What Great Management Skills Do Top Leaders Have in Common?

If you peruse through the busi­ness sec­tion of any book­store, or if you hap­pen to be brows­ing the best­seller book titles at the air­port book kiosk, undoubt­edly, you’ll see a whole host of books and titles related to man­age­ment skills and insider tips from great lead­ers. With so many things clam­or­ing for our atten­tion and hur­ried lives these days, you prob­a­bly don’t have time to read the slew of books devoted to great man­age­ment skills. And that’s okay – because the major­ity of books devoted to great man­age­ment skills pull from the same themes. In this arti­cle, we’ll sum­ma­rize for you three of the most pop­u­lar qual­i­ties that great lead­ers share.

Great Man­age­ment Skill #1: The abil­ity to lead teams

Unless you work in an office with just a few employ­ees, most likely, your orga­ni­za­tion is divided into teams. As a man­ager, one of the skills that you will need to refine is how you build, moti­vate, and sus­tain teams. There is an art to man­ag­ing teams so that they are dri­ven per­son­ally and for the com­pany, but not in a way that becomes so com­pet­i­tive that it hin­ders other teams within the com­pany. As a team leader, focus on build­ing man­age­ment skills that include your abil­ity to com­mu­ni­cate effec­tively, and make sure you incor­po­rate train­ing that will equip your team with the essen­tial skills that they need to feel com­pe­tent and accom­plished at their jobs. The right train­ing will help improve your team’s self-esteem regard­ing their roles in the orga­ni­za­tion, and it will influ­ence their abil­ity to work pos­i­tively with their teammates.

Great Man­age­ment Skill #2: Before you can man­age oth­ers, man­age yourself

A great leader is a pos­i­tive exam­ple to oth­ers – it’s hard for peo­ple to fol­low and give respect and cred­i­bil­ity to a man­ager who is unable to man­age them­self, even if the job is still get­ting done. A great man­age­ment skill to per­fect is your own abil­ity to pri­or­i­tize your time, stay orga­nized, and keep your stress in check. Your employ­ees depend on you for lead­er­ship, and if you are con­stantly scram­bling around, can’t con­tain your tem­per, and have erratic pat­terns, you will have a dif­fi­cult time earn­ing the respect and solid­i­fy­ing your team and com­pany behind your vision. Work on your abil­ity to prac­tice self-control, be con­sis­tent, and be depend­able. Your team needs a solid force they can depend on and rely on for their own growth and abil­ity to per­form their jobs competently.

Great Man­age­ment Skill #3: Don’t just be a man­ager, be a leader

It is cer­tainly true that there are indi­vid­u­als who have excep­tional lead­er­ship skills; there are those who are renowned for not only their abil­ity to man­age, but their gift for lead­ing. Con­versely, there are many man­agers who may man­age well, but they will never be inspir­ing, trans­for­ma­tional lead­ers. If you want to go beyond man­ag­ing and leave a last­ing impact with your abil­ity to lead, here are a few of the traits that great lead­ers are cred­ited with having:

Vision­ary: Lead­ers are dif­fer­ent from just man­agers in that they are vision­ary. They see the big pic­ture and are able to take risks.

Com­mu­ni­ca­tors: Lead­ers have a cer­tain abil­ity to con­vince oth­ers and inspire by their abil­ity to express their ideas.

Pas­sion­ate: A great leader believes in the prod­uct or com­pany he or she is head­ing. The pas­sion goes beyond the “job.” True lead­ers inject their pas­sion into their deci­sion mak­ing and how they direct those around them.

Great man­age­ment skills require prac­tice and work

If you aspire to improve your man­age­ment skills and be a leader, your task requires devo­tion. To have great man­age­ment skills, you don’t need to re-invent the wheel, nor do you need to read every man­age­ment book ever pub­lished. Instead, focus on the key skills that great lead­ers share.