Basic Management Skills and How to Use Them Effectively
Every manager knows they need several skills to be successful as a manager. If you’re looking to progress your career into a management position, having knowledge of the skills you need to develop is a good starting point in order to be considered for a promotion. Here are some of the basic management skills you need to be successful as a manager.
Patience
When you’re working with a team of people, patience is essential. There are likely to be a range of experts and novices on your team. Each person will also learn and communicate differently. Being patient and taking the time to learn your team's individual differences is vital. This way, you will learn how best to communicate with each team member and who needs more assistance or training to do their job role effectively. You can also develop individual working relationships with your team members; this can help you achieve your goals as a team. If team members feel they can come and talk to you about issues or potential new ideas, your whole team and the business will benefit as a result.
Giving praise
When employees work hard in their role and go the extra mile for their manager, they may not expect to be rewarded, but it can make a big difference. Even a simple thank you or email to the individual explaining how you appreciate their hard work and the effort they go to every day can be enough. This praise motivates employees to keep working hard and doing their job. If their hard work goes unnoticed, they might become frustrated and wonder why they work so hard for no recognition. Being a manager often involves juggling lots of different tasks, but it's essential to find the time to recognise and give praise to your team members.
Resolving conflict
Whether it's between team members or other people in the organisation, you’re unlikely to get through your career without experiencing conflict in the workplace. Being able to resolve conflict is an important part of a manager's role. When conflict is left unresolved, it can cause issues with motivation. As a result, employees may even look for work elsewhere. Leaders who enrol in a management course in Singapore will often go through role-play exercises that teach them how to resolve conflict quickly and effectively, so all parties leave satisfied with the solution. This skill is all about learning to see others' perspectives and thinking of innovative ways to solve issues in the workplace, these skills are also transferable to other areas of life and work.
Being a good listener
Being a manager of a team is not only about effectively communicating instructions to your employees. You also need to listen to their concerns, ideas and issues actively. Many managers and leaders will hear what employees say but not actually listen and make changes until it's too late. For example, if the workload is getting too much for the team and the employees wish to hire another staff member. A manager with good listening skills will take this request and use their budget to hire another team member. They may also, in the interim, help day-to-day by taking on some of the workloads themselves or asking for additional support from another team. A manager that doesn’t listen actively will hear the issue but ignore it and continue to overwork employees, thinking of the profits. It may then reach a point where pivotal team members leave, and the manager is forced to take action and employ more staff members.
Trust in team members
A good manager is aware they need their team members to be successful. Instead of micromanaging everything their team does, they will give them the trust and autonomy to do the job themselves. Poor managers will want to be involved in every single tiny decision that the team or individual members need to make as part of their job role. This can lead to problems as the manager will be overworked and too busy to respond in a timely manner. Individual team members will also feel like they’re not being heard or trusted in their positions; this could lead to them prematurely exiting the business.