Whether it’s running a company, a charity or a volunteer organisation, having the right management skills is key. You can learn and improve your management skills as your organisation grows.
While there isn’t a definitive list of skills, the ones listed below will help you build on your initial vision and develop it to its full potential.
Passion and forward planning
You’ve got the passion for what you do, a belief in why your organisation exists. Now you need a vision of how you’d like to grow and improve.
Passion
You know it’s important to be passionate about what you do. It’s your enthusiasm as a leader that will drive your team and motivate your staff to join you in striving to be successful.
Vision and goals
Establish a clear vision for your organisation.
Setting and communicating clear goals is equally important.
Long-term direction and planning
It’s very easy to become consumed with the day-to-day running of the organisation. This can leave you preoccupied with putting out proverbial fires or operational issues, and with no time to think about trends and the long-term direction and goals of your organisation.
Leadership
Leadership is all about building effective teams, encouraging people to achieve long-term objectives, and creating an environment to ensure this can happen.
Lead by example
As the leader, your actions set the work culture in your organisation and an example to your team. This means it’s important to lead by example. You can’t expect others to have a‘ can do’ attitude if you reject all ideas other than your own.
Encourage the culture you’re aiming to achieve by being encouraging and supportive. For example, you can guide initiative and channel it in the right direction, rather than squash it.
Motivate your team
One way to fuel your team is by communicating your personal passion.
Good communication
Good, clear communication makes managing your organisation much easier. You can’t expect people to complete tasks well if your expectations and requirements, or the process itself, are not communicated clearly.
Develop your listening skills
Your team will feel valued and be more likely to try harder if they feel that you listen to them.
Multi-skilled
As a leader, it’s important to become multi-skilled.
"I have had regular monthly coaching with Michelle for two years, I found Michelle kind and thoughtful, also analytical. It is helpful each session to review the numbers, budgeting and discuss forecasting with the different events that are occurring in the trust regularly. Each meeting our discussions resulted in myself as CEO to understand the numbers more and receive helpful tips towards improving our financial reporting to make them more readable and understandable to the board."