Know what you can manage best

It is very important for managers to identify areas they manage best.  This requires some soul searching on our inherent strengths that help us in managing things better.

I found this excellent post “What do you manage best?” on Jeffrey Phillips’ blog Thinking Faster, where he enlists general “things” people manage. This includes:

– People managing themselves
– People managing other people (teams, divisions)
– People managing money
– People managing time
– People managing customers or partners
– People managing processes
– People managing projects

The post further says “Most of us with experience will say that we can manage most of these items fairly well, but clearly it is hard to manage all of these factors equally well.”

Towards the end of the post, he asks a very important question  – “To make it to the top, I think you probably have to excel at most, if not all of these management factors, but I think a great manager and leader can surround themselves with the right people to round out any weaknesses.  If you were to rank yourself on this spectrum, where do your strengths lie?”

So what are my strengths? What do I manage best?

An honest self examination based on the above reveals that my strength as a manager lies in managing the following (strongest area first)

– processes
– other people (teams,divisions)
– projects
– time
– myself
– customers/partners

I am a poor manager of financial resources and hence its not a strength in itself. I think I am constantly evolving as a manager and there are a lot of learnings on a daily basis when it comes to managing customers/partners. However, foray into projects management has enabled me to hone my time management skills for myself and my team.

And you?

What do you manage best? Where do your strengths lie? Time to reflect upon!