Promotion to a management position is a significant career milestone. To be a strong manager you need to be a strong problem-solver besides other qualities.
Your performance and abilities matter quite a lot and influence your chances of being promoted to a management position. But to be effective, it is all the more important to know what you do not know. You should take an objective look at your talent gaps, knowledge and management skills.
Promotion is only the first step. you should be proactive in creating a career path that takes up the new role and at the same time offers continual learning in your new role.
To understand the gaps in your knowledge and skills ask yourself the following questions to assess how far you are from learning these skills that are essential to be an effective manager.
Management Skill.
- Leadership style: Leadership style is a product of your personality and values besides your vision and goals. You can, of course, adapt your style as you gain more experience.
- How do you help your team develop? As a manager, you have to assess the gaps and skills required by your team members besides their current performance. Take time to understand how the promotion would alter the team dynamics.
- Prioritise and delegate work: Learning to prioritise and delegate the work is a crucial skill for a manager and this could make or break you as a team leader. You need to delegate the work carefully to your team members by matching their skill sets with the requirements of the task so that the work gets done effectively.
- Be a good speaker and lead meetings: Communication is a very important skill for a manager. How you communicate determines how engaged team members are in their work and also how you share information with stakeholders. You should also learn the skills of leading a meeting effectively and get the desired results.
- Constructive feedback and conflict resolution: As a leader, you have an important role in providing required guidance to your team members, identifying performance gaps, giving honest feedback and solving interpersonal conflicts.
Knowledge
- Learn the policies for health, safety and regulatory matters: The HR team would take the lead in training the team members on company policies but as a leader, you should also be fully familiar with the various regulations. You are the first level of contact for your team members and you should be able to give them proper guidance on the issues faced by them.
- State and federal(national) regulations: Again HR team would be responsible for briefing team members on the state and national regulations but it would make a great difference if you are familiar with it and can provide the first-level support when required.
- Queries on remuneration and incentives: as a manager, you must be fully conversant with the various account heads in the salary slip. your team members would ask you first about any of their doubts and you must be in a position to answer them rather than direct them to the Finance or HR team as the case may be.
- Recruitment: You may be called upon to help in finalising prospective employees. For this, you must be fully updated on the company recruitment policies and seek guidance from HR on any aspect that you are not clear about.
- DEI practices: Understanding the DEI policy of the company is critical to your performance as a manager. This would help you clarify procedures and answer questions when needed.
Taking up a promotion to a management role is no easy task. It is a valuable opportunity to assess your skills and identify the gaps and the weaknesses that you need to strengthen so that they do not affect your performance. With a proper assessment, you can create actionable steps to set up the career for success.
Are You Ready to Become a Manager?
by Octavia Goredema
June 20, 2023
R2G 