Organizational skills - what is it and how to develop them?

2024 Author: Miguel Ramacey | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 06:11

In life one often hears: "This person has organizational skills. It's good, he will go far." But the second one is not at all capable of leading even a small team, although he is a good performer, but that's all. It becomes interesting, what do we mean by this capacious definition? In other words, what qualities should a person have in order to develop these very abilities? Is it possible to train them or are they given by nature? So, today we are considering organizational skills. This is a rather capacious, but very interesting topic.

Let's try to define

At first glance, everything is clear: he looked at a person, and even in his behavior it shows whether he can lead people or not. But if you need to formulate a definition, then problems arise. So, organizational skills are a certain set of qualities that will help a person competently and effectively organize work, both his own and his colleagues. It became a little clearer. What are these qualities, how to measure them and why one has a lot of them, butthe other has none?

Opening from the inside

Since it was not possible to give a more precise definition, let's try to break it down into components. Organizational skills are a set of qualities, now we will collect the “piggy bank” that is necessary to form a general concept:

• Authority is the first quality a person should have. It's hard not to agree. If your word is not trusted unconditionally, then they will act in accordance with the orders only because of the threat of punishment, and even then without desire. Authority can also be revealed more deeply. This is professionalism, charisma and much more.
• Fairness and severity. A true leader must be able to abstract from his own feelings and act in accordance with the logic and situation. This is how justice is born, which everyone around feels. Even the increased severity of such a boss will not jar, but, on the contrary, will add credibility to him.
• Communicative and organizational skills are the ability to competently resolve conflicts. In a team, they are inevitable, which means that you need to be able to listen to both sides, remain neutral and make a decision that will bring peace.
• Delegation of authority and control. This is aerobatics, by which one can judge how developed the organizational abilities of a person are. Surely you have all seen people who cannot even plan their time. They have a lot of tasks, they grab onto one, second, third, they can’t find anything on the table, chaos is in their heads. What will happen if you give him the subordination of people? The same, theywill be overwhelmed with unnecessary things, not having time to do the main thing. And it’s a completely different matter when you see that in the morning a person has drawn up a work plan, a planning meeting has been assembled, tasks have been distributed, for which everyone will be asked tomorrow. Everyone is busy with their own affairs, no one is in a hurry.

Congenital or acquired

As you can see, the concept turned out to be quite capacious. Let's look further, which organizational skills are given by nature, and which ones are developed during life? We can all have all of the above. However, they don't just fall off. You need to get a profession, go through a difficult path to become a master of your craft. No matter how talented you are, it will not work to be an absolute beginner and at the same time brilliantly lead a team. Think about whether Stalin would have won the war if he had not been a brilliant strategist and a technically savvy person. After all, he had to make a decision about the advisability of introducing one or another type of weapon into production, the balance of power, and the like. Moreover, with a complete lack of experience, it is even difficult to plan your work. So be patient and start with self-education, the rest will follow.

Development of organizational skills

The higher your professional level, the more self-confidence. But sometimes a competent employee who produces brilliant ideas is completely incapable of presenting them beautifully. Especially for creative people and technical specialists it happensdifficult due to lack of communication skills. Here, their own limitations, psychological barriers, constraint and isolation, fear of condemnation, self-doubt play a role. In this case, you should definitely contact a psychologist or psychotherapist. It will help to work out internal problems and reach a new level of development.

Work on yourself

Removing internal restrictions is just one type of work. Without direct communication in a team, you will never improve your communication level. And what organizational skills, if a person blushes and turns pale, cannot call a colleague or ask him for the result of the assignment?

Therefore, develop your speech, rehearse at home, with family and friends. It would be even better if you sign up for trainings on self-confidence and the development of communication skills. Here the coach will give tasks in turn, increasing the level of their complexity. And to work them out, microgroups are formed. Communicate professionally and at work. First with the closest colleagues, and then gradually expand the communication circle.

Tips for each of you

Organizational skills of a leader are not formed quickly. A young specialist can fly up the career ladder thanks to personal charisma, brightness, that is, innate qualities given by nature. However, do not be discouraged if you are a little different. For your own development, use the followinghints:

• Start to develop the organization from yourself, your own life and work.
• Plan and think carefully about all upcoming activities.
• Perfect your own workflow. It needs to be organized in such a way that it becomes as efficient as possible with a minimum of effort.
• Now gradually move on. Look around: how can you organize the work of the department so that its activities are more efficient?

These simple tricks will help you grow from an ordinary employee to the head of a large department in a while, which will be distinguished by indicative results. After all, if you do it, then it’s definitely good.

Easy diagnosis

Batteries of tests have been created to identify abilities, however, most of them are too cumbersome to be used regularly. Therefore, high organizational skills can be assessed in just a few minutes, independently and completely free of charge. Leaders always adhere to a common set of values, which include fairness and equality, impartiality, integrity, honesty and trust. And you can evaluate your ability to lead using the following criteria:

• Continuous self-improvement. If you don't do it yourself, you won't be able to motivate others.
• Oriented to serve others. In any situation, you must ask yourself what the other person needs besides what they personally need.you.
• Emitting positive energy and benevolence and avoiding the perception of negative.
• Faith in others. The leader must see their potential, value and good qualities.
• Rational distribution of forces and time.
• Inner confidence and optimism.
• Self-criticism, tolerance and recognition of others.

Not many, but most of us admit that we live solely in our own interests, not paying attention to others. Don't be surprised, the world responds in kind.

Instead of a conclusion

A simple and honest evaluation of yourself will allow you to understand whether you have leadership or organizational qualities. But even if this is not your strongest side, there is nothing wrong with that. Not much is needed in a world of bright leaders who can set the crowd on fire with a word. Start with yourself, with your workplace, with your communication skills. Become a real professional in your field, learn to value time and resources, and your organizational skills will definitely show up.