U N D E R T H E M I C R O S C O P E

GENERAL MANAGER , NORTH AMERICA AT UPGRAD

As organisations attempt to build leaders of tomorrow , deciding which education provider to work with is a critical initial step . Karan Raturi , General Manager , North America at upGrad , speaks to us about upskilling and what managers can do to retrain both themselves and their staff .

In your opinion , what are the top three qualities a good manager should and should not have ?

The first area is balancing vision and execution . Effective management understands wider strategy and their specific role , without being extreme in either direction . The second is clarity of thought and being able to articulate a clear vision and tasks to all levels of the organisation which unfortunately is an underrated soft skill .

While this is not a requirement for most roles , many companies are finding that being a cultural fit and driving a team from a performance standpoint where everyone understands the vision can improve efficiency and reduce wasted time .

The third quality is managers embracing a sense of servant leadership by rolling up their sleeves and leading by example . Having cross-functional skills and applying these to different projects will be key in the future .

The era of the middle manager is increasingly becoming compressed as we move to a field of hard skills and companies adopting a vision that everyone fully supports . One example is Facebook announcing that they will be compressing that layer of management . I believe the time of middle managers is being challenged and other companies will follow suit .

In terms of qualities a manager should not have , empathy ranks high on the list . KPIs should drive your decision making but we must be mindful not to become robotic and remember we are dealing with people at the end of the day .

A common weakness we notice with managers is the inability to say no and taking on too much . This results in dilution of quality across all work and it must be prevented at all costs .

With your experience working with and building numerous senior-level managers , what are some key competencies every senior leader should aim to have ?

The first one is independent strategic thinking . As my team are aware , whether it ' s past or present roles I always stress on the importance of challenging the status quo and using data to back up your ideas . Having perspective and empathy are essential . I think managers have this duty and obligation to look at data and present contradictory thoughts at a company or project level and flag if it is heading in the wrong direction . It could be a small work stream issue within a project and if a manager fails to react , it can snowball creating bigger ramifications .

The second competence is doing more with less which is crucial in current cost-conscious market conditions . It happens every economic cycle , we have the boom periods where spending rises and more resources are available .

Conversely , there are bust cycles that pull us down and the world , investors and stakeholders alike ask us to do more with less . Successful managers are not restricted by this and instead view this as an opportunity to maximise the resources they have at their disposal .

Finally , an underrated competence is being able to smoothly navigate internal barriers and challenges . Good managers know how to position themselves because they have invested their time out of the business grasping where everyone sits and their exact functions . When they have a query or confusion they know exactly where to go for answers . Resourcefulness and investing the time to get to know people can make a telling difference .

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