benefits in terms of career development, it can also be a thankless role.

The reason why I say that is because one of the qualities of a good manager is to keep a fine balance between employees’ needs and requirements, business goals, and their well-being and aspirations. And, that’s easier said than done.

More often than not, managers have to manage so many things at the same time that they experience constant stress. They are held solely responsible for both the success and failure of projects as well as the performance of the teams they are leading. While the entire blame for project failure is placed on the manager, the credit for its success is often given to the whole team. So, if you have just earned this opportunity, you better pull your socks up and do comprehensive research on the qualities of a successful manager. Doing so will help you prepare for challenging (as well as rewarding) times ahead.

If you’ve read this article this far, I’m sure you want to leave no stone unturned to discover how to be the best manager and carve a niche for yourself. Stay tuned because every question lurking in your mind will be answered if only you read it right till the last word.

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5 Mistakes a Good Manager Should Never Make

“What are the qualities of a good manager that separate him/her from the rest of the pack?” I know what you’re thinking about right now, but have you also spent time figuring out what mistakes to avoid at all costs to be a successful manager?

No? Ok, we will sort this out. Let’s travel back to the time when we started our professional careers. Over the years, we have worked for various organizations and under different people. From all those times, we can easily pick the ones who were not that good with managing people and influencing others. And, we certainly remember those managers who were exceptionally good in their role and inspired us to be a better version of ourselves.

I’m sure most of us also remember our past managers for their good and bad managerial qualities. What was it that we didn’t like or admire about them? Were they poor or good motivators? Were they easy or difficult to access?

We might have varied opinions on our past managers, but the fact is they have all played part in shaping our careers. Make no mistake about it, the managerial role is a demanding job with additional responsibilities. You cannot act or perform the same way in a managerial role as you did as a regular employee.

I would now move on to divide this article into two parts. The first part enlightens readers on mistakes that good managers should never make, and the second part focuses on things that good managers must do. I have done this to give readers a clear and better understanding of what makes a good manager, what they are expected to do, and what not.

Amid grueling schedules, it can be easy for managers to commit mistakes unknowingly that can have a negative influence on their subordinates. Horrible Mistakes That Good Managers Should NEVER Make While Leading Their Team:

1. Micromanagement

A survey of Trinity Solutions and published in My Way or the Highway reports that almost 79% of respondents had experienced micromanagement.

Remember how annoyed you used to get when your manager always used to peek over your shoulders at work? Now, remember all the nice things (pun intended) that you uttered in your mouth as you were constantly watched over by your managers many times in a day. The point here is that no employee likes to be micromanaged and a good manager must bear this in mind.

Employees want a certain degree of freedom. They want managers to feel confident in their skills and abilities to perform a given job. Intrusive observations, manipulation, and exhaustive communication send a clear message to employees that managers do not back their capabilities, which can make them feel defeated, paranoid, and unappreciated. No employee can develop his/her skills when managers do not show complete faith in their teams and individuals.

2. Spoon-feeding Solutions

Another essential quality of good managers is that they don’t serve everything to their employees on plates. Rather, they develop and fine-tune their skills in a way that they can resolve the trickiest of situations on their own. That said, some managers have this tendency of over-providing solutions for their teams. They are quick when it comes to offering solutions that their employees can find themselves with more effort than usual.

This negative habit of spoon-feeding solutions prevents employees from doing all the hard work of seeking the best solution themselves. By always helping employees with “the solutions”, managers are not allowing their team members to put their thinking caps on and take ownership of the problem at hand. Managers need not act like school teacher who is always accessible whenever the team encounters problems.

3. Failing To Define Goals

Poor planning and the inability to define goals do not do your team any good. Some managers fail to define goals for their employees who struggle with their work throughout the day. They have no idea why they’re doing work, or what their work means for themselves and the organization they’re working for. They can’t be productive when they do not have a direction or vision for work.

