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Five management skills you can't do without

Writing for Fortune, Katherine Reynolds Lewis highlights five key - but neglected - skills for management success:

1) Communication. Reynolds Lewis points out that the greatest ideas are worthless if they cannot be communicated effectively in the workplace.

The author advises: "It's important to be clear and professional in your communications, whether that's over email, in meetings, or one-on-one."

She adds: "To be an effective communicator, it's just as important to listen and ask questions as it is to put forth your own ideas. Listening carefully to your audience will help you determine whether your ideas are being understood, and gauge how well your goals jibe with the interests of the people you're addressing."

Michael Steinerd, director of recruiting for Indeed.com, tells Reynolds Lewis: "The ability to effectively communicate really is the bedrock to developing critical relationships within the organisation itself and sets the tone for development and movement."

2) Networking. Continuous networking is the key to success, insists Reynolds Lewis. George Bradt, author of the book First-Time Leader, tells her: "The people that are more successful aren't thinking about networking, they're thinking about connecting: how do I connect this need with this resource? They fundamentally believe by helping everybody they're helping themselves."

Reynolds Lewis suggests identifying people you admire inside and outside the organisation and then focus on how you can help them rather than what they can do for you.

3) Perspective. It's important for a leader to take into consideration other people's goals and beliefs. Just having the title of leader will not be enough to get cooperation from other people.

Ask others for their opinions and listen carefully to their answers. Bradt points out that you need to "co-create a shared purpose and drive toward the cause".

4) Time management. Effective prioritisation and rigorously managing your own energy are essential for time management.

There are occasions when you have to say no to a project because you don't have the time or resources without letting your existing workload suffer.

5) Delegate. Of course, there are tasks that don't have to be completed by you. Bear in mind that others might have a different way of working but can still get the desired result.

Nevertheless, give clear direction where necessary and make available all the appropriate resources.

Have you been thinking that a day is too short to complete your tasks in the office?

Identify low-value tasks. Review all of your daily tasks and decided which are (a) relatively unimportant to you and the organization and (b) reasonably easy to drop or delegate.
... Decide whether to drop, delegate or redesign. Your low-value tasks should be divided into three categories:

(a) Quick kills (tasks you drop now with no negative consequences);

(b) Offload opportunities (things you can delegate with little effort);

(c) Long-term redesign (work that will require restructuring or overhauling).

DO YOU WANT TO START A BUSINESS?
"Know Your Numbers," and because numbers are the language of business, it is numbers that will ultimately determine your success.
Business is literally a numbers game, but what numbers should you know?

1. The lifetime value of each customer. While there are more complicated formula to determine this value, this simple version will give you a start:
If your average customer spends Ksh. 20 per purchase, buys three times a year and stays with your business for five years, the customer's lifetime value to your business is Ksh.300.
20 x 3 sales = Ksh60
60 x 5 years = Ksh300
Now you have a working understanding of the worth of each customer and the types of resources you need to acquire and retain them.

2. How much it costs to acquire a new customer. Cost Per Acquisition, or CPA, can help determine how much you spend on any marketing or ad campaign.
Let's say you've placed an ad in your local paper for $200. You get 20 responses and 10 sales. The acquisition cost for each customer is Ksh20 (Ksh200/ 10 = Ksh20).
If your offer results in at least Ksh20 in profits on every sale, you've run a successful campaign. But if your CPA is Ksh20 and you have little or no profit, or are acquiring customers at a loss, it's time to re-evaluate your marketing.

3. Conversion rates. Let's say you hand out flyers to people on the street. The campaign generates 1000 leads over a two-week period, and 100 of those leads buy. Your conversion rate is 10 percent (1000 leads / 100 new customers = 10 percent conversion rate).

Jacqueline Mungumi is Consultant and a University Entrepreneurship Lecturer. For more, visit www.hrtraining.co.ke

Propsafrica | The missing piece in Consultancy! Props Africa Consultants Limited is an authorized training partner. It has specialized in Leadership skills, Management skills, Financial Management, Public policy formulation, Coaching and mentorship, Team building and Entrepreneurship skills among other services.

It is critical that leaders proactively deal with underperformers. There are two main reasons employees underperform at their jobs. Either they lack the ability or skill set required, or they lack the motivation or desire to perform, or both. Managers should begin their plan of action by properly identifying the degree to which an employee's poor performance is due to a "can't" or a "won't."
1. Start the process by studying the employee. Be curious about why they are working the way they are. Document times and dates, and gather concrete examples or poor behavior or performance so you can properly assess whether the issue is due to lack of skill or lack of will. This information can be used to confront the employee and create a strategy for improvement.
2. Set a one-on-one meeting with the employee and present your concerns about their performance. Take note of any reasons they give or ways you can help them improve at their job. Review the requirements of their job, and collaborate on a strategy for them to accelerate their performance.
for more...visit www.hrtraining.co.ke

The worst thing you can do as a leader is stifle creativity in your business.

Without innovation and creativity, your business will stagnate. Your own career will be harmed too. The world is so fast-moving that we have to innovate... or die.

When someone on your team has an idea you need to know:

How to implement it
How much it would cost and how long it would take
What the real benefits would be
In other words, is it really worth doing?

Props Africa teaches you how to:

Generate great new ideas
Select which ideas to implement
Assess the value of an idea
Make the idea a reality

contact us through [email protected]

Props Africa Consultants LTD

Control and empowerment of employees-A company is more likely to succeed if they control and empower employees simultaneously.
Companies that neglect mechanisms that enforce discipline, common standards, or compliance with external regulation do so at their peril, Yet excessive control, paradoxically, tends to drive dysfunctional behaviour, to undermine people's sense of purpose, and to harm motivation by hemming employees into a corporate straitjacket

Props Africa has an entrepreneurial program that helps young people understand and prepare for entrepreneurship.
we help young people develop entrepreneurial ideas and to provide steps to take in the entrepreneurial journey. We believe in the potential of children and youth and the need to inspire entrepreneurship at an early age.

There are many studies that suggest that the environment you grow up in affects who you become. We would like to create an environment within this program that encourages and nurtures entrepreneurship and give opportunities for valuable experiences to shape their futures. The approach is based on actual entrepreneurial cases (examples) to help young people see and participate in an entrepreneurial experience.

Leaders and Managers,

If you don't have a clear business strategy you might as well do this: Go to the bank and withdraw all your money, Put all the money on to a pile, Set it on fire.
HERE ARE SUPER POLICIES TO SUCCESSFUL STRATEGIES:

1. Forget the past. 'We must not anticipate the past' - but most managements persist in the belief that the past will be the future. It won't. The past offers valuable guidance - but strategy derives far more benefit from full and proper understanding of the present - which is the explanation of Peter Drucker's remarkably accurate record as a seer.

2. Think global. With the exception of the US, no domestic market is big enough to support large strategic ambitions - and even Americans, now that boundaries are becoming meaningless, are well advised to look beyond their own shores to world markets.

3. Internal change must be drastic. In Kami's words, 'One needs transformation, not reformation.' That's what you would seek in crisis: act radically now, and there won't be a crisis.

4. Base your business on knowledge and information, not things. Increasingly every business faces across the board the same challenge that confronts purchasers of IT equipment. You know that your state-of-the-art purchase will be out-of-date before the system is bedded in. Extracting value from fixed assets depends on the mobile assets of people and intellectual capital.

5. Create an information-based organisation. Found your strategy on a substructure of information and communication systems that meet both present and future needs - for all employees, suppliers and customers.