Top 5 Qualities of an Effective Manager in an Information Technology Firm

Having worked for so many managers and being one of them lately gave me a real life experience of what qualities one must have to be an Effective Manager. Like most kinds of industries, IT firms also have projects that have strict deadlines, the work environment is performance oriented and the success of any project depends on how effectively the project is managed. Below are the must have qualities which make a Manager Effective:

- Leadership skills: It is very important for a Manager to be a good leader.

Team leadership skills help a manager to get the support of the entire team. In a situation where the team is achieving great success a good manager gives the team the credit and in situation of crisis he takes the responsibility and guides the team towards the best possible way to achieve the target.

- Excellent Communication Skills: When you are the communicator between the organization or client and the team, it becomes even more important to have effective communication skills. The manager has to make sure the message is conveyed properly. Be it a general message of a particular meeting or as important as how stringent the deadlines. If communicated properly the first time, the chances of the job well done increases substantially.

- Excellent Knowledge of the subject: It is one of the best skills you can expect a manager should have. If he knows the subject so well that he can single handedly get the work done if needed, he can give the necessary support to his team. This usually results in getting huge respect from the team members. They do work more sincerely under the manager's leadership.

- Delegation Capabilities: Sometimes if you have excellent knowledge of the subject you try to get so involved in the work that you end up doing it yourself. An effective manager is supposed to let his team work on it. He should be aware of the strengths and weaknesses of the members of his team and delegate the work accordingly to get the work done in the defined time limit and meet the highest of the standards.

- Assertiveness Skills: Assertiveness skills are a must have for an effective manager. Any team cannot survive if his manager says yes to things he should have not committed to. He should have the courage and capability to say no when it is something that he has to say for the benefit of the team and the organization. For example during a project sometimes customer keeps changing requirements even after you have ended up freezing the requirements, saying no to any change after the freeze is something effective managers do. Else, the team is bound to fail the deadline.

- A good planner: The most important skill of an effective manager that comes handy in most critical situation. He should know based on his experience how much time it takes to complete a task. Who are the best people for a particular job and how much extra time he should plan for so that the work is done in time and results in profit for his organization? Effective managers plan the best way to utilize available resources.