Basic Management Skills

Management consists of the five processes, namely, planning, organizing, leading, co-ordinating and controlling. Management is basically an organization activity, the organization of work and resources, to achieve success. The successful organization of work and resources requires careful planning. Effective planning involves foresight of the potential obstacles and readiness to fight them. It is important to head the team and guide the team members on their way to success. While organizing and leading a group of people, management plays a vital role in the achievement of co-ordination and the exercise of control. Management is such a vast subject that it becomes difficult to restrict the definition of management to a few processes. Management is complex and critical and hence it is not right to confine its description to some management processes. Believing in the vastness of this subject, some prefer defining management as ‘all that managers do’. But what does a manager do? A manager is responsible for the successful implementation of management skills. A good manager needs to adhere to the basic management principles and exhibit the basic management skills in his/her personality.

Basic Management Skills

Leadership: This is one of the most important management skills. Leadership comprises of the efficient organization of the resources in achieving a company goal. Leadership involves the management of human resources with an assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of each member of the team. It is about leading the people and guiding them towards the accomplishment of a common goal. Leadership includes a just allocation of work to the resources, planning of the implementation of tasks assigned and helping the team with task completion.

Team Building: This is another basic management skill that includes dealing with people, the most important asset of an organization. Encouraging the team members to speak up, come up with ideas and allowing them to make mistakes and learn from them can be described as a team building skill. To build a team, one needs to foster the team spirit in all of the team members. For the team to feel motivated to work, it is important for a manager to cater to their expectations, recognize their strengths and understand where they lack. The building of a team is about building the team spirit in members and maintaining it. The skill lies in knowing the team and encouraging them to take initiative and enthusiastically participate in every venture of the company.

Communication and Presentation Skills: After having achieved the knowledge of a certain domain and on having imbibed the technical skills and more importantly self-confidence needed to be a manager, what one may lack are the soft skills, which are equally important in management. The soft skills encompass the communication and presentation skills. A manager should be open to his/her team. A manager should be able to accept constructive criticism. It is important for the manager to communicate his/her plans to the team and accept the team members' inputs on the plan of action. Communication is a two-way activity and for it to remain so, a manager needs to possess listening skills. They help a manager understand his/her team members, invite their participation and earn their regard. Good presentation skills help a manager impressively communicate with the team. 'How you communicate?' is as important as 'what you communicate?' So, the presentation skills definitely matter.

Decision-making Skill: Many a time, quick decisions have to be made. In such cases it becomes necessary for a manager to grasp the situation, think about what can be done and thoughtfully analyze the consequences of the decision to be made. A problem-solving approach is also considered as one of the basic management skills. To look at a situation analytically, one needs to bear a problem-solving approach. One needs to reason every consequence and come up with the pros and cons of the decision. A manager needs to be a quick thinker. For taking the right decision, one cannot afford to panic. One has to keep his/her cool, be aware of the results of the decisions and be prepared for them. A manager can get opportunities to celebrate a business success. But it is equally probable that a manager is forced to handle the consequences of a wrong decision. Hence while it is necessary to distinguish between the 'right' and the 'wrong', it is also necessary to be ready to accept the 'wrongs' and deal with them.

In short management skills are about making the right decisions and getting them executed by the right people. Thus, management skills are indeed all those things that effective management professionals do!