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CHAPTER 9 : MANAGERIAL SKILLS AND QUALITIES

Objectives: 1. Distinguish what are managerial skills.

2. Identify the qualities of the manager.

What are managerial skills?

There are two types of skills you need to excel in your career: hard skills and soft
skills. To be a successful manager, you need to develop both.

Hard skills are technical, teachable abilities you learn through school, training and job
experience. For example, if you’re a software engineer, one of your hard skills may be
proficiency in programming languages. As a manager, it’s important to develop these
abilities so you can effectively lead others in honing the same skills.

On the other hand, soft skills are applicable in any role or industry and are often even
more important for management than technical proficiencies. Generally, soft skills are
developed over time by managing your responsibilities and interacting with others.
Problem-solving, time management and verbal communication are all examples of
important soft skills.

While hard skills are key when completing specific tasks, soft skills are essential when
directing people, overseeing projects and making informed decisions.

MANAGERIAL SKILLS

Technical Skill

Technical skill is knowledge of and proficiency in activities involving methods,

processes, and procedures.

Thus it involves working with tools and specific techniques. Technical skill is the
ability to use the specialized knowledge, procedures, and techniques of a field of
activities.

Accountants, engineers, surgeons all have their technical skills necessary for their
respective professions. Most managers, especially at the lower and middle levels, need
technical skills for effective task performance.

For example, mechanics work with tools, and their supervisors should have the ability
to teach them how to use these tools.

Similarly, accountants apply specific techniques in doing their job. This skill is most
necessary and valuable at a supervisory level or first-level/first-level management.

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Conceptual Skill

Conceptual skill is the ability to see the “big picture,” to recognize significant elements
in a situation and to understand the relationships among the elements.

Conceptual skill is the ability to coordinate and integrates all of an organization’s

interests and activities.

It requires having the ability to visualize the enterprise as a whole, to envision all the
functions involved in a given situation or circumstance, to understand how its parts
depend on one another and anticipate how a change in any of its parts will affect the
whole.

A manager’s ability to think in the abstract and to view the organization holistically is
important.

Suggesting a new product line for a company, introducing computer technology to the
organization’s operations, or entering the international market; for deciding this
magnitude, a manager requires conceptual skill is his personality.

Interpersonal and Communication Skills

Communication skill for a manager is a must. The manager must be able to convey
ideas and information to others and receive information and ideas from others
effectively.

A manager’s job is to control the subordinates and gives high-level managers or

administrators information about what’s going on.

Communication skill enables a manager to perform them properly. Most of his time, a
manager’s job is to interact with people inside and outside of the organization.

Manager’s ability to communication with individuals and groups, controlling and

motivation they are what Interpersonal and Communication skill are.

A manager requires having an effective Interpersonal and communication skill to keep

the responsibilities given to him.

Decision-Making Skill

In simple words, a manager’s job is to make decisions that will lead the organization to
the attainment of is goals.

Decision making skill is the skill that makes a manager able to recognize opportunities
and threat and then select an appropriate course of action to tackle them efficiently so
that the organization can benefit them.
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Managers are not always going to make the best decision.

But a good manager most often makes a good decision and learns from the bad ones.
Decision making is a skill that improves as managers gain more experience.

Training or educating is also a good method to develop the Decision making the skill of
a manager.

Diagnostic and Analytical Skills

A good manager has Diagnostic and Analytical skills in his bags. Diagnostic skill refers
to the ability to visualize the best response to a situation.

Analytical skill means, the ability to identify the key variables in a situation. Manager
diagnostic skill and Analytical skill helps him to identify possible approaches to a
situation.

After that is also helps a manager to visualize the result or outcomes of these
approaches. This skill sounds similar to the decision making skill, but it is the skill
required to make the decision.

How Managerial Skills are Interrelated

These are the skills an ideal manager must-have. If you look close enough, we will find
the skill are inter-related and irreplaceable. A manager is appointed for making a
decision.

So, to make the decision he or she needs to identify a situation which could be
opportunities or threat.

Conceptual knowledge is essential for this as it helps the manager has a complete
understanding of the organization. A manager cannot decide without diagnosing and
analyzing.

Diagnosing and analyzing the situation is required to tackle a situation and for this
needs information and resources.

Collecting Information and gathering resources requires communication with

colleagues at work and peoples outsides the organization.

