Business Process Manager Skills: Top 13 Qualities to be Good on the Job
To be good on your job as a business process manager, or to increase your chances of being hired for the role, you must possess a sound educational background and training and a host of other skills and qualities.
The World of business is becoming increasingly complex and dynamic by the day. To adapt and succeed, businesses continuously search for effective ways of cutting costs, improving quality and delivery, and most importantly, maximizing profit.
The task of the business process manager is to initiate and implement effective ways or processes so as to help the business organization fulfill its goal of profit maximization.
Here are thirteen important skills and qualities you need to develop to be the best business process manager in your unit:
1. Leadership Skills
The position of business process manager like all other management positions requires a great deal of leadership skills.
As a business process manager, you are directly in charge of the business process management team and so you are expected to be good at leading others. Superb organization and coordination ability is necessary, and exceptional planning and execution ability is crucial to your success and that of the team.
2. Communication
Good business process managers are often excellent communicators (spoken and written). They are in charge of giving orders and directing the business process management team.
It is equally their duty to communicate new ideas and changes in processes to the team.
In addition, they are also expected to train new and existing members of the team from time to time, as well as sometimes assist the human resources team in selecting the right candidate for their teams.
The manager should also be able to communicate very well with people other than his team members, such as other top managers, employees, and customers.
3. Business Acumen
Whether it is a natural ability or an acquired trait through years of experience as a manager, having an excellent business sense is a very important trait of a business process manager.
He/she should be able to identify business opportunities that align with the company’s goals and values, and be able to ascertain the viability of such business opportunities and make meaningful conclusions.
4. Numerical and Analytical Skills
The job of a business process management involves lots of data collation and analysis. So, he/she shouldn’t be a number shy person.
He/she should be able to carry out extensive research, sieve through volumes of data and select data relevant to his/her analysis.
More importantly, he/she should have great analytical ability because the reliability of the conclusions drawn depends on not just the accuracy of the data collated, but also on the analytical ability of the business process manager (analyst).
5. Experience
Most business process managers are usually very experienced people. You can be a member of the business process management team with little or no experience; however, a good business process manager requires vast years of management experience. This enables him/her to control certain situations effectively.
6. Result-oriented
A good business process manager should be goal driven. He/she should always be focused on achieving the firm’s goals, and be able to prioritize tasks effectively.
7. Innovative and Versatile
Tenacity is a very important quality of most successful business process managers.
However, being innovative is an added advantage. Pursuing a particular project tenaciously is very good but the manager should also be able to identify areas that require changes and effectively make such changes without disrupting the original goal of the project.
8. Team Building Skills
Great business process managers are often excellent team builders. To give the best performance on the job, the manager needs a great team to work with.
Therefore, he/she should be able to cultivate true team spirit in his/her team and the organization in general.
He/she should endeavor o enjoin collaborative play among members of his/her team.
9. Performance Management Skills
In as much as collaborative play is very important, individual intelligence and performance among team members should also be recognized and rewarded.
The business process manager should always maintain healthy feedback and reward system.
This helps keep the team members motivated and eager to accomplish more.
He/she should avoid taking the praise for the success of the team alone as this might lead to resentment from other members.
10. Disciplined
A good business process manager should be disciplined. He/she should be able to set rules and regulations guiding the team’s actions and activities.
He/she should further ensure that the rules are strictly adhered to. However, he/she shouldn’t be overly authoritarian, and such rules should align with the overarching goals of the organization.
11. Honesty and Accountability
Irrespective of your position in an organization, honesty is a very important quality.
Individuals who are straightforward usually make good business process managers and are usually entrusted with responsibilities.
Being accountable is also very important. As a business process manager, you should take the blame when things go wrong, even if it is caused by a junior employee.
12. Educated
Needless to say, to be highly effective as a business process manager requires sound academic background, either in finance, business, or other related disciplines.
Having relevant professional training is also very important in achieving the best possible performance.
13. Friendly and Passionate
A business process manager should have passion for his/her job and should always go about it happily.
He/she should always exude a positive attitude as this can be very contagious on other the staff he/she is leading.
Furthermore, maintaining a friendly atmosphere in the office can improve productivity. However, such friendliness shouldn’t be without limit.
Conclusion:
The role of a business process manager is pretty much synonymous with that of other managers in an organization.
He/she is a leader in every sense of it, and as such should possess the skills and qualities of a good manager discussed above, which include leadership, accountability, and discipline; and most importantly, he should be experienced.