When applying for a managerial position, your employer is looking for some specific abilities that prove you are a good leader. They want to see if you can handle overlooking your subordinates and key business activities.
Different kinds of managers require different kinds of skills to perform their tasks. In this article, we explore the top six management skills to put on your resume, along with some examples of how to write them.
1. Personnel Management Skills
It's no surprise that managing humans is considerably difficult. You have to account for their personal interests, comfort, behavior, fatigue, stress, and fallibility. All this while keeping them happy and focused throughout the process.
A lot of what personnel management includes is showing people why doing a certain thing is important. In other words, how does that thing contribute to the organizational goal? And how does that goal align with your subordinates' personal interests?
Personnel Management Skills Include:
- Empathy
- Motivation and morale
- Communication
- Conflict resolution
- Stress management
- Coaching and counseling
Examples of Personnel Management Skills:
- Directed a team of 17 executives overlooking activities directly affecting company KPIs (key performance indicator).
- Introduced a new reward program to increase company-wide productivity by 23%.
- Increased employee retention from 76% to 91% by adopting new HRMS tools.
2. Project Management Skills
As a manager, your job is to make sure that other people are doing their jobs well and on time. In other words, it's a balancing act between quality and quantity. Focus on the former too much, and you have inadequate output; focus on the latter too much, and you get dissatisfied clients.
To be a good project manager, you need to know how to delegate work, create schedules, allocate resources, automate routine jobs, spot errors, cut wastes, and prioritize tasks based on urgency and importance.
Project Management Skills Include:
- Delegation
- Scheduling
- Supervision
- Prioritization
- Quality control
- Resource allocation
Examples of Project Management Skills:
- Cut restocking wastage from 28% to 15% by strengthening supply chain efficiency.
- Outsourced marketing needs to an external provider, saving 1200+ hours per month.
- Organized project roadmap, delegated tasks, and complied with strict budgets.
3. Money Management Skills
Managing a company's money is a huge responsibility and a matter of utmost importance. Failure to do it properly can lead to serious repercussions and setbacks to the company's goals.
A manager with good money management skills is someone who can understand key financial and economic concepts. These include ROI, IRR, ROCE, inflation, time value of money, opportunity cost, gross margin, and many more.
Money Management Skills Include:
- Pricing
- Budgeting
- Accounting
- Bookkeeping
- Investing
- Invoicing
- Financial forecasting
- Financial reporting
Examples of Money Management Skills:
- Maintained key company financial reports and complied with all codes.
- Simplified payroll system to reduce delay in payment of wages.
- Helped devise strategies to reduce company debt from $120M to $50M.
4. Client Management Skills
Being a manager isn't just about telling your subordinates what to do, it's also about being a representative of your company. The way you handle clients plays a huge role in the professional relationships your company builds and retains over the years.
This means understanding client problems, proposing appropriate solutions, offering support, and clearing doubts. A good client success manager is reliable, accountable, responsive, and empathetic.
Client Management Skills Include:
- Communication
- Logical reasoning
- Quick Thinking
- Negotiation
Examples of Client Management Skills:
- Managed the full project life cycle for multiple clients to ensure success.
- Increased client retention rate by 35% by creating new follow-up processes.
- Sourced new revenue streams by networking with industry leaders.
5. Risk Management Skills
Perhaps one of the most underrated management skills is risk management. In a business, the way you manage risks directly translates to your company's overall performance and financial health.
To manage risk wisely, you first need to quantify how much you are comfortable losing, i.e., your risk tolerance. In other words, the amount of risk you are willing to bear in return for a given amount of expected return.
For instance, stepping into a new market without adequate research and proper knowledge of the risks involved can subject you to serious repercussions and harm your brand reputation and profitability.
Risk Management Skills Include:
- Risk Identification
- Risk Analysis
- Risk Planning
- Risk Mitigation
Examples of Risk Management Skills:
- Conducted cost-benefit analysis of new product launches to minimize risk.
- Revised company risk policies to balance risk tolerance with asset liquidity.
- Analyzed potential areas of threats via SWOT parameters.
6. Crisis Management Skills
There may be times when your company is going through a crisis. Maybe a natural disaster, an unfavorable change in government policies, theft, cyberattacks, violence, or a global pandemic like COVID-19. In such a case, all your efforts must be focused on two main things.
First, the safety and security of your staff. And second, the survival of your company. It's easy to act out of panic in these situations, but doing so only adds to the problem. To tackle a crisis wisely, it's ideal to have a crisis management plan handy beforehand.
Crisis Management Skills Include:
- Agility
- Communication
- Problem-solving
- Creativity
- Forward planning
- Decision-making
Examples of Crisis Management Skills:
- Introduced new work codes to ensure staff safety and limit equipment mishandling.
- Saved $2M by putting in place cost-cutting measures to solve long-standing issues.
- Helped devise strategies to recover market share after substantial business loss.
Show Your Management Skills With Grace
In a lot of ways, a manager is someone subordinates look up to for direction, guidance, and motivation. The management skills mentioned above are closely interrelated and work together to display the traits of a strong leader.
By putting these skill sets on your resume, you are displaying conscientiousness, commitment, discipline, and a growth mindset. Use the examples to tailor your resume to reflect your experience in the best possible way and land your dream job.