Most of us have been taught that the natural life cycle of an office worker looks something like this:
- Ace an interview, get a job at an entry-level position
- Work hard. Become a top-performer.
- Get promoted – become a manager!
While it is true that many career paths look just like this, employees often get stuck for years at Step 2 – which can be extremely frustrating. “I’ve worked so hard,” they think. “Why are my efforts not being recognised by a promotion?”
The fundamental error in this lies in the fact that working hard and performing well does not make you manager-material.
Being a good worker and a good manager are two entirely different things, because being a good manager involves an entirely different set of soft skills that you may not currently have – no matter how many KPIs you hit, or how much money you make for your company.
What are these soft skills? How can you acquire them?
Let us go down the list:
#1 Effective Communication Skills
As a manager, it is a given that you will need to give clear, concise instructions to members of your team, report on your team’s progress to different stakeholders, as well as solve conflicts. On top of that, you will need to present yourself as an authority figure to gain your team’s respect.
This will require excellent verbal and written communication skills. It is important to note that effective communication is not just about ‘speaking/writing well’ – it involves:
- Active listening to ensure the other party feels heard and understood.
- Situational awareness to understand the tone and approach you should take in any setting.
- An ability to focus on the objective of whatever you are trying to communicate to the other party.
These are skills that will normally require years of practice. Fortunately, this is one skill that you have the opportunity to practise every day by interacting with others. Invite your friends or co-workers out for a meal. Engage in meaningful conversations with your family members. The topic of conversation does not have to involve work; simply practise the three points outlined above!
#2 Manpower Management Skills
You might be wondering how manpower management differs from effective communication – after all, they both involve the people you work with.
Essentially, it is one thing to be able to communicate with and persuade individuals, but being able to identify your team members’ strengths and weaknesses and assign them to appropriate tasks is an entirely different skill on its own.
Because of our upbringing, many people believe that the true sign of a good leader is being able to take on the entire team’s workload on their own. However, doing this is not only stressful, inefficient, and unsustainable, but also a sign of bad leadership. After all, what leader would deprive their team members of opportunities to grow and learn, and eventually manage teams of their own?
An effective team is one where every member’s role is clearly defined and understood by all. That way, every team member can efficiently use their unique strengths to elevate the quality of the team’s output. Get to know your team members so that you can effectively delegate tasks to them!
#3 Time Management Skills
As a manager, you will not only have to complete your tasks; you are responsible for ensuring that your team members complete their tasks on time, you will also have to attend meetings with upper management and other relevant stakeholders, and manage some of your team’s administrative matters. That is a lot of extra work – but you have the same number of hours to complete it as you did before.
Fortunately, many project-management platforms, such as Asana, Airtable, Trello, Clickup, and Monday.com, exist today to help you not only keep track of your tasks, but the tasks of your team. We would encourage you to learn to use these tools to your advantage!
#4 Critical Thinking Skills
Being a good leader is about delegating tasks and communicating effectively – but if you cannot lead your team members in the right direction, the above skill sets are a moot point.
As a manager, you need to have a clear view of the ‘big picture’. Where does your organisation stand in the current marketplace? How can this standing improve? What are the pain points that are preventing your company from increasing their market share? You will need to ask yourself these questions and come up with answers to them.
Big picture aside, you will inevitably have to solve problems that crop up while your team is working on projects and make snap decisions with very little turnaround time – or in corporate-speak: ‘fight fires’. This ability to quickly evaluate the problem, list out the resources you have at your disposal, and come up with an action plan all comes down to your ability to think critically and creatively.
So how does one improve their critical thinking skills?
Contrary to what your parents and teachers may have taught you, intelligence is not strictly an innate ability. Most people aren’t born innately ‘smart’ or ‘stupid’, and it is very possible to increase your ability to think critically and creatively by doing one very simple thing:
Learn more.
Research shows that simply learning new, seemingly irrelevant skills, such as a new language, music, or even training to be a taxi driver, can increase your critical thinking skills, attention span, and even your memory. In short, being a lifelong learner doesn’t just improve your skill sets in areas you’ve taken classes on – it actually gives you a better head start in learning even more skills later down the road and increases your ability to be a better decision-maker.
Conclusion
As we’ve learned in this article, being a good manager and a good employee are two entirely different skill sets. Ask yourself if you have the four soft skill sets listed here that are crucial to management:
- Effective Communication
- Manpower Management
- Time Management
- Critical Thinking
Being a manager is all about mastering the critical soft skills needed to lead your team to success. If you feel that you are lacking in any of these soft skills, why not take some courses taught by established industry professionals to learn how you can improve?
If you’ve ever felt that you are long overdue for a promotion, or that you are ready to take on a management role, we hope that this article has helped you figure out a solid plan to clinch that promotion!
