Soft skills are important for managers to develop to effectively handle their responsibilities. Key soft skills for managers include active listening, emotional intelligence, constructive feedback, communication, problem solving, time management, teamwork, self-confidence, flexibility, and motivation. Developing soft skills helps managers understand employees, allocate roles, improve work quality, and build better relationships and trust within the organization. Employers value soft skills like communication, empathy, work ethic, and adaptability in managers.

1. SOFT SKILLS FOR MANAGERS
A manager plays the vital role in any organization. He has to work at many levels and every day the needs
to deal with many people. Therefore he needs to develop different skill-sets to handle all the diverse
responsibilities.
To handle managerial responsibilities both hard and soft skills are important. Only having good
qualifications and knowledge about work is not enough. Beyond these, a person also needs to know the
art of managing people, which is called as soft skills.
Basically management is all about managing emotions and egos of individuals. Only giving instructions
and orders to the subordinates does not prove that you are a good manager. The managers should learn to
listen to their subordinates. Listening is a very important part of soft skills.
Good speakers always need to be good listeners. Only through active listening, the real problems of the
employees can be understood and the manger can come up with the proper solution. Active listening wins
the trust of employees and builds rapport between managers and his subordinates. Whether the managers
address the issues or not but what is expected out of them is active listening with empathy.
Active listening helps in avoiding and preventing the problems from happening. Listening helps to
understand employee’s problems only, you can offer some solutions. Many conflicts happenint
organization only because the parties are not ready to listen to each other and both sides want to put their
forth first.
Apart from good listening, emotional intelligence is another area where mangers have to focus keenly at
work place. As people are different, their emotions are different. When it comes to handle the staff,
managers have to face many people with diverse behavioral patterns. Some are quick tempered and some
are soft spoken by nature. Some are introverts and some are extroverts. So here only bookish knowledge
would not help the manager; he requires extraordinary ability to understand people well.
Soft skills help when they start allocating roles and responsibilities to the employees. When mangers
knows his employees. When managers knows his employees attitude well then it’s easy to them to
appoint a people on different positions. When ant human being does what interests him then automatically
the quality of the work improves. It helps in reaching the goals much faster and gives better results.
Giving feedback to the employees in the right way important. Managers should learn the art of giving
feedback constructively and positively without any prejudices. While criticizing, it is essential to focus on
the behavior of the individuals rather than on the behavior of the individuals rather than on the
individuals. Make sure while criticizing anyone that the person understands it positively. That’s why it’s
called an dart; the concerned person should understand your point and should not fell insulted then and
there will be transformation in his behavior. It helps the individual as well as organization. Besides,

2. manger will also earn respect. If a manager does not like a person’s behavior then he should not say
anything to that person in the presence of people. He should say it only when they are alone. Otherwise in
public it can ruin the image of the person and he might feel awkward to work. At times it leads to self-
defense or arguments on the part on the concerned individuals and finally it may boomerang.
The manager should know the right way to criticize. There are some techniques of criticism which make a
person understand his mistake and not feel bad. While criticizing the behavior of the individuals,
managers should stress on one method of feedback. In this method of feedback, the conversation begins
with positive terms, for example the manager can first mention the good point. Then he can move to
criticize and the message related to the areas where in the behavioral changes have to be brought out and
closes again with a positive message. The feedback is an excellent tool and can be used for building better
relations and bringing out behavioral changes among the individuals. It becomes one of the elements of
soft skills.
Part of a manager’s strength is their soft skills. This is because when you possess these, managing your
people can become easier. Not entirely easy, because the hurdles would still be present, but it would be so
much better than if you did not have the necessary soft skills.
Being flexible and able to adapt to the changing needs of an organization also qualify as soft skills, as do
being able to collaborate with others and influence situations through lateral and more creative
thinking.
Most progressive companies and their managers are looking for people’s ability to communicate clearly
and openly, and to listen and respond empathetically.
Good soft skills also include the ability of people to balance the commercial needs of their staff.
Soft skills are basically a group of personal qualities, habits, attitudes and social graces that make
someone a good employee and compatible to work with. Company values soft skills because research
suggests and experience shows that they can be just as important as an indicator of job performance as
hard skills.
Some of the most common soft skills employers are looking for and will be assessing you on includes:
Work Ethics
Managers need to have strong work ethics and skills to motivate the people to get work done from them.
It doesn’t matter so much as to how do you get work done through your subordinates. This is the most
important work of the manager and that he needs to use all his abilities.
Communication Skills
The position of the manager demands a vocal articulate person. He can’t ignore communication skills.
The person should be expressive enough and be able tospeak about his needs in a way that builds bridges
with colleagues, customers and vendors. Each and every field is related to communication. When
communication is strong within an organization then it helps its growth.