They also fail to prioritize work, which means they complete projects and tasks in the wrong order. When employees don’t see career growth in their jobs, they tend to switch jobs. On the other hand, goal-setting too can backfire if objectives are overly ambitious and unattainable. Good managers always set attainable goals for employees and reward them for achieving them.

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4. Leading With Egoistic Mindset

As the American proverb puts it, “ Arrogance is a kingdom without a crown.” Hubris has always been one of the main causes of conflict and grief. Arrogant managers think that since they are in charge of their teams, it’s because they are more skilled and competent than others. Such managers tend to show their supremacy to their subordinates from time to time.

They think they have the best ideas and information, and use their position to manipulate others. Many employees express anguish over arrogant, egoistic managers who are unfit to lead. In other words, the inflated ego narrows our vision. We lose perspective and we only hear and see what we want to. As a result, managers lose touch with their team members, which further widens the gap between both sides.

5. Displaying Blatant Favoritism

Being seasoned professionals, we are well aware of office politics and favouritism. It’s disheartening and demoralizing for employees when they already know who’ll be the next person to be promoted to higher positions just because he/she enjoys a close relationship with a manager. Poor managers are quite good at showing who they favour over others, irrespective of an individual’s abilities or lack of them. Certainly, this behaviour is not what makes a good manager by any stretch of the imagination.

Managers displaying signs of favouritism at work can disrupt the workplace. This unhealthy practice in the workplace sends the wrong signal to employees, except for those who enjoy the manager’s special attention. People are likely to believe that hard, honest work doesn’t bear fruits because to grow within the organization, a worker would have to earn a place in the manager’s good books.

Now that you’ve read about some dreadful mistakes that should be avoided by managers (both experienced and new), we will now discuss some eminent qualities that good managers have, and aspiring managers must have.

There are countless organizations in history that have fared exceptionally well under good managers. Without an experienced and competent captain to steer the ship, the crew is constantly at risk of losing direction and encountering several problems.

As John C. Maxwell has put it, “Leadership is not about titles, positions, or flowcharts. It is about one life influencing another.”

Given below are five key qualities that separate good managers from mediocre and poor managers. The latter can take a leaf out of the book of the former to improve his/her management skills significantly.

9 Must-Have Qualities Of A Good Manager

1. They Align Organizational Purpose With Team Goals

These are times when businesses are undergoing a massive transformation as regulatory changes, competition, and technological innovations are regularly updated. Organizations today need to be dynamic in order to adjust and adapt to the latest developments. Good managers don’t just tell their employees to do tasks; they also tell them why they need to do what they are assigned to do.

Employees who connect their work with the mission of their organization feel their job is more important and their work holds much significance. However, the majority of employees are still unsure about how their work contributes to the “big picture”. Good managers help them understand the value of their work and how it’s vital to achieve organizational goals.

2. They Demonstrate Empathy With Their Team

A study by research firm DDI shows that empathy is one of the main drivers of overall performance among managers. Another study by the Center for Creative Leadership (CCI) shows that managers with empathetic behaviour toward their team are viewed as good performers by their bosses.

Empathetic managers understand the emotions of their team members. They understand how team members are feeling and this quality enables them to communicate effectively and solve problems right in the bud. As a result, their employees trust them more and managers can build rapport, which fuels team success. Being empathic towards employees equips good managers to form personal bonds with employees and foster long-term relationships with them.

3. They Delegate Tasks Effectively

Good managers delegate tasks effectively. They demonstrate faith in their employee’s ability to perform delegated tasks and allow them to learn new skills and develop strengths that they might not otherwise know they have. Good managers don’t delegate tasks randomly; they identify potential within their teams and assign work to the right people using the right methods and tools.

Good managers delegate tasks and split responsibilities according to the potential and talent within teams. This helps to significantly improve overall organizational efficiency as well as time management. Assigning important tasks also helps team members develop confidence in their abilities, which motivates them further to put in their best efforts.

