Senior managers spend most of their time with other people

That’s the main conclusion of a study by Kotter of the most senior managers in large American organisations

Now think about a young manager who has just been appointed to manage a small supermarket in your local town. That manager will, of course, spend some time checking people’s wages, filling in reports and perhaps ordering new items of equipment. However, most of the time will be taken up with talking to customers, dealing with staff problems, passing on information, and so on. In other words, with tasks that need interpersonal skills

Those interpersonal skills will typically involve listening carefully, explaining, telling, asking questions, trying to understand other people’s points of view, negotiating, and encouraging group work

If the manager does the tasks well, it may be that the employees will feel motivated and will work hard to achieve the organisation’s goals. Some leaders have what is called ‘charisma’ and seem to be able to inspire their team. If you analyse that inspiration, you’ll probably find that much of it results from quite simple interpersonal skills

Can the skills be learned?  This module shows you how you can follow a systematic process of comparing what skills you have with the skills that you need in your current and future work. You can then plan how you will fill any gaps in your skills

This process may not make you a great, charismatic leader like Apple’s Steve Jobs or Body Shop’s founder Anita Roddick, but it will contribute greatly to your future success with your team, and your chances of promotion to more senior positions