There are several things to do, before you present yourself as a manager in front of your organization.
Before you even accept yourself as a manager, you must make believe yourself that you have all the talent, skills, and abilities to perform as a real manger.
Then only you would feel that spark inside, that aspiration and rock solid attitude inside you, to deliver you towards your goal.
The job of a manger isn’t a easy one. In fact the job of a manger is always a combination of all the jobs that his or her unit does.
You are in charge of everything both qualitatively and quantitatively.
Hence, you are always accountable for everything as a manager, and you will always have to be ready to take things positively, and with double the energy than the last time you did.
This will help you develop that special attitude for spearheading a department, a project or an organization.
Ways To Prepare For A Management Position:
1. Are you a born manager or need to be made one:
Now, when you are managing things, then you will have to be sure about your talents and skills.
There is a saying that some people are born managers, and some people are made into managers.
Both processes can create great talents, but first you will have to evaluate what you are inside. Are you a born manager somewhere or you need to create manager of yourself.
If you fall into the first category, then definitely you just need some brush up and polishing. Else, you will have to go through some systematic checks with yourself, so that you can prepare yourself for a management position.
Normally you are not given a responsibility just like that. You are tested, and only if felt suitable for the position, you are offered the same. But then again, what your employer sees within you must be proven by you in the longer term.
2. First things you should do:
Nurturing the manager inside you, and bringing out the best comes though a lot of mental exercising, and a lot of self-determination, sorted thoughts, and hard work.
When you are ready to manage, then you must ask yourself certain things, and the answers to those will bring you towards a fruitful conclusion, and will help you attain a self-motivated, self coaching and training guide for being a well equipped manager.
3. Let your boss test your management skills:
First step is to outline what your goals are. You must give a presentation to your management, wherein you will tell them what your targets and goals are.
This often includes letting the ball in your boss’s court. Until and unless your boss tests you, they won’t know your abilities as a manager.
So you must tell them to test you or rather come up to grasp every opportunity provided by them, to prove yourself as a good manager. This will help you get attention from your higher authorities quicker.
4. Taking initiatives on your own:
One of the main ingredients that make a good manager is the approach of taking initiatives on his own.
A good manager would always analyze a situation, and then decide his path, take decisions and initiatives. A proper manager will never be told what to do, what responsibilities to take etc.
A manager who knows his job, will take such challenges himself, and won’t wait for instruction to make the move; rather would think and work for the betterment of the system by taking new initiatives, new steps, and by experimenting and tracking things.
Hence you have to play the role of the constructive decision maker.
5. Seeking for a role model whom you can follow and learn from:
Every successful person has a role model or inspiration who sometimes leads and sometimes moulds the person’s thought process, imagination, and the creative genius inside. It’s always a good practice to watch for positive things which you can learn from people around you.
If you see a person perform good, and most of the time inspiring you with positive activities, then you must seek the personality as your role model.
This will help you observe and learn, and you can also tell that person to coach you for perfection. This will help you nurture your talents better, when you will be judged by a third eye.
6. Keep on reading and learning:
Learning has no limits, and you can always keep on learning news ways, skills, and philosophies.
There are lots of books and study materials on management, which are written by the top managers worldwide, and some top scholars. You can always read from those books, magazines, journals, blogs etc.
Materials are available both on prints and online, and one can choose any as per choice, convenience, and ease of access.
Whatever you do, you must not stop from learning new skills. You will never know, but there is a wide and unending world of opportunities for the person, who has an unquenchable thirst for knowledge.
Hence, reading a lot of management stuff will really help you enhance your skills and perceptions.
7. Taking extra opportunities when your boss is away:
Often you get opportunities to prove something extra, but you either realize that late, or sometimes don’t.
Look for such opportunities. When your higher authority or immediate boss is gone on a leave or business trip, then you can always take up some of his responsibilities as the extra work, to get a feel of how much pressure they take everyday.
This will give you a feel, a rest ride, and some experience, while it will make your boss realize that you are getting ready for the next step, and are strong enough to try and take responsibilities.
8. Handling projects:
Always try to lead some project. Leading projects gives a lot of exercise for a manager’s brain.
It makes you think the loopholes, pitfalls, and the strong and weak sides of the system, the working of the staffs and team members etc. overall it gives a brilliant expertise on a large scale like problem solving, query handling, etc
All these steps and a few more together, paves your path to be a good manager, or for simply getting ready for the position.