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4. They Set Clear Goals And Expectations

Clarity is the pathway to solid results, but a recent survey shows that 42% of employees have cited having unclear goals as their biggest source of stress. Good managers are quite direct and specific about their expectations from employees. They don’t give broad and vague instructions – thereby leaving no space for ambiguity. Whether it’s small daily tasks or a long-term project, good managers have a clear idea of what they expect from every employee, based on their ability and capacity.

Many good managers use the SMART goal method to define expectations. They also validate their expectations with specific reasons as to how these will positively affect you, your organization, and the employees themselves. When employees understand the reasoning behind the task, they’ll be more compliant and eager to take the required steps to meet expectations.

5. They Make Communication A Priority

Effective communication is the key to not only maintaining amicable relationships in the workplace but also delivering work successfully. Good managers are the first ones to recognize this, and therefore, invest their time and energy in ensuring a smooth flow of communication throughout the project. This is one of the most intrinsic qualities of a successful manager that you’ll not find hard to spot.

From navigating team meetings with poise to providing people with the right direction in the project – a great project manager ensures that things never slip through the cracks. They are not afraid to take the help of the available resources like online communication tools for the same.

6. They Bring Out The Best In Their People

Only 45 percent of employees are completely satisfied with the amount of recognition they receive. Poor managers are biased, but good managers identify and understand the differences that every individual brings, evaluate performance fairly, without prejudice. Best managers always recognize good performance and give credit where it’s due. Even when they identify weaknesses or faults, they criticize constructively so as to make employees realize their mistakes and work hard to correct them.

Good managers make sure they have an effective review process in place to evaluate performance fairly. Thanking your employees for their contributions and rewarding them for the job well done goes a long way in improving their morale. Good managers respect their employees and show them that they are valuable assets to the organization. Even the smallest of achievements need to be celebrated at first. Believe in your team even if no one else does, and you will certainly bring out the best in them.

7. They Leverage The Latest Technology

Smart managers know that technology, like project management software or online collaboration tool, is there to simplify the way they handle their teams, and their teams manage their work. They know that technology has a solution for everything – right from efficient task management and simplified collaboration to effortless reporting and time tracking.

This is the reason they never hesitate to invest in the latest tools. In fact, they are the first ones to look for tech solutions to make life easy for their teams and make them productive. By doing so they are able to not only bring the distractions to a minimum, but also bring the best out of every team member, and that’s the reason why they are loved by everyone.

8. They Set Up The Team For Success

Good managers don’t just inspire their teams to collaborate and work efficiently, they don’t settle until the team reaches the pinnacle of success. To ensure this, they focus on individual performances, while aligning their efforts with the overall team goal.

By bringing together all the aspects of successful team building like communication, collaboration, clarity and trust, they make sure that the team knows the purpose of their efforts. They know that success comes only with collaborative efforts, and that’s exactly what they inspire the team to perform.

9. They Inspire At Every Level

Most importantly, a good manager never fails to inspire others. This inspiration comes at many levels; from boosting the morale of the team when things are not going right to talking it out with individuals when they are facing problems in their personal lives.

Good managers know that their role is not limited to only making a productive environment. Rather they have a role to play in building a positive work culture so that individuals thrive, and continue to strive for betterment at every level. When you are part of a positive work environment, innovation and creativity come out naturally. And, that’s one of the hallmarks of a great team, led by an equally able manager.

The Final Thought

In a nutshell, being a manager is all about handling not just your work but your team with great responsibility. You are expected to deliver the goods as well as command the respect of your team. And a good manager knows how to achieve this. They cultivate happiness at work and encourage every employee to be a better version of themselves.

Good managers positively influence the lives of their team members and help them develop their skills. They groom them for senior roles in the organization in the future. That said, you can’t become a great manager overnight. You need to actively make efforts to improve and be consistent.

So, are you ready to take the steps necessary to become a good manager?

