What Makes a Perfect Manager? Share Your Thoughts on These Essential Skills

Date: 30.09.09

Dear all,

In my view, a perfect manager should have the following qualities:

(1) Qualification
(2) Good knowledge and experience
(3) Communication skills
(4) Planning and forecasting abilities
(5) Leadership skills
(6) Organizational and analytical skills
(7) Decent and pleasing personality
(8) Responsibility paired with authority
(9) Cost control skills
(10) Timely decision-making skills
(11) Firm personality

What are your views? Do you agree with my points above? Please reply.

Thanks,
Anil Jangid

Hi Anil,

He should be affable, a good listener (half your problems go away), with a strict nature of personality (please elaborate more on this).

Show me the perfect manager, my friend? I would be pleased to pay and work under him.

Here goes:

1. Good listener
2. Have a high level of personal integrity
3. Communication skills (I agree with you)
4. Planning and forecasting (okay, I agree with you)
5. Punctuality
6. Stick to words, commitments, or promises
7. Willingness to learn
8. Ability to get along with everyone
9. Most importantly, good leaders (I assume you meant leaders and not managers) should develop the next line of managers - this is a very critical aspect.

The present-day managers are scared if someone smart comes up - won't mind using him/her but will always view such a person as a threat. The real fun in working with someone who is better than you is that you can use their positives to get their work done and also learn from them. We can get any number of yes-men, but the really good ones are those who have their viewpoint, are able to look you in the eye, and tell it to you boldly. These are the ones with whom a good leader needs to be surrounded. If you find any such bold people, retain them at all costs - the yes-men will always be found everywhere. These bolder individuals are the ones with their thinking caps on, an asset to any organization. They may be a little eccentric but it's good to have them if you want to be a good manager.

Hi there! There is at least some likelihood that there will be at least some managers who will have exactly the same qualities mentioned above. I believe that in addition to the qualities mentioned, an individual has to be a master of risk analysis in order to be categorized as a "low-risk good manager." If not, then they should be considered a moderate to high-risk good manager. It may sound weird...