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By Katherine Ryan

Experts recommend this mix of hard and soft skills to progress into management

07 Jan 2018

Are you ready to progress to a management position? We spoke to a business industry expert to gain an insight into what skills you’ll need to make a break.

Tracey Fairweather, Lead of CIT Solutions’ Centre for Short Courses says,

"to become a manager, essentially new candidates must move from being an independent contributor to a network builder. They should no longer focus on their own agenda but focused on their entire team’s agenda."

"New managers must think about their team’s strengths and weaknesses more broadly, holistically and more long-term. They must become selfless and seek to help guide others towards success.”

New management candidates not only have to develop their management competencies, they also have to change themselves. They need to adopt new attitudes, values and world views in order to be successful.

It can often take the first few months, if not the first year for new managers to adjust to managing. They may feel out of their comfort zone in terms of people skills and leadership.

Tracey says, when she’s looking to employ a manager, she is seeking capability that assures her a candidate has the ability to be innovative, professional and approachable.

"I am looking for a balanced blend of specific hard and soft skills that I believe make the ideal mix for an effective manager."

"I also want to make sure my managers and leaders are genuine, they care about people and are prepared to walk the talk.”

The ideal manager will have a mix of these hard and soft skills, according to our business industry expert.

Hard Skills

  • domain expertise
  • domain specific technical ability
  • business knowledge
  • organisational structure knowledge
  • planning
  • organisation
  • reporting
  • formal education is desirable

Soft Skills

  • communications
  • flexibility
  • time management
  • leadership
  • creativity
  • decision making
  • problem solving
  • patience

Generally, hard skills can be defined as skills and knowledge that can be learned, defined, evaluated and measures. Soft skills are attributes and characteristics that can affect interpersonal interaction are often learnt via experiences.

If you are an aspiring manager, you should let your aspirations be known to your employer. They may be receptive to your progression and willing to invest in your development.

Take a look at CIT Solutions’ Professional Development Workshops geared towards building capable managers.

Tracey Fairweather

Tracey Fairweather offers the Centre for Short Courses a wealth of business knowledge, training expertise and a refined approach to delivering professional and recreational short courses to the community.

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