Managing any complex business often takes more ‘soft skills’ or management skills than functional skills. However, when you look at the management structure of any given company, you normally find that it consists of people who have been promoted to Management roles due to their functional capability. So what are the management skills that are important to master to be effective in a leadership role?

Terry H. Hill in his article: ’12 business skills you need to master’, published in business.com states that some of the skills that are most important for success are:

• Delegation Skills

There’s nothing worse than a Manager who thinks that there is no-one who can complete a task better than them. Seriously good Managers spend their time building a team of people who have expertise in areas outside of their own knowledge, provide them clear guidelines and then manage and guide the process, not the work.

• Communication Skills

Effective communication skills aren’t just about being clear and direct when managing staff and ensuring that everyone understands the messages that you are communicating. Really good managers are active listeners who ask clarifying questions to understand a situation. They’re also concise communicators and generally rank highly from a non-verbal communication perspective.

• Negotiation Skills 

Negotiation is tricky! Mark Hunter, author or the book: ‘High-profit Selling: Win the Sale without compromising on price’ gives some great tips on how to improve your negotiation skills. It’s important to understand what the other party is looking for in a situation and to spend time considering alternative options that they might be interested in. Negotiating well takes confidence, which can be displayed by providing direct eye contact and your commitment to the solution you are offering.

• Strategic Planning

Strategic planning is the process of setting priorities, focusing energy and resources around achieving business goals. In terms of managerial skills, it’s really the ‘rubber on the road.’ Managers that are adept strategic planners will be stronger and more resilient. They will understand where they are going and how they are going to get there. Without strategic planning, you’re just coasting. So how do you improve your skills in strategic planning? You must understand how the business runs and the financials that underpin it.

• Leadership Skills

Strong leaders have a vision for the business they are leading and can clearly navigate the process of aligning people, resources and time towards achieving that vision. The fundamentals are to set the business goal and put in place concrete action plans on how the goal will be achieved, then monitoring and re-evaluating when necessary. Good leaders are passionate and inspiring and can motivate others.

If you would like support to help master leadership skills in your business, speak to the HR Consulting team at Flexi Personnel.