The advantages of business management skills

Jodie Humphries

Every individual within an organisation needs to develop their skills to make a business succeed, business managers in particular. Business management skills need to be developed to their full potential if a manager, and therefore his or her team and the organisation, is to be successful. Management comprises planning, organising, staffing, leading or directing, and controlling an organisation (a group of one or more people or entities) or effort for the purpose of accomplishing a goal.

Many managers and supervisors are promoted into management because they were good in their previous position. Typically they jump into their new supervisory position without any training or prior experience at managing people, and discover how or how not to manage people through trial and error. Supervisor skills are often learnt by experience, some of which can cause pain and embarrassment.

Almost every entrepreneur who establishes their own business is satisfied in their own mind, that they have the business management skills necessary, to effectively manage and operate a growing business. Yet, in the common causes of business failure, poor management is usually rated in the top three or four most cited reasons, as to why so many start up businesses fail, the article 'Management skills are crucial to good business management' reports.

Among the most important business skills you can possess is the ability to think straight and develop the fact-based insight which produces business breakthroughs. Another attribute which all business managers should strive to develop and deploy is ‘effectiveness'.

The famous management guru Peter Drucker made the vital distinction between ‘efficient' and ‘effective' business skills. Performing an activity swiftly and economically is efficient, while doing the right thing well is effective. The wrong thing, however, is ineffective by definition. Good business management skills guide you towards the right goals, and achievement of those will be highly effective, Thinking Managers state.

Functions of management

Frenchman Henri Fayol describes management as being a composition of five functions namely planning, organising, leading, co-ordination and control, Buzzle.com states.

• Planning: - Planning involves identification of your business goal and the way to reach it. It involves the estimation of the costs that will be incurred and evaluation of the time required to attain the business goal. A business plan has to be documented and reviewed on a regular basis. A plan is worth it if the attainment of the business goal is feasible with the planned resources. You need to communicate your plan to your employees and accept their feedback

• Organising: - It involves the assignment of tasks and allocation of resources throughout the business organisation. It includes determining the primary goals of the business and strategies to reach them. Divide the activities into tasks and assign the tasks to suitable and deserving employees.

• Leading: - Leadership is a management skill in itself. A true leader inculcates feelings of confidence, admiration in the followers and a sense of commitment towards their business. A leader, through his efficiency and effectiveness, influences the others to act efficiently and effectively. Transformation is the need of the day and such leaders ought to foster flexibility. Being innovative is important for a leader and it is again a skill. Delegation is an activity of leading. It is allocation andentrustment of responsibility. A leader not only dreams but also provides the employees with a framework for the fulfillment of his dreams.

• Coordination and Control: - They are important for the success of a business. Coordination is the process of communication to track the activities towards the goal and make decisions about the next line of action. Control is better implemented in the form of prudent guidance given to the employees by their manager. Evaluations are necessary to evaluate business performance.

Understanding your organisation

As a manager, you should be able to understand the weaknesses of the organisation and work to change them to strengths.

You should have the skill to endure every setback and learn from your mistakes. Successful business development strategies used by others, help you device your own. This is when your skill to ‘experiment' comes in the scene. Experimentation has to be accompanied by skillful judgment of your actions and results.

Business management includes management of money and time. Being a manager, you have to time yourself and schedule tasks for your team, so that deadlines are met. Management of money is an integral part of running a business. The activities of buying, selling and pricing have to be done skillfully. Business management requires a large skill set. It is everything right from planning, supervising, right up to being the spokesperson for your business.

People skills, as they are nowadays called, are important for a manager to acquire. After all, management is about handling people. Bringing out the potential in the people of your team is a skill. Stonewallers need to be dealt with, by motivating them towards constructive change. You need to improve yourself and imbibe in the minds of others that improvement is a continuous process. Learn to celebrate the success of staff members always encourage them to contribute to the fullest of their capacities, towards the business organisation. This helps create enthusiasm in the staff. It's a human psychology to work to get noticed. Human expects recognition for his work. So encourage your team members to put in their best and congratulate them for doing that. It is a good practice to assign relatively experienced employees as buddies to the new ones.

Business management skills are robust tools in the hands of a manager. Regardless of the size of the company you work for, or the team you supervise, business management skills enable you to succeed.