People Skills: Good CEOs spend a lot of time out there meeting people

Sir Alan Sugar and Donald Trump make leadership look as easy as shouting at people until they cry. But when you’re not on television, management isn’t so much about personal charisma as it is about learning the skills to help you to unpick the tasks that come with seniority.

“Management is complex for many reasons,” says Mary Chapman, chief executive of the Chartered Management Institute (CMI). “It’s being responsible for the results and performance of (other) people, not just of yourself. As a manager you have a far wider range of tasks, whether it’s negotiating for support for a particular piece of work or managing a project.”

Computers are much better at multi-tasking than people, but managers must be able to juggle their to-do list. Throw in office politics and liaising with colleagues who might have a different set of priorities and external suppliers, and you begin to have an insight into life in the corner office.

“Then there is the moving from the short term to the longer term. You need to think more strategically and understand how the world around you is changing and how that might have an impact on you and your team,” she says. The price of oil, the value of sterling, even public opinion can bring chaos to the best-laid business plans.

But how do you start laying your plans in the first place? “The first thing that a manager needs to do is have a clear understanding of the strategic objectives of the team,” Chapman says. Then you can prioritise the tasks that bring you closer to achieving your goal.

Handling the transition from successfully completing individual tasks to organising a whole department requires preparation. Knowing your own strengths and weaknesses is perhaps the first step to managing others. “Some people are natural leaders and have the ability to give others a sense of direction. To others it comes more slowly and they must ask for support, help and training,” Chapman says.

Being perfect could be a disadvantage, according to Sir Paul Judge, the former president of the CMI. Managers have to lead from the front but they can’t afford to be out of touch with their team. “Management is about dealing with human beings,” he says. “To lead a team requires a manager to be sensitive to the characteristics of the team.”

After a career in public relations, it’s not surprising that Philip Dewhurst, director of corporate affairs at the BNFL Group, believes that communication is all-important: “The best chief executives are very direct and can express business strategy in a few well-chosen words.”

However, communication is a two-way process. “Employees want to be told things by their managers. The really good CEOs spend a lot of time out there meeting people,” Dewhurst says. Don’t just leave your door open, he cautions, or you’ll end up always talking to the same people. Have both formal and informal methods for canvassing opinion instead. Managers need to play the role of team coach as well as team player, Chapman says. “You can’t just take a group of people and expect them to deliver; they need support, coaching and feedback. Giving them opportunities and delegating work to them is a hugely important task as a manager.”

And last but not least there’s strategy. Managers have to move the business forward as well as the people around them. “It’s not just (about) making sure that a good job is being done, but (asking) what do we need to do differently for the future,” Chapman says. “One way is to provide the kind of environment where people know that coming up with new ideas is valued.”

Developing ideas and evaluating their business impact are key stages to innovation. But don’t forget the next step, how best to implement change. “Who is responsible, what is the time-frame, how will you judge success? It’s important to define these things so that a good idea becomes a reality and change is made for the better,” Chapman says.