Skills for Effective Management
The Role of Task, People and Commercial Ability
To be effective, managers need to be good at task execution, managing people and making a profit. Their primary role is to get work done efficiently.
What does it take to be an effective manager? To answer this question we need to be clear about how leadership differs from management. One option is to define leadership as promoting new directions and management as efficient task execution. Managers need to get things done efficiently. This means making the best use of all resources at their disposal in relation to a specific set of goals.
Management Skills
To be an effective manager, it is essential to have skills in three different areas: task execution, commercial insight and people skills. Some managers can get by with strengths in only one or two of these areas, but the best managers will have some competence in all three.
Task Execution
To execute complex tasks, manage projects and run an efficient operation, it helps to be able to plan, organize and monitor performance. It is also important to have a strong results focus, to be someone who conveys a sense of urgency and has the perseverance to get things done under tight time pressures. This includes the resilience to bounce back following setbacks, to be someone who is not easily defeated.
Commercial Insight
This set of skills emphasizes efficiency and, in the case of private sector managers, profitability or return on investment. Managers use strategic thinking to ensure that they focus on the right tasks, those that will add most value. They use their planning skills to prioritize in combination with the ability to understand how value is created. This means understanding the financial aspects of running an organization and allocating all resources at their disposal wisely.
People Skills
Being a skilled people manager includes having the integrity to foster trust and the emotional intelligence to deal with different people successfully. Effective managers are also good at empowering, coaching, motivating and developing people. Managers act as catalysts by bringing the right people together for a wide range of tasks. They know who can do what and who will work best with other people. They are also good facilitators, able to ask the right questions to draw solutions out of others. They ask stimulating questions in a supportive manner rather than behaving like a police interrogator. Management effectiveness requires clear communication and good listening skills.
Management versus leadership
Managers occupy positions of authority. Management is a role with responsibilities. Conversely, leadership is an occasional act, like creativity. It is not a role. Managers show leadership when they promote change but all employees can advocate a change in direction. Having a position of authority is not necessary to show leadership.
