A strong management team is essential to any business, as it leads the daily operation of a company and motivates staff to fulfil their role to maximise performance.
They will be crucial to business growth, allowing strategies to come to fruition and increasing the chances of long-term success.
It’s no surprise that lenders and investors often look for a strong management when deciding whether to fund a business or not. It’s also a key factor for a buyer looking to acquire the company.
Due to its significance and ability to fuel performance, you must ensure your company has a strong management team with all the necessary skills to lead. We’ve listed what those skills are.
Communication
Your team needs to motivate, support and lead the rest of your workforce. Having good communication skills is crucial to do this effectively in a way that engages staff and encourages them to follow and deliver.
Part of this includes informing their colleagues about changes in the business, including new policies, internal news, growth plans and other adjustments.
Delivering this information effectively will prove crucial to how successfully it lands and whether staff follow suit. Communication skills are critical to this and allow you to build strong relationships with employees and other stakeholders on behalf of the company.
Professional conduct
While it’s crucial to have positive relationships with staff, stakeholders and customers, your management team must find the balance between friendliness and professionalism.
Professional conduct will allow managers to retain respect and authority when dealing with others. It is fundamental to building a favourable business reputation and avoiding a faux pas that might undermine credibility.
Professionalism will also be crucial to problem resolution and decision-making, allowing for fair choices.
Organisation
In running a business, most tasks are deadline focused in order to deliver maximum efficiency. If jobs aren’t completed, it could lead to poor service, delays, reduced quality and declining productivity across operations.
Your managers must be organised to enable them to manage their workloads as well as their staff, so operations work as one finetuned machine.
Forward-thinking
It’s crucial that management team doesn’t fall into the trap of focusing too much on working in the business and not enough time working on the business and its future.
You team should be forward-thinking and working towards the agreed vision of the company. This will enable them to make decisions that stand the business with a better chance of success in the long-term.
It will also help them drive your growth ambitions and stay ahead in the market.
Agility
Being flexible is instrumental in any business. Priorities shift over time as external influences take effect. A good management team should be able to adapt accordingly, react to changes and keep the company on a steady course.
By ensuring your management team is agile, they will be able to overcome any obstacles that come their way, allowing for consistent performance despite the context.
Decision-making
Managers must make crucial decisions that benefit the company. Decisions are needed daily in business, and being indecisive leads to delays and poor results – especially if the wrong choice is made.
Your team must make sound decisions aligned to business priorities, even under pressure. This will give you – and your stakeholders – the confidence that capable hands are leading the company, even when hard choices are required.
Commercial awareness
As a leader of any business, you need to understand the market and industry it is in. This commercial awareness enables you to make decisions that improve performance, attract customers and protect the company.
Your management team similarly need commercial awareness. Ideally, this will stem from hands-on experience in the industry – but most significantly, they need to know what works and how it translates to success.
It will also be essential in guiding the rest of your staff, passing on knowledge that allows your whole workforce to perform better.
Budget management
Cost management is another significant part of running a business. You need to keep costs at a manageable level, especially in times when revenue is contracting or the cost base is rising.
You need a team who understands the importance of cost management. They should make financial decisions that maintain positive cash flow.
By ensuring your managers do so, will enable the business to retain profit margins that appease your shareholders and benefit your accounts.
Teamwork
Teamwork is another essential skill for your management team. It’s vital to have leaders who work together to create a united front and push the same shared vision for the company. It avoids mixed messages, making it easier to guide the rest of your workforce.
Your managers must also be able to work with other employees outside of the management team. If someone cannot work with others, it quickly leads to poor relationships and communication breakdown, threatening productivity and performance.
Working as a team creates better harmony across the company, driving results and a better working environment.
Desire to teach and learn
Training and developing your staff is imperative. It enables the business to benefit from higher performance, empowering staff with the skills they need to conduct their roles. It also leads to better staff retention while allowing you to fill positions internally, using people who already understand your business.
Your managers are critical to upskilling your staff. Part of their role is sharing their expertise with employees to suit company priorities. Having managers that are willing to impart knowledge is highly valuable.
However, it’s equally essential that your management team are willing to learn. As the business landscape changes, everyone, including leaders, benefits from gaining new skills. By encouraging management development, the team will continue to grow their capabilities to guide the business to success.
It will also lead to beneficial working relationships under which all staff learn from one another for a more robust workforce.
Conclusion
A business is only as strong as its leaders. You must ensure that your management team – including you – have the skills to guide the company, overcome barriers and achieve goals.
By reviewing the skillsets available, hiring the right people and spending time developing managers, you will experience the rewards of a more effective company. This will have knock-on effects for the rest of your workforce with outstanding performance and increased value for potential buyers and investors.
An excellent management team is the first step to growth and ensuring the long-term success of your business. If you’re ready to push your business further with a strong team, get in touch today to access funding that can assist your growth.