Management Insights: Common Competencies of Effective Managers

These are some common competencies that extensive research indicates make managers more effective. Many of these are tied to communications and interpersonal skills. Few people develop very good communications skills without formal training, coaching or a good mentor. Increasing your managers' competencies in these areas increases retention, improves execution, and enhances your success.

How would you assess yourself and your current management team members on each of these? Do you know how to hire for these items? To develop improved skills?

Effective managers actively demonstrate:

Abilities to:

• Assess and balance competing values and priorities
• Build trust relationships
• Effectively manage limited resources
• Influence others to act
• Make effective decisions quickly
• Work well in teams
• Be creative

In daily activities:

• coaching and mentoring skills to develop and retain talent
• effective communications
• customer/client service oriented
• manages conflict through problem solving skills
• models ethical behavior and integrity

What questions might you ask of potential new managers or new hires to assess their abilities in these areas?

Some might include:

• What was the hardest "sell" of a new idea or method you have had to make to get it accepted?
• Tell me about a plan you made carefully which was destroyed by events... what happened and what did you do to react?
• All of us have worked in situations where we knew we could improve the way the company did something - give me an example of a situation like that and what you did and what happened.
• Give me an example of a situation in which you managed or led a team and were able to create a high morale, high productivity work group.
• When you are dealing with co-workers or customers, what really tries your patience and how do you deal with that?

These are behavior-based questions and you are looking for answers which tell you about the person's normal pattern of behavior -- which will tell you what the person will do in your position. Behavior-based interviewing techniques can assist you in hiring managers with these competencies. Individual coaching and management training can assist in improving many of these competencies in existing management.

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