4 Tools to Help Enhance Your Managing Skills

In the present corporate world, many employees have a phase shift, from their respective job roles to one being a manager. They aspire to be Steve Jobs or Bill Gates knowing the fact that both were among the most successful and most effective managers of all time. The saying “People do not leave companies, they leave their managers” goes right in the present corporate world. Therefore one should constantly enhance one’s managing skills not just to be a good manager, but to be a good leader as well.

Delegation

Delegation is one of the most important tools, when it comes to enhancing managerial skills . It requires fine judgement of selecting the right person to get the job done, as delegation assigns responsibility, authority and accountability. You should explain the person, to whom you are delegating, that it is his responsibility to complete the job. You should also make him realize that his best efforts shall be adequately rewarded; therefore, nothing should go wrong. Steve Jobs delegated Sir Jonathan Ive to develop beautiful Apple Mac, which has ever since been extremely rewarding not only for Sir Jonathan Ive, but for Apple Inc. too. It was Steve’s vision and fine judgement of selecting the right person to get the job done, which made him the most successful entrepreneur or human kind. Making correct delegation could improve one’s managing skills by many folds.

Effective People Management

Effective people management is yet another tool to enhance your managing skills. One should ply qualities of human touch, personal interest, availability, open-mindedness and innovation to enhance effective people management. You can curse your car for not running smoothly but you cannot do the same to your subordinate, for jobs not done well, as they will retort. In Corny’s words “Do unto others as you would have others do unto you.” This quote is an effective management principle. You should never treat your subordinates in a way you would never like to be treated. Try to take personal interest in people around you. Talking to people, one-on-one, about their general lifestyle or problems is an effective way of winning one’s trust and interest. It will make your subordinates more respectful to you as this will portray your responsible behaviour towards them. Being available to your team members, when they need you, is another way of enhancing people management skills. Though you have thousands of job to do, but reverting to you team member on a suggestion or approval is most important. Failing which would make your team member feel frustrated. You should actively participate with your team members striving for new ideas and suggestions for better productivity and employee satisfaction. Toyota Production System (TPS) is a perfect example of an idea, put forth by an employee for high and quick production of cars in Toyota assembly lines.

Self-Motivation

Trust, Self-motivation and Vision

Trust, self-motivation and vision are also effective pillars of a trio to enhance your managing skills. You should trust your team, even in times of failure. Let your team failure be a lesson for your team members, to learn and improve. People best learn from their own experiences. A good manager should always be self-motivated with a vision to succeed. A visionary person is highly appreciated for his successful and innovative team.

Surveys – time tested tools towards better knowledge based management

Some leaders trust their gut, and become known for their killer instincts. But, it is possible for a leader to successfully run an enterprise purely on gut? Certainly not. Information and knowledge make for the pillars upon which most effective decisions depend. Surveys, over the years, have proven their worth as the most reliable and objective measures of opinions, beliefs, facts and what not! Here are two reasons why surveys are indispensible management aids.

Little effort, and proven results – The body of knowledge regarding management is laden with so many pilot tested survey instruments that you a manager can easily find a dependable survey tool like  Survey Radar to measure the desired attributes – right from factors causing employee dissatisfaction to the effectiveness of promotional offers in increasing sales.

Objective results – Provided that the surveyor is a seasoned researcher equipped with the required skills while administering surveys, you can be certain the measurements will be purely objective, and fair reflections of how things actually stand. Consequently, the actions you take and the strategies you devise to align the actual situation with the ideal state are in all likelihood, going to succeed.

There are so many systematic and sophisticated surveying tools and services at your service that you’d enjoy conducting a thorough survey to support your management exercises.

Let us have a look at results of various employee satisfaction surveys conducted throughout the world:

“While employees are increasingly happy with the quality of work they are given and the calibre of clients they advise, this year’s Employee Satisfaction Report finds contentment with personal issues slipping” – source www.legalweek.com

“Lack of compensation increase, lack of career options and new opportunities in market are the most cited reasons for seeking out new employment” –India Talent Survey 2012, Deloitte.com

“At a time of high unemployment, lackluster job growth and major uncertainty in world financial markets, many employees feel stuck in their jobs, unable to consider a career move even if they’re unhappy.” – ManpowerGroup, Forbes.com

It is quite evident from above reports that managers with vision and appropriate managing skills could only alter these results.