No matter which specific career path you decide to pursue, you may benefit from developing a blend of soft and hard skills. Soft skills are commonly seen as characteristics or personality traits, such as those that affect how you communicate and interact with others, as well as how you handle various challenges. Let’s take a closer look at some soft business manager skills.
Do you envision yourself climbing the corporate ladder to one day manage a team, a department or even an entire company? Leadership skills are important for all types of leaders — inside and outside the corporate world — and in all industries and niches.
What exactly is leadership? It can be defined by many characteristics and actions, but typically, a leader is someone who inspires others to work toward achieving their true potential. Leaders may delegate responsibilities, and they may be charged with clearly communicating the overall vision and direction of the organization.
If you decide to earn a business and management degree, one of the topics you may examine is the different types of leadership styles, such as authoritative, transformational and participative leaders. One leadership style that can benefit all types of organizations and employees is servant leadership.2
A servant leader embraces the idea that they serve their employees and other stakeholders, not vice versa. Servant leaders seek to empower employees, promote the well-being of all, encourage innovation and serve as a steward of the organization.3 Here at GCU in the Colangelo College of Business, we emphasize the importance of servant leadership. Servant leadership is the first of the three pillars in the foundation of the College of Business.
Other critical business management skills include effective communication skills. No matter what job title you ultimately pursue after college, you can benefit from strong communication skills. You might think that effective communication skills only involve being able to speak clearly to other people, but they also involve active listening, written communication and nonverbal communication. For example, an active listener is one who pays close attention to what the other person is saying and seeks to identify nonverbal cues that may enhance understanding.3
In addition, you may find it useful to develop skills and strategies for building and maintaining strong relationships with customers or clients. These customer engagement skills might also be applicable to building relationships with suppliers, vendors and other stakeholders.
In any type of job, it is likely that you’ll need to communicate clearly with coworkers, supervisors and customers or clients. You may be called upon to speak up during meetings or perhaps give a formal presentation of a project you’ve been working on. If you pursue career advancement later down the road, you’ll likely need to delegate tasks and responsibilities to your team, which will also require effective communication skills.
Adaptability is essential. Organizational change is inevitable no matter what industry you may be in. New technologies will become available, trends in the industry will come and go and new laws may be passed that can alter compliance requirements. Employees and managers need to be sufficiently adaptable to change with the times while preserving the organization’s core values, vision and mission.