Top 15 Management Skills Successful Managers Have

Not all managers succeed at management. Harvard Business Review notes that the job of a manager is to take an individual’s talent and turn it into performance.

While this is a pretty simple way to look at it, it’s true. The best managers are the ones that can turn your potential into actuality. To do this, they need to leverage some special skills of their own.

As a manager, you undoubtedly have questions about whether you’re doing “the right thing” when it comes to the employees you’re tasked with handling.

What if you could learn how to become the kind of manager that your employees look back on fondly and remember gracefully? The sort of manager that leaves behind them a legacy? To do so requires understanding the vital skills that successful managers use and how you can apply them to your workplace.

Are you ready to see the essential management skills that top managers leverage to leave their mark on the workplace?

1. Communication

Communication means more than just speaking or writing a killer memo. The art of communication also encompasses listening, reading, and understanding what’s being said, and it is one of the most essential management skills. The Houston Chronicle states that proper communication between workers and employees is essential for a well-functioning workplace.

Some people think being an excellent communicator is a skill you’re either born with or not. But here’s the rub: Improving your communication skills usually comes from developing the different parts of that skill.

You should improve your listening skills by paying attention to what employees are saying. Employees who feel like management listens to them become more engaged with their job.

When speaking, you should organize your thoughts. Carry around a scratch-pad or mini-notebook to help you logically outline your thought process. Be aware of who you’re communicating with. Some employees prefer certain types of communication methods to others. Making them comfortable is a huge step towards being a better communicator.

Finally, learn about non-verbal cues in communication. Practice matching your verbal and nonverbal cues, so you don’t send mixed messages. Communication doesn’t have to be challenging. All you need to remember is that you’re speaking to another individual.

2. Decision-Making

Managers need to be decisive. In some companies, the delay of a few minutes could cost the business a lot. Some managers “fake it till they make it,” but this doesn’t help you gain your team’s respect. Good decision-making is an essential management skill for a company to thrive.

There are ways to become more decisive as a manager, however.

Always make decisions. Second-guessing yourself is part of the human condition. Science Daily mentions a study from Florida State University that shows us that second-guessing ourselves is a surefire way to remain unhappy.

If you want to be more decisive, you need to make decisions. Whether those decisions lead to positive outcomes or not shouldn’t matter at that point. The decisiveness comes from taking action.

Action always beats planning into oblivion. Take action, even if you don’t have the perfect solution. In most cases, that ideal solution doesn’t exist.

Lastly, to improve your decision making, you need to focus on the direction that a decision takes you, not the end goal. Foresight is a characteristic of a great leader, but when you make a decision, you should be looking at what’s in front of you, not what you might be facing next week.

3. Delegation

No manager can run an entire department by himself or herself. Delegation is a necessary skill for ensuring that the department gets its work done.

Most managers have a secret, though: They don’t know how to delegate appropriately.

See, delegation isn’t just about assigning someone a task. It’s about knowing what an employee is best at doing and giving them a job that aligns with their abilities. Luckily, there are ways that you can improve your delegation skills as a manager.

Know your staff and what they’re capable of. For managers that have been in charge of a department for a while, this is easy. Learning the skills of a new department may be harder, but it’s a necessary bridge to cross. Knowing what your staff can do will inform you of what tasks suit them best.

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You should explain why you’re delegating that task to the employee. However, telling someone that you trust them without giving them all the details of a job qualifies as sending mixed signals. Show them that you trust them to do what’s right by sharing all the information with them.

The department should never throw an employee into the deep end when it comes to a new task. Always provide adequate training and resources to get the job done.

Most importantly, provide feedback to the employee. This feedback could be either constructive criticism or praise, but let them know that you’re doing this to help them learn from the task. The next time around, the process of delegating might be a lot easier for you.

4. Emotional Intelligence

Emotional intelligence is how well a manager connects to his or her employee base and is an often overlooked management skill. Psychology Today defines emotional intelligence as the ability to spot and manage your own emotions while still understanding others’ feelings.

