The manager's job is primarily that of leadership and being able to take, subordinates or employees to a place of productivity where they would be afraid to go themselves. Management of resources and leadership of people is an art and there are various skills that are required. Ordinary managers think that just because someone has been given a job description and key result areas they will perform. That is a fallacy. As a manager you can delegate duties but you still remain the custodian of performance.

I identify ten skills that are required of the modern day manager.

1. Effective managers understand the role of directing people's activities and duties to the attainment of a specific desired result.

2. They realize the importance of making decisions that solve problems before they develop into a crisis. They realize that hesitation and procrastination are the “stealers” of productivity and profit.

3. The effective manager knows when and where to cultivate control. His leadership is based on forming the right relationships and influencing others and does not always need to invoke formal authority to accomplish a task. He instills the discipline he requires in those he leads by setting an effective example.

4. He does not indulge himself in short – term thinking but he rather focuses on planning and longer term thinking because that is what leaders do. They see far ahead of others.

5. He identifies and removes obstacles stopping his team from performing. He does not turn a blind eye to the fact that there are resource constraints whenever one is trying to achieve something but he ensures that there is adequate provision for the fulfillment of the company's vision.

6. The effective manager is not just focused on his key result areas. It his mandate to provide mentorship and leadership to his team. He strengthens those who are weak and encourages the top performers to unleash their greatness.

7. He realizes that the ability to articulate issues is crucial to his success therefore he works on polishing his presentation, persuasion and public speaking skills.

8. He does not believe for a moment that charisma is something you are endowed with at birth, but instead he works on developing his charisma.

9. The effective manager is transformational. He embraces, change, cultures change and seeks to leave things ten times better than they were before.

10. He sees things not as they are but as they ought to be.

Managers for the future need to be people that are continuously working on self development. With rapid change in the environment they work in managers cannot afford to have a business as usual approach.



Source by Fitzgerald Mujuru