20 questions: Are you ready to be a manager? Are you ready to move into management? How effective do you think would you be in this role? And on what are you basing your self-assessment? Not all managers are born managers; many are developed. But there are non-trainable attributes such as integrity and honesty that are personality-driven and can influence what is known as managerial effectiveness. With the current demographic shift in the work force, many new managers face a short developmental timeline. Twenty-five years ago, a person may have had 10 years to develop the experience to become a manager. Today, the timeframe is much shorter and the learning curve is much steeper. The goal of this new monthly column is to provide current and developing managers with applied leadership and management skills that can be taken into the workplace immediately. Each month we will focus on one applied theme. If you have a particular competency that you would be interested in seeing covered in this column, we encourage you to drop a note to the editor. Consider the separate impacts of leadership and management skills: Leadership skills influence others to follow, listen, learn, and collaborate. Management skills are needed to facilitate, monitor, and measure processes to obtain a desired result. Managerial effectiveness requires a blend of both skill sets. One way to establish your managerial effectiveness benchmark, or starting point, is to complete a self-evaluation, testing yourself against the 20 true-or-false statements below. This is not meant to be an exhaustive list of all the competency requirements for managerial effectiveness, or a pass/fail guide as to whether you are management material. It is simply a detailed example of applied managerial skills that are definable, observable and measurable. Respond to each statement as honestly and accurately as you can, based on your current skills. For a statement to be True, you must believe it is true at least 90 per cent of the time. Statements to which you answer False could indicate areas that would benefit from focus and development. Measuring managerial skills (Answer True/False) I can influence others to follow my direction. I am confident in my ability to positively influence corporate culture. I have a model for building a credible strategic plan. I have a process for creating measurable goals. I understand how and when to effectively delegate a function. I can break down complex functions into measurable tasks. I can build collaborative teams. I am confident in facilitating career development plans. I have a conflict resolution model at my disposal when needed. I know how to structure and have a difficult conversation. I have an effective problem-solving model for finding the most likely root cause. I understand how to use benchmarks and key performance indicators to achieve operational objectives. I can manage my personal stress. I can run an effective and productive meeting. I use best practices when delivering performance reviews. I am conversant in and understand employee relations and the basics of employee law. I have a proven decision making model. I understand the role of critical thinking in management. I understand Canadian human rights views on employee accommodation. I can conduct a fair and non-biased job interview. Becoming an excellent manager is a process, not an overnight event. It requires a combination of experience, learning and practice. Assessing your skills and qualifications is just the first step. Our goal is to provide a monthly professional development column that helps facilitate this management journey. Bill Howatt is the president of Howatt HR Consulting and founder of TalOp, in Kentville, N.S. Website: www.howatthr.com