Develop your management team

Management team skill sets

The skills required to run a business successfully include:

• sales and marketing
• production
• finance
• administration

Not every business needs these competencies to the same degree or in the same combination. While all businesses need sales and administration skills, for some production will be critical, while in others buying ability will be more important.

A review of your business should identify skills that are important to it and those skills that your current staff, including yourself, already possess. Do these need developing with formal training or monitoring? See our guide on how to fit the training to your needs.

Some types of expertise might only be needed from time to time and it may be better to outsource as required, eg using a financial consultant on a short-term basis during a capital expansion phase.

Another option might be to use outside directors or non-executive directors, who can bring substantial commercial knowledge and experience on board. For information on using directors to help develop your business see our guide on recruiting directors.

One of your key tasks is to ensure that all roles and responsibilities are crystal clear and that good communications structures are in place in both formal (management meetings, briefings, progress reports) and informal (team building sessions, general feedback) areas.

Subjects covered in this guide

• Introduction
• The role of the management team
• Management team skill sets
• Building the team
• Training and development of managers
• Professional performance measurement
• Personal performance evaluation and rewards

 

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