The hard skills you need to become a manager

Ready to become a leader at work? These are the essential skills you’ll need to step up and take charge.

OUA

Management has always been part of your career plan and you’re more than ready to become a leader. You’ve worked hard to gain the skills and experience needed to achieve all you can in your current role, and now it’s time to step up.

If this sounds like you right now, there’s one way to guarantee you stand out from other candidates vying for the top job – solid qualifications gained from postgraduate study. Louise Howard stepped into the role of Acting Deputy Executive Director Safety & Security at Sydney Metro after completing an Executive MBA with RMIT University online through Open Universities Australia (OUA). “I wanted to become a more rounded leader, rather than just a specialist,” she says. “This qualification has given me the leverage to take on this role and apply for the permanent position.”

Louise, who is based in Sydney, says studying through OUA gave her the opportunity to access the globally recognised MBA offered by Melbourne’s RMIT University without having to leave her job or Sydney, and the flexibility of online study was a major advantage. “Even while on holiday in Italy, I completed an assignment,” she says. “Studying the Executive MBA online has the same structure as face-to-face [study], but I didn’t have to take time off work, and could also record lectures to replay later if I had to.”

Psychologist and career expert Suzie Plush says that in a highly competitive job market, it’s not enough to lean on experience alone. “In an era of advanced technology, you can’t just rely on soft skills to get you through. You really do need hard skills to be a successful manager.”

With the ability to personalise her study load, Louise completed her Executive MBA in two years through OUA, which offers multiple MBAs from a variety of institutions. Along the way, Louise feels she gained a wealth of hard managerial skills, including “strategy, financial management, different formats of leadership and different ways to engage people – that was a big one”.

There’s no debating that developing your expertise through further study will give you a strong competitive edge. Whether it’s a step up the career ladder or the top rung you’re aiming for, consider the additional skills needed to make you management material.

Psychologist and career expert Suzie Plush’s three universal skills for managers

1.    Project management

This is essential for a management role, as you need to be able to oversee reports through multiple stages of a project. With this skill, you can manage above, across and below within an organisation, and being able to do this effectively can be crucial to your success. Even if you aren’t going into a specific project management role, these skills are applicable to anyone managing in any business.

2.    Data management and analytics

Having these skills is extremely practical given the age we live in, and they’re only going to become more important going forward. In management, understanding and communication are incredibly important, so you must be able to effectively gather and comprehend information and data to share with your team, colleagues, clients and customers. It also helps with strategic planning so you can ensure the success of your team. Learning different management systems to organise and keep that data is a huge advantage.

3.    People management

The ability to manage diverse teams and understand cross-cultural issues is something employees look for in managerial candidates. To improve performance and productivity, recognising different working styles, motivating and influencing others, and making ethical decisions are key skills to successfully lead people and organisations. These are areas you don’t want to go into too “green”, so it’s a good idea to learn as many of these skills as you can.

Through OUA, you can explore hundreds of online postgraduate degrees offered by leading Australian universities with the flexibility to study wherever and whenever suits your schedule. And from start to finish, there are support services and resources to get you over the line. As Louise confirms: “OUA is constantly evolving. In the two years I studied, many things improved, things like the user interface and the customer service experience; I have to give that a shout-out, they’re very helpful.”