3 ways leaders cultivate management skills

Over the past couple of months, we have been looking at the differences between leaders and managers and the subtle nuances between them.

This month, we look into how leaders manage and the importance of cultivating those skills.

Here are three key points we can discuss:

1. Career progression

No one started in a leadership position. Everyone took steps along the way to build skills, experiences and knowledge to take on the leadership of others. Many were managers for a time, possibly even a very long time. Some still retain management of certain areas or tasks in an organization. Our leaders have to manage on a different level than managers. They need to manage the personalities of those who report to them. They need to manage the requests and objectives of the people they answer to, be it a board, owner or shareholders. The leader needs to manage overall workflow, expenses, overhead, cash flow and balance sheets. They manage long-range goals while managing short-term financial responsibilities.

However, they didn’t get there overnight. In their careers, there were opportunities to take on a bit more responsibility for a task or project, they did well, and they were then given more opportunities to repeat the behavior. Over time, they had options to take different roles and move up the proverbial ladder.

2. Understanding the work and getting into the weeds to know the struggles of day-to-day life in your business

As leaders manage, they need to be acutely aware of what is actually happening at the customer interaction level. You know the sayings, “the front lines,” “where the rubber meets the road,” “where the actual work gets done, and the money gets made.” All of those cliches do have truth in them. A leader who properly manages the business in its entirety needs to know what in the heck is actually going on, not receiving a feedback loop of information through the filter of another manager who may try to protect what they are doing or doesn’t understand the bigger picture.

Get off the highway, then get off the gravel road, and get into those weeds! Talk to drivers and customers, and have honest conversations. Throw off the shackles of political correctness, and have a conversation where anyone can say what they really think is going well or going poorly. The ability to strengthen your foundational abilities and build a better base grows from that point.

3. Information flow

Which way does your organization flow? Does the leadership direction always come down from the top, or does information from the field flow back up the chain to influence change and adjustments? A leader has to manage that flow as well. Feedback is key in short-, medium- and long-range decisions of any organization no matter how deep or how flat the organizational structure may be.

When leaders make decisions on processes, overall direction or incremental change, the information flows out and down to those who need to carry it out. Then the leader must manage the way information flows not only outwardly but then back up as those processes are implemented.

Lastly, there is no one way for any of these points to take physical shape. It is progression or an iteration of a process. Take comfort in the fact that things change, processes evolve and improvements are made. That is why we call it work, right?

Let’s work on your upgrade.

Aaron Huizenga is East Division manager for Lakes Gas in Wisconsin. Reach him at ahuizenga@lakesgas.com.