What are the qualities of a good manager? Let us summarise. To know the goal of the organisation and to achieve those goals with minimum resources and maximum effectiveness is the first goal of any manager. If the primary goal of your company right now is to increase sales, irrespective of profits, you have to do that with given resources. If the goal is to increase profits, you have to do that by cutting costs, improving sales, raising prices, and improving employee effectiveness and raise profits.
The quality that is most important for a good manager is skill and knowledge. Unless a manger has skill to perform a job, nothing will work. The second important quality is focus. A manager should be focused to the goal of the company and his/her every action should go in that direction. All such sub skills as Time management, Human resources management, Marketing, Production and purchases are part of the larger goal. Each of these has to be made more effective and efficient.
One important factor that at times overrides all others is vision. What is the vision of the manager about the organisation? How does the manager look at the future and what is larger game plan? These are very important to formulate policies, which will satisfy the goals of the organisation. No organisation is static. It is a dynamic mix of many forces that has to be managed to move in a single direction. The test of a manger lies in doing this. Test yourself against all these requirements and find out the strengths and weaknesses. Once you know your weaknesses, you can work upon them and improve your performance. Try some quizzes from the Internet on Business & Career and try answering them. The tests will help you greatly in finding out more about yourself.
