Five Skills Required for Effective Management

1. Integrity

Life is a process of learned transparency where we go through experiences that teach us there are certain outcomes to behaviors and we build from that knowledge a way to engage the outside world and those within our organization. Those of us who have experienced success have seen it come out of a core of trust built from a level of expectations associated with the integrity we exhibit. Often, we’ve discovered, the integrity we exhibit allows us to be vulnerable about our shortcomings or issues, which is a primary foundation for building trust in the workplace.

The difference between transparency and commonly accepted lines (we can’t afford this, the department isn’t ready for that change, we’re experiencing cuts in our budget and can’t look at that for at least X months) is an emotional intelligence that validates your position and affirms the possibility of growth within your organization. While people can feel frustration from the use of legitimate and candid language to explain decisions in the work. It will prevent your constituents from feeling deceived, used, and vengeful. In some cases, this scenario can teach our constituents not to trust us or our organization and are surprised when they choose to leave us without any forewarning.

2. Diplomacy

The hardest part of being on a team is we begin to see our constituents and peers as people. This often leads to a lack of accountability when conflict arises—whether its headbutting over how to handle a project, overreach by another department, or simply individuals stepping on each other’s feet. Completely avoiding on the job conflict is impossible; how you manage such conflict demonstrates whether you have the competence necessary to be an effective and strong manager.

It’s important to understand that how you manage conflict is a direct reflection of the behaviors you saw and experienced early on in life from authority figures. We must learn to be aware of that so that when we recognize it we can understand whether or not it is the most efficient way to solve confrontation. Remember, conflict is the road to intimacy, but if conflict is allowed to be entirely negative and infested with games then we risk sabotaging the growth possible in order to help individuals get their needs met by validating the games that they play and demonstrating that it is okay to play games.

While conflict may be unavoidable, we can allow conflict to be a meaningful opportunity for growth, or allow it to be a constantly played game to help individuals fulfill ego-driven needs. There’s very little room in the workplace for such drama and it’s our responsibility to call the game when we see it and help set up our organization for success.

3. Team-building

In order to have the entirety of your organization moving forward toward the vision of the business, you need to have a comprehensive understanding of the goals and influences of each of your individual constituents. Motivation starts at the personal level and personal growth and improvement influences company growth and improvement. If you feel better about something, you will do better. Even small hiccups in the process will lead to growth rather than head-trash.

Often, efficient team-building requires that you’ve built a team out of top tier players and that developed team is the jumping board to your success. However, frequently when we look at organizational change we come to realize that in some key positions we may have players who are not the ideal candidates for their roles. We can either adjust or break, but often the work of change and organizational betterment leads individuals who feel misaligned with the goal of the company to part was.

4. Delegation

As a manager, there’s a reason you have constituents reporting to you. Finishing a project or a job is a team effort and does not occur in a silo; if you’re a manager that has a hand on every task or decision in the process of a job, chances are you may frequently catch yourself losing sight of the big picture, and micromanaging.

Delegating responsibilities to other people requires that you also recognize the potential of failure and allow it to move forward. Too often, in our hopes of controlling processes, and making sure things are done correctly the first time, we sabotage our long-term goals of having a self-disciplined and responsible team. When you don’t allow your team to fail on small aspects of their goal, you raise the possibility of larger consequences when your business or company ends up being busier and busier through a stage of growth. If this is related to a new large order or client then the risks associated with it can lead to losses that punish your PNL, and the person responsibility is the control-oriented manager you allowed to prevent any failures in the past.

5. Time Competency

All humans, no matter the role, are faced with the reality of a limited amount of time to be allotted to different tasks. Efficient time competency is related to the execution and awareness of both high and low priority matters. It’s natural for objectives, tasks, or obligations to fall by the wayside, especially as managers who can spend a large amount of their time in inter and intra departmental meetings.

A good manager maximizes their time relative to the priority and urgency of the tasks in their schedule. Strong managers are focused, organized, and aware of the bigger picture, even when problem-solving across their department and constituents in unplanned and urgent solvency related tasks. A good manager can say no to tasks that create unacceptable time between more important objectives. A strong awareness of low priority matters means the ability to choose high priority and delegate low priority in order to guarantee organizational success in the long run.