3. Optimistic Attitude
Business means risk so at anytime that lots of conflicts occur at work place, first and foremost the
manager need to keep his temper cool. He should always have positive attitude. He should not get
depressed due to small issues.
Problem-Solving Skills
Instead of thinking about the problems a person needs to have a skill for solving them. Whether it arises
because of him or his team members a manger always needs to have the sprit to solve it.
Time Management Abilities
Time management is a skill every person needs. A manager needs it more than anybody else and should
always know which work should be given more priority. He also knows about deadlines of work and
should accordingly allot time schedules for various tasks.
Team Player and Maker
A manager knows how to behave with people with different attitudes and he deals with each person
accordingly. But it’s difficult for him to create a good understanding between all staff members. For a
project to be successful, good team workis very necessary. The manger has to maintain proper
coordination between the team members. Conflicts happen between peoples so managers need to create a
bond between them.
Self-Confidence
It is an important term for individual. The manager should truly believe himself. He should project a
sense of calm and inspires confidence in others. At time he should also have the courage to ask his senior
questions related to organizational benefits.
Ability to Accept and Learn From Criticism
No one is perfect so if any mistake happens. He should be able to handle criticism. One should learn from
his mistakes. It helps to improve the quality of work.
Flexibility/Adaptability
A manger should be able to adapt to new situation and challenges. He should be flexible enough to adapt
new techniques.
Motivation to the subordinates
When a person commits mistakes the manager has the right to warm him. Similarly when he works well a
person needs to be commended and motivated. Small motivational gestures provide a lot of energy to
work. Performance of the person also improves significantly.
Working Well Under Pressure

4. Every organization is always under performing well and meets the deadlines, so a manger should have the
ability to work under constant pressure. The things should not get messed up only because of work
pressure.
Open-Mindedness
One of the biggest mistakes a manager could make is to believe that they have all the answers. Thinking
that you are always right could cost you a lot, in terms of your relations with your subordinates. It is
necessary that you keep an open-mind; learn from others just as they are learning from you. Be open to
constructive criticism because it is through this that you will discover your shortcomings and be able to
do something to improve.
If you want to be known as a good manager then focus on the skills most likely to interest the prospective
employers and learn to demonstrate these skills through your resume, in an interview or in dealing with
potential employers at career fair or industry association gatherings.
For example, tell story of how you successfully handled a crisis or challenge at your company. Mention
honors you received or even bring along letters of thanks or commendation from an employer or
customer. Remember, if you want to work as manager you should develop your skills. Some skills you
have to learn before joining the organization and some you will develop after entering into professional
world.
Things to do everyday:-
Follow these ten golden rules and enjoy every moment of living.
~ Greet your family members first thing in the morning. If you are not used to this, they will be surprised
with your sudden and nice gesture.
~ Greet your peers, subordinates and boss once you enter the office. Smile at even the 'security' personnel
standing at the gate, who takes care of your safety.
~ Greet your friends along the way and do not ignore them.
~ Continuouslyreciprocates to breed communication. If you do not reciprocate at least with a 'thanks'
when you get information or a source on your online network or your offline network, you will not be
remembered for a long time. If you are not remembered, you are out of your network.
~ Be a proactive listener and empathies with others to command respect.
~ While talking to others, your voice, tone and tenor must be audible and soothing. It should not be
aggressive or in a shouting mode.

5. ~ Dress well to suit your profession and to create positive vibes in your workplace. If you are a sales
representative, do not go out with printed shirts and jeans, which may turn down your customer.
~ Political and religious comments must be avoided at all costs in the workplace, when you are in a
group.
~ Your communication should not provoke others.
~ Do not speak ill of others if you can help it.