Test Your Management Ability

To be a manager means to manage any work or an organization. To manage, however, is not that easy. Imagine the size of some of the large organizations. Their turnover exceeds GDP of many countries but the companies have to be managed effectively and efficiently; the bottom line is that good managers are needed to do that. This also applies to self-run businesses; if you don’t know how to manage your business, it will suffer.  How do you test yourself and know if you are a good manager or whether you have the qualities to become a good manager? Let’s find out.

What are the qualities of a good manager? Let’s summarize. Knowing the goal of the organization and achieving them with minimum resources and maximum effectiveness is the first goal of any manager. If the primary goal of your company right now is to increase sales, regardless of profits, you have to do that with given resources. If the goal is to increase profits, you have to do that by cutting costs, improving sales, raising prices, and improving employee effectiveness and raise profits.

The quality that is most important for a good manager is skill and knowledge. Unless a manager has skill to perform a job, nothing will work. The second important quality is focus. A manager should be focused on the goal of the company and his/her every action should go in that direction. All skills such as time management, human resource management, marketing, production and purchases are part of the larger goal. Each of these has to be made more effective and efficient.

One important factor that at times overrides all others is vision. What is the vision of the manager about the organization? How does the manager look at the future and what is larger game plan? These are very important to formulate policies, which will satisfy the goals of the organization. No organization is static. It is a dynamic mix of many forces that has to be managed to move in a single direction. The test of a manager lies in the ability to do so. Test yourself against all these requirements and determine your own strengths and weaknesses. Once you know your weaknesses, you can work upon them and improve your performance. Try some quizzes from the Internet on Business & Career and try answering them. The tests will help you greatly in finding out more about yourself.

How do you rate your own management skills? I welcome you feedback on this topic.