Essential Management Skills

Essential Management Skills – In short: management skills are essential skills in order to get people together to accomplish desired objectives. Definition of management: The word “to manage” hails from “maneggiare”, an Italian word that was being derived from Latin. Management, in general, is a vast subject that cannot easily be restricted to a few processes. Management is the organizational activity (organizing of resources [human capital, etc.]and work) in order to reach given objectives; but also it is important for a manager to distribute tasks to his subordinates and to control their work-process. Furthermore, managers are utilizing all their available resources by applying their effective management skills to achieve success.

Management consists of

• planning
• organizing
• leading
• co-ordinating
• controlling 

In order to succeed a manager needs to combine important organizational tasks and skills, but what are these effective management skills and management characteristics?

Basic Management Skills:

Management plays a vital role in the achievement of a company’s objective, which requires careful planning, foresight of potential obstacles, strategies to overcome these obstacles and integrating the abilities of each individual team member in the best possible way. Here are some of the most essential management skills:

Decision-making skills:

A lot of situations will require quick decisions to be made by the manager without neglecting to analyze the whole situation and the possible consequences of his actions. Every manager needs to be a quick thinker that immediately comes up with the pros and cons of his decision. Furthermore, it is important to meet decisions in a calm mood, without any kind of hectic or panic, which finally requires proper stress management skills.

Problem-solving skills:

Every manager will be confronted with all different types of problems, may it be problems in the team-building process or problems related to the distribution of work. Either way, the manager needs to solve upcoming problems and obstacles quickly to ensure a smooth workflow in general.

Time management skills

Another essential management skill is the ability to manage time, which is covered in the article: “How to manage time?”

Soft Skills:

Communication – Management Skills:

The soft skills in form of communication skills are equally important to the other basic management skills and an essential part when it comes to the communication of objectives and the distribution of tasks. A manager has to express his plans and goals as precisely as possible in order to allow his subordinates to execute their tasks correctly. Furthermore, the manager should have the ability to accept constructive criticism of his team and eventually integrate ideas, inputs, and suggestions from his team members into his considerations. Additionally, a manager needs to possess listening skills that help him to understand the needs of his team members and eventually allow him to eliminate obstacles that prevented his team from peaking performance.

Management skills

Leadership management skills:

As previously mentioned, a manager needs to organize all available resources to finally accomplish the company’s objectives. One of these resources is the human capital, which requires proper team management skills to guide team members by the accomplishment of their objectives and goals. Leadership, which is one of the most important and essential management skills, requires from the manager to guide his team-members to any given objectives and help them with the completion of the distributed tasks.

Team building:

Another essential management skill is the ability to build a team out of individuals. The team building process requires from the manager to implement the team spirit in all of the team members, as loners will have negative impacts on the whole team. Furthermore, it is important to encourage all of the team members to work together by showing them the benefits of the integration of the individual abilities of each team member. A manager needs to identify hidden strengths of his subordinates and encouraging them to apply these strengths for the sake of the company. Beyond that, team building skills lie in the encouragement of all team members to express suggestions and ideas and to find own creative solutions for upcoming problems.

Conflict management skills

In order to grant a smooth workflow, the manager will have to solve all kinds of different conflicts between his team members, such as mobbing and similar harassments. Additionally, he will need to mediate between conflicting parties.

Photo by Giovanni D

What are the essential management skills that have helped you to accomplish your business goals?