5 Must-Have Management Skills For The Digital Era Part 2

In a world where there is a constant progression with technology, and artificial intelligence is used in ever increasing areas within organisations, it is, without doubt, a digital and disruptive workplace like nothing we have experienced before. 

As a manager or senior leader responsible for management development, there will be a question that has occupied your thinking at times that goes like this: For managers to succeed in the digital age, what are their “must have skills”? 

Only when you can answer this question can you then begin to think about how your organisation supports managers to build and develop this skill set. 

In part 2 of this series, we will share the final two must-have skills: Agility and Flexibility.  If you haven’t yet read part 1 where we discussed Communication Skills, Emotional Intelligence and Ethical Compass, you can read it here.

Agility

Let’s start by exploring what we mean by agility: “quick and well-coordinated movement.”

Agility is a word frequently used in IT teams and comes from the agile frameworks that IT teams use to manage development projects. It is, however, a skill that applies to managers in other functions too.  

Without getting into the detail of agile working and self-managing teams plus the debate about what  is the role of an ‘agile manager’, here are some examples of the kind of mindset an agile manager has.

Able To Remove Road Blocks

These managers are great at removing blocks that limit the efficiency and effectiveness of their team and colleagues. 

Roadblocks are found in organisations’ systems and processes. In this instance, an agile manager will facilitate and influence to remove the blocks and create processes that serve the organisation
more effectively. 

Servant Leadership

A great agile manager is a servant leader to their team. This means they demonstrate ethical and caring behaviours, putting others needs ahead of their own. They are humble, knowledgeable, positive, social and emotionally intelligent. As someone who can remove blocks, they are empathic and have strong listening skills.
 

Understands Resources

A manager has numerous resources at their disposal including paper, phones, technology and people. With so many resources available in this digital age in which we live, it’s easy to forget people and the need to communicate. 

A team are both a highly valuable resource and asset. An agile manager will always remember that people are humans, not plug in and press machines.

Connections

An old mentor once said to me, Amrutha, “Your network is your net-worth”. It was at a time when  I was developing my networking skills and contacts. At the time I didn’t quite appreciate how true this is. 

We all have strong connection with family, friends and colleagues we are closest to. However, in this connected world we live in, with social networks like LinkedIn and Facebook, there is an opportunity to have a large network of connections where we can manage the strength and depth of relationships. 

Unlike many years ago, it’s much easier for these connections to be global. If you are a manager 
with a smaller network, make it a priority to align yourself with a colleague or peer who does have an extensive network that they are happy for you to tap into in order to assist and support your team to achieve their goals. 

I realise that this list of skills could have been even longer. If there are some skills that would have been in your top five that I have omitted, drop me an email and let me know. 

Thanks, 

Amrutha 

About JobFitts 

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