Here’s a strange fact:

In the past, the ability to empathize with one’s staff wasn’t seen as a prerequisite to being a good manager. Society has since realized that an employee’s mental well-being is as important as his or her physical well-being.

Managers who display emotional intelligence have high levels of self-awareness. This trait helps them to understand how their emotions impact those around them. They also show self-regulation. The human mind can handle several emotions at once, but separating one from another is a skill not many have. This trait makes a manager able to handle challenging situations confidently.

All of these traits stem from empathy, and that’s a skill that you can practice. Listening and talking with your staff can help you to develop deep compassion for their individual conditions.

5. Teamwork

A business is never about a single individual but a group working together as a team. Managers need to head up this team but also understand how teamwork benefits employees’ individual skills.

A little-understood fact is that successful teamwork begins with the individual. Gallup mentions a direct correlation between employee engagement and positive outcomes for a business, including higher productivity and lower turnover.

For managers focused on building teamwork, they need to understand their team’s strengths and weaknesses. Additionally, they should approach the job as a leader, not a boss. Employees respect managers that work alongside them instead of directing them in a hands-off manner.

Managers have a responsibility to their teams to let them know what the expected outcome of a job is and how to best approach it. The team environment that facilitates the group’s success starts with the manager.

6. Transparency

People put a lot of stock into trusting another person. Employees always prefer management that’s transparent and accountable because it gives them faith in the business’s management structure. Transparency creates a different level of connection between employees and managers.

Sadly, a grim reality exists: Not many managers see transparency as a vital trait in management.

Fast Company notes that many managers avoid being transparent because they think it impacts their authority. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Managers who see transparency as a necessary trait can seek to improve how they interact with their staff. Communication is an essential element in ensuring transparency within the workplace. Managers must communicate the department’s goals and vision so that all employees are on the same page.

Feedback should be welcome. Employees who believe that their contribution matters to shaping the company will be more likely to share. These contributions may contain suggestions that could help the business achieve its goals much faster.

Finally, managers who want to ensure that transparency is a crucial part of their department should institute an accountability system. Accountability goes hand in hand with transparency, and by making members of the department accountable to each other, you foster a spirit of camaraderie that’s hard to break.

7. Mentoring

Mentoring is a management skill with high potential. People never forget their most impactful mentors. New employees or interns will see managers as the kind of person they want to be like. Mentoring is more than just teaching someone the ropes and hoping that they understand what you expect of them.

There’s a critical element to mentoring that most managers miss: Mentoring grows the mentee’s skills and personality.

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There are a few things that managers can tap into to improve the quality of their mentoring. Mentorship depends on developing an authentic connection between the manager and the employee. That human connection goes a long way towards helping the employee relax, which, in turn, impacts their learning and performance.

Setting goals and boundaries that are achievable is also an excellent way to build mentorship. By taking the process of teaching in stages, a mentor can guide the employee and correct their actions as they go along. Small corrections are more comfortable to implement than trying to divert the mentee’s entire course over a large project.

Mentorship is based on trust. Managers that want to improve their mentorship skills need to earn the trust of their employees. Building trust will build your mentorship skills as well. No matter how far up the hierarchy an employee gets, they never forget their first mentor.

8. Presentation Skills

Most of us know that, as managers, a lot of our job centers on presentations. Whether it’s telling the higher-ups about the department’s finances or in-office meetings where we try to explain the latest developments in the field, we’re surrounded by presentations.

While many managers think that being skilled at presentation means learning how to use PowerPoint, they miss a crucial distinction: Presentations are only partially about the data.

Excellent presentations should engage the audience and prompt discussion. Improving your presentation skills starts with knowing your audience. Your presentation should connect with your core audience and teach them something new.

No one likes an unprepared presenter, so having a plan and following it to completion is essential. When speaking, you should always try to make eye-contact with members of the audience. A sense of humor won’t go amiss and might encourage some members of the audience to lighten up. These steps can help you develop a presentation that viewers will remember and, more importantly, engage with.

