Improving Your Management Skills

Mary Dee Hicks, senior vice president of Personnel Decisions International (PDI), a human resources consulting firm in Minneapolis advises all managers to see what their individual management profile is, and then work to improve their own areas of deficiency. How? By gathering good information about where you stand relative to what’s expected of you. Hicks suggests that financial managers who are interested in improving their skills sets start by gathering four types of information:

1. The perceptions of other people. Find out how other people view you and your capabilities using performance reviews, formal tools such as 360-degree assessments, or informal conversations with co-workers.
2. The standards to which you are being held. To understand where your skills may be deficient, you must also understand what is expected of you. Your performance review is a good place to start. What are you being evaluated on? What competencies are you expected to exhibit? How does your job contribute to the organization’s priorities and strategies? “In today’s rapidly changing companies, expectations often change without a manager realizing it,” Hicks says.
3. How you view yourself. What are you good at and where do you struggle? What is easy for you to accomplish, and where are you stretched? Because no one knows your job as well as you do, taking stock of your own abilities can be remarkably effective for uncovering weaknesses.
4. Your expectations and desires. Where do you want to go in the organization? Do you want to continue in finance and accounting, or would you like to move into new business development? Knowing where you want to go will help you begin to understand the skills needed to get there. “When this information is put together, managers can see where they are, where they want to be, what’s expected of them and how they stack up,” says Hicks. “Then, it becomes relatively easy to understand what skills need to be developed.” Once you understand your individual development goals, Hicks suggests turning those goals into daily action plans. “Don’t wait for a big event to come along and change your life,” she says. “Do something every day that will move you forward. Along the way, take the time to take stock of what is working and what isn’t, and be sure to seek feedback and support from others.”

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