Why soft skills are crucial to your business success, and how a Business Manager utilises them.

In today’s highly competitive market, a well-rounded approach to business operations is necessary to maintain a competitive advantage, and there’s only so far you can progress without having to effectively utilise soft skills. As a Business Manager, soft skills such as effective communication, strong leadership, collaborative teamwork, and problem-solving are not only essential but critical to excelling in our role and providing valuable support to your business.

So how can soft skills help in your business?

1. Effective Communication: Utilising soft skills to communicate effectively is crucial for businesses. If you can nail this then you can probably nail every one of the skills I discuss below. Enhancing transparency and keeping open lines of communication can lead to enhanced team dynamics, clarity of vision and expectations, and a better overall culture which leads to smoother operations and stronger relationships across your organisation. A business manager will foster this in your business, or implement training to help develop these skills within your team.

2. Enhancing leadership skills: to be a great leader you need to be able to motivate and inspire. Using strong communication skills and leaning on emotional intelligence and empathy can be crucial to understanding and supporting your employees and colleagues. A business manager should lead by example, and raise the bar for the organisation. Implementing avenues for open communication, feedback, constructive performance evaluation and a supportive atmosphere where employees feel heard is crucial to success as a leader. There is a great quote from Simon Sinek, “Leadership is not about being in charge. Leadership is about taking care of those in your charge.” There is so often a breakdown of leadership here, which leads to resentment, a breakdown of the team dynamic and a lack of emotional investment in the business. If you support and encourage your employees they will undoubtedly be more likely to perform at a higher level and be more emotionally invested in the success of the business.

3. Conflict resolution - there will always be conflicts in business and the workplace and being able to handle these with diplomacy and empathy is essential to ensure success and smooth running of your business. A skilled business manager can mediate disputes, communicate effectively and help foster and maintain a healthy work environment.

4. Problem solving - a general rule that I advise any employees of and practice myself is that you never go to someone with a problem, unless you have a solution to offer. Using critical and innovate thinking, thinking outside the box and being able to effectively communicate solutions are all key to problem solving. A business manager with strong problem-solving skills who utilises all their soft skills effetively can navigate challenges smoothly and find innovative solutions that benefit the business.

5. Team work and collaboration - soft skills are crucial to fostering good team work and collaboration so that your business can run smoothly and efficiently. Clearly setting expectations, communicating deadlines, sharing ideas and discussing set backs are all essential for keeping a team working together and with the end goal in mind. Soft skills like empathy and active listening, something that people talk a lot about but rarely implement, can take a lot of work but they ensure that trust and respect are built within the team. A business manager can implement training, team-building days and foster real connections with your employees to develop a motivated and cohesive team as well as enhance productivity.

Soft skills such as effective communication, strong leadership, collaborative teamwork, and strategic problem-solving are absolutely essential for achieving any business's long-term success. These invaluable skills significantly improve internal communication, foster meaningful collaboration among team members, and enhance relationships with clients and customers. As a dedicated business manager, integrating these crucial soft skills into your team not only helps to create a positive and supportive work environment but also drives overall productivity and ensures that your business operations run smoothly and efficiently. This holistic approach is key to achieving sustained success in our roles and contributing positively to your business's growth.

Is multi tasking an effective way to work?

Some feel that by multi-tasking you are being super efficient, and I see it on CV’s all the time listed as a skill. I would argue the opposite, essentially if you are having to multi task it means you are overwhelmed and having to rush through items and do multiple actions at the same times. When you are multi tasking you might feel like you are getting more done but the reality is you are probably not doing those tasks to the best of your ability or as productively as you would like. I know if I am jumping from one thing to another the chances of me actually completing one of those tasks is slim. I’m more likely to do a little of all of them but not actually finish them off, leaving me feeling unproductive, demoralised and inefficient. You are also significantly more likely to make mistakes if you are multi tasking as your focus is split, so your quality of work is generally not as high. In today’s busy landscape it is so easy to descend into the urgency of multi tasking as we become overloaded with work. As a Business Manager one of the key elements I look at in a business is how productive and efficiently they are running, and managing tasks and priorities is a huge part of that. So if multi tasking isn’t the best way to work, what is?

Learning how to effectively manage multiple priorities is a better skillset, but it takes work. You need to plan, prioritise and focus on specific tasks. You’ll find you probably get more done by just focusing on one task at a time and actually completing it, you’ll also feel more positive and productive leading you to actually be, yep you guessed it, more productive! There’s a great quote by Josh Billings “Be like a postage stamp. Stick to one thing until you get here”. It makes me laugh but it’s right, procrastination is where dreams go to die. Prioritise by importance, use time blocking and don’t allow any distractions. I use the same rules to manage my inbox so it doesn’t become overwhelming. Further to that use automation to manage your tasks and projects so you aren’t having to keep everything in your head. I think it really depends on what kind of a person you are and how you like to work as to how you manage your day, but a few simple steps like setting task reminders, setting time limits and blocking out distractions really help. Plan out your day (I do this the night before) so you know exactly what you are getting into the next day. It means you can wake up with a clear mind and clear purpose as to what you are doing that day rather than feeling a bit scatter brained and running from one thing to another without a clear goal in mind. It’ll also help you manage urgent situations that arise rather than feeling immediately overwhelmed. Another huge tip is learn to effectively delegate. As a Business Manager a large part of running day to day operations is handling delegation tasks from a business owner, but also delegating to the team effectively. This is where team collaboration and communication are key and developing those will enable your team and business to run much more efficiently.