Managers Crucial Core Competencies for 21st Century

1: Ability to do the right things: Managers need to know to do the right thing. There is a saying that the leaders do the right thing and the managers do things right. Those days are gone. In today's world everyone needs to do the right thing. We're one Global world. Everything that one organization does affect another one across the globe.

What is a right thing? How do we define right thing? A thing that is customer focused, bringing people together in the best interest of the organization, without a hidden agenda, and increasing the bottomline is the right thing. Trust is a big issue in a team. Each team member should feel comfortable in sharing their view points with full trust. Everyone needs to be given an opportunity to voice their opinion and bottom up mentality will be much more progressive as they know the day to day challenges in any task.

2: Ability to lead: To lead, a manager must be able to empower the team. Let the team create a vision so they know how to reach it. They can bring in the challenges and the solutions. If you think you know it all and take charge, you are doomed to fail. Managers need to command respect and not demand respect. A successful manager's behavior, attitude, ability to foresee challenges by being proactive and responsiveness instead of being reactive will gain due respect. Such a manager knows to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the team players and to coordinate in such a manner so that team members' skills complement each other's during the course of the project. Such managers also take the team members under their wings and groom them to grow with the organization enabling them to operate independently with minimum supervision.

3: Ability to allocate resources effectively: Funds, people and equipments are the three most important resources but all organizations need reliable people to manage the other two. Handling human resources is an important aspect of any business. It must be fair and effective. Policies must be drafted and implementation of policies, safety rules, laws, regulations and following standard operating procedures are a MUST. A strong manager needs to be effective in this area.

4: Ability to maintain high level of service mentality: Service separates business A from business B. A high level of customer service is essential for a successful organization. Successful managers create a culture that places customer issues first- applies to both internal and external customers. A manager is effective when he consistently delivers results to customer satisfaction and in a cost effective manner, keeping his team members happy and motivated.

5: Ability to adapt to changes: In today's globalized environment, businesses need to adapt to the rapid changes in the market place. Every manager needs to be able to understand how to effectively convey the changes to the team, implement the necessary changes swiftly & effectively. It is vital that the entire team adapt to the changes before they have to.

6: Ability to communicate effectively: Managers need to communicate with all types of people. More than ever, due to out sourcing and cultural diversity business success is highly dependent upon effective communication skills. Getting your message across to your customers, teammates and upper management is critical.

7: Ability to track and measure performance:

"What gets measured gets done, what gets measured and fed back gets done well, what gets rewarded gets repeated"-- John E. Jones

Successful managers establish projects; assign responsibilities, set deadlines and be accountable for follow through, require feedback, step by step progress and the complete the projects. This process helps them to "zero in" on issues that will improve the organization's performance at every level. Recognizing the contributions and appreciating for accomplishment is another important factor that mangers need to focus. Celebrate success. Success breeds success. Positive reinforcement leads to future successes.