For a manager, a presentation shouldn’t be a dry delivery of data but a method of engaging with staff and developing discussion about a work-related topic.

9. Anger Management

We all fly off the handle sometimes. Managers are in a tight spot because losing their temper in the office could not only lead to gossip but could threaten their position as well. Some managers think that the best way to deal with anger management is to keep it to themselves.

Managers with this point of view misunderstand a vital part of anger management. Keeping your anger bottled up does nothing to manage it. The BBC states a slew of health issues related to bottling up one’s anger. That’s why anger management is an important management skill.

Instead of burying it, managers should instead seek to manage their anger. But how?

Most companies either have psychologists or psychiatrists on retainers for staff. Even if your company doesn’t, you can contact HR to make arrangements for you.

Spotting the problem and seeking to deal with it is a sign of strength, not weakness. Taking a time-out to sort through your emotions is also something you should look at. Letting emotions boil over can be dangerous and might lead to rash actions.

Similarly, if you have a problem with another employee or staff member, communicating that problem and working through it together is another way forward.

Anger management isn’t just a managerial skill but can be a useful tool for your everyday life as well.

10. Strategic Thinking

The best managers in the world have always been generals. Strategic thinking allows you to consider all the different facets of a situation and decide how to approach it to achieve the best results.

It’s common to find successful managers who remember this fact:

Strategic thinking suggests a proactive approach to running a department or office. Strategic thinkers within management tend to see the big picture and deal with preventing problems before they arise.

To be a better strategic thinker, you’ll need to spot trends. Whether it’s in business culture or employee behavior, spotting these trends gives you information that’s readily available, but that others routinely overlook.

To think strategically, you’ll need to ask tough questions. There’s a distinct difference between asking hard questions and asking obtuse ones. Hard questions have uncomfortable answers. Obtuse questions don’t have answers but frustrate your peers.

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When you speak as a strategic thinker, it’s evident that you value strategy. Identify issues and break down your solutions into easy-to-achieve steps.

Most importantly, take action. Strategic thinking helps you to be more decisive by doing things with imperfect information. The benefit is that you’re more aware of how those actions will impact the company.

The art of strategic thinking will benefit other skills. Knowing when and how to thin strategically gives you an edge on others, one that’s plain to see.

11. Problem Solving

We’re not talking about Rubik’s cubes here. Managers are faced with all sorts of problems, and for you to deal with them effectively, you need to be a master at problem-solving. Problem-solving is probably one of the most important management skills excellent managers possess.

Many managers who think they’re great at problem-solving miss a crucial element of this skill: Effective problem solvers make life easier for the rest of the teams.

They remove frustration and confusion as well as alleviate misunderstandings within the workplace. An effective problem solver doesn’t defer the problem to somewhere else – they approach the issue and its related factors head-on.

To be a better problem-solver as a manager, you should first identify problems affecting the team. Those problems might be external (in the company or the outside world) or internal (between team members). After identifying the issues, Break it down into more manageable parts. Analysis of the problem allows you to sift through the elements of the problem and find the root. Locating the source gives you a chance to develop and implement solutions that address that problem.

The key to being a problem solver is to remember that solving the problem’s symptoms doesn’t fix the problem. To solve a problem ultimately requires you to address the root of the issue.

12. Embracing Change

Change is scary, but it’s also exciting. Successful managers know how significant change and adaptation is to the workplace. If you encourage your employees to embrace change, you can adapt your team to any challenge.

Even so, all successful managers must be wary of a significant pitfall: Not all change is positive.

As a smart manager, you should know that implementing change for the sake of change won’t end well. However, implementing change to shake up a workplace can have dire consequences if you don’t think it through enough.

Improving your attitude towards change might require you to think differently about bringing change into the workplace. Implementing change should take input from your staff. Making them part of the decision will ease the transition.