Persuading, leading, motivating is required and get the best out of them. A manager
cannot just give decisions and sit in this office; he needs to have technical skills is for
performing the task which was set by the decision.

A good manager has all these skills, but it is not necessarily true that all of them are
equally important or required for the assigned job or post of a manager.
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The relative importance of these skills of a manager depends on the manager rank of
his in the organizational
zational hierarchy.

https://www.iedunote.com/managerial
https://www.iedunote.com/managerial-skills

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How to be a good manager and the best way to evaluate managerial

performance

Managers are a lot of things to a lot of people in an organization. For subordinates,

they are mentors and leaders. For colleagues, they are someone to compete with (in a
healthy manner), strategize on new initiatives, discuss new challenges, and come up
with solutions. For management teams, they are team managers, leaders who
contribute to revenue, role-models for employees, leaders of tomorrow, etc.

How does one define a good manager?

That’s a tough one, isn’t it? A good manager’s definition can vary from organization to
organization. A good manager is defined as a leader who can bring out the best
performance from his team, train the team to attain new heights, help everyone align
with company goals, treat people with respect, and help achieve new goals every day.
A good manager ensures great employee experience, a journey that every employee
goes through from hire to exit.

Many employees leave organizations on account of bad or ill-suited managers. Having

the right person for the role is paramount for an organization’s success. They help
arrest employee retention and boost employee engagement, workforce productivity,
staff morale, etc. positively.

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What qualities make managers good or great?

While several traits make a manager good or great, we have highlighted twelve
essential qualities below that have time and again popped in our research and our
organization.

• They care for the team: They care about their team, not only at work but also what
affects them outside work. Individuals are unique, and so are their situations, and
the problems that they go through. They understand and empathize with their team
members, and are ready to help in any way they can.

• They are excellent coaches: They are quick to point out that certain tasks were
not done the right way. It is crucial to let the doer know what was wrong, make
them understand, let them know the right way so that they are ready for next time.
Good managers are great coaches, and they take the time and effort to make their
team understand the rationale behind every action, assignment, to-do, etc. They
frequently meet with their teams, conduct one-on-one meetings, and address any
developmental needs of their teammates.

• They are great communicators: Effective communication is a two-way street. Good

leaders know they need to listen to their teams. Listening to their team’s updates
ensures they are aware of new developments, challenges being faced by the team,
training needs, etc. Effective communicators also need to know that information has
to flow down to get work done effectively. Employees should be aware of things
happening in an organization, any updates from the management team, new
developments, changes in policies, etc.

• They care about development: They want to see their team members grow and
achieve new heights. They understand and support the fact that the growth of team
members affects team performance positively. They take efforts to ensure all actions
necessary to develop team members are taken.

• They are emotionally resilient: In times of intense pressure, significant market

changes, or structural modifications, they stay calm, composed, and be the anchor
that the team needs. They have high emotional intelligence, do not buckle under
pressure, and power through crises.

• They treat everyone fairly: They do not have favorites; they treat everyone fairly
and equally. An employee must always be judged on their performance. No special
treatment, no favors.

• They encourage innovation: They encourage their team members to try new
things, not letting failure stand in the way of something new and great. Allowing
employees to ideate and work on new initiatives and approaches boosts employee
engagement and productivity.

• Recognize team’s effectiveness: Managers understand that their performance is

linked with their team’s and it’s as good as the team’s performance. They help their

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teams excel at their work, help overcome any challenges, and put the team before
anything.

• They help in goal setting: Employees need help managing their tasks, deadlines,
etc. Effective managers always help their team in goal setting and management.
They assist in managing individual goals and aligning those with the organization’s
goals.

• They spread positivity: They ensure that employee morale is strong and the team
feels positive. Even in crises, successful managers keep the tone positive. Team
members trust them more and are likely to stay longer.

• They manage teams by trust, not fear: Effective managers trust their teams; they
expect the members to do their work on time and with utmost dedication and
sincerity. They do not govern the team by fear but by trusting them to do their work.

• They empower teams: They are not micro-managers; they trust and empower their
team members. They trust the team to deliver on a task, providing guidance where
needed, and not micro-managing every minute details.

https://www.questionpro.com/blog/how-to-be-a-good-manager-and-the-best-way-to-evaluate-
managerial-performance/

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