Management requires different mindset
Think about the job you did before you were promoted to your
first management position. What was your primary concern?
Unless you were the office gossip, you were most concerned
with your job. You concentrated your efforts on what you did.
What was the nature of the work you did? In all likelihood, it
was mainly task-oriented. You did work of a technical or operational
nature.
But when you occupy a management role, your frame of
reference changes.
Management requires a different mindset
and skills.
The Managerial Mindset
As a manager, your primary focus is no longer on you. A manager’s
mindset shifts to them (or, perhaps more appropriately,
us), the employees who do the tasks. Although you’re still concerned
with yourself in terms of doing your job well, you recognize
your success depends in large part on how well you and
your employees work together to accomplish goals. You concentrate
on doing the things that will equip and encourage them
to produce the desired results—and many of those things you
do involve communication.
As a worker, you probably prided yourself on your technical or operational skills. It’s likely one of the reasons you were promoted to management. You performed the tasks better than other employees.
Now, you don’t do those same tasks anymore. You oversee the performance of others who do them. Your effectiveness as a manager isn’t determined by your expertise with tasks or technicalities. Your effectiveness resides in your relational skills. To be effective, you need to be a skillful communicator. You need to be especially skilled at interpersonal communications.
Relational skills Skills that build and maintain relationships. They pertain to how well you read people and relate to them. Relational skills include the abilities to establish rapport, instill trust, foster cooperation, form alliances, persuade, mediate conflict, and communicate clearly and constructively.