If you’ve decided on a change, the faster you implement it, the better it’ll be for the organization. Be firm but flexible in bringing about this change. If some factors need to be addressed, do so immediately before they brew discontent among your team.

Management needs to be positive about change. As the leader in your department, you’re an example to the others who follow you. Staying positive, even in the face of challenges, will help the rest of your staff stay the course through the uncertain transitional period.

13. Promoting Innovation

There are better, faster, and more efficient ways of doing things, but many companies have a hard time accepting innovation. The problems with innovative solutions stem from managers that are afraid of new approaches to doing things.

The most detrimental way of thinking for a manager encompasses a single thought: If it’s not broken, don’t fix it.

Innovative managers see new approaches or cutting-edge hardware and software as elements that could improve productivity and help employees be more efficient. Softwares such as Wave Invoicing or Wave Accounting are both online platforms that innovative managers would see as a boon.

To develop the skill of promoting innovation, you need to be able to spot the things that others don’t see. As much as we hate to admit it, problems with efficiency exist throughout our organization. Listen to the complaints of team members, and dissect their issues. Search around for similar issues and how other companies solved them.

Innovative thinking starts from within the team. Listening is a crucial ability that can help you refine this skill.

14. Critical Thinking

Everyone fancies themselves a critical thinker until it’s time to do critical thinking. The art of thinking critically helps us organize information in our heads so that we can make a reasoned decision.

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Most managers make a dire mistake when it comes to critical thinking: They believe that you need all the information to make a duly reasoned decision.

That’s not strictly true. In fact, critical thinking can help you make decisions with incomplete information that’s still logically sound.

Developing your critical thinking requires you to appreciate a problem from different perspectives. Your team can help you here, especially if you managed to build a rapport with them as a mentor or through transparent communication.

You should suspend your emotions when looking at the problem. Emotional responses tend to cloud logical judgment. Look for the best possible outcome given the situation.

Will it lead to harm for one or more employees? Would it be easier to deal with this in another manner?

The answers to these questions can help inform your decisions.

Critical thinking might make it seem like you need to look for the most complicated solution, but that’s a misconception. Sometimes, critical thinking helps you spot the most natural solution. You might even be pleasantly surprised that you missed it before.

15. Appreciation

All human beings enjoy when their contributions are appreciated. As a manager, your praise could be the reward or the motivation to help an employee be more productive. Appreciation can help to lift the spirits of an entire department.

Those who have this management skill always keep this in mind: All appreciation needs to be genuine.

Other skills like mentorship and transparency help build trust, but a poorly placed appreciative statement can erode all of that goodwill. It’s also important to remember that appreciation isn’t the same as recognition.

Appreciation is telling an employee they did a good job. Recognition is just giving an employee the nod for being involved.

Helping employees understand your appreciation can benefit from the department’s workplace culture. Don’t just focus on the significant actions, but look at the small ones as well. Understand the behavior and quirks of your staff. It’s a lot easier for them to accept your appreciation in their own “language” than yours.

Finally, don’t ask employees for their appreciation. If you earn it, you’ll get it. Instead, focus on appreciating employees and showing them why the department values their contributions.

Appreciation can be a powerful motivator for some employees. Your appreciation for their efforts can help them feel more welcome and engaged within the workplace.

Being the Best Manager

The term “best” can mean many things. Do you want to be the most memorable manager that your department has ever seen? Maybe you would prefer to be a leader that the organization will tell tales about long after you’ve gone.

What you define as “the best” can fall under several categories. However, being the best manager you can be is something different altogether.

These management skills provide a way to become a better leader of people – not a corporate automaton that does the bidding of the company but an actual, living, breathing, human being that understands others’ struggles.

Being the best manager doesn’t mean being the most productive or topping sales reports every quarter. It’s about being the most “human” manager that you can be and retaining your humanity throughout your career.

More Tips on Improving Your Management Skills

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