A good office manager requires a diverse set of skills to maintain a productive office atmosphere. Good office management requires the ability to balance work efficiency with the needs of office employees, while following company policies and procedures.
As an office manager gains experience, he / she will develop a set of skills that becomes essential to running a smooth operation. Below are five necessary skills that every office manager should master to create a foundation for successful office management.
1) Conflict Resolution Skills
An office manager is required to resolve open conflicts between administrative personnel and quell any underlying disagreements that could affect productivity. For example, an office manager should be able to identify the growing but subtle conflict between the CEO’s administrative assistant and the sales manager, or be able to get there before any administrative employee has a loud verbal confrontation with his colleague in the break room.
Allowing conflict to continue, works to segment the administrative staff as people take sides and try to get involved in the issue. The office manager must address conflicts to maintain focus on organisational productivity.
2) Organization
An office environment is a busy place where the office manager is often juggling several responsibilities at the same time. If someone on the administrative end drops the ball on an important assignment, then it is up to the office manager to deal with the problem. That is why an office manager needs to develop the ability to stay updated on every important activity going on in the office and make sure that everything goes as planned.
The ability to be organized requires patience and the need to keep a day planner and follow it every workday. It is a kind of routine that the office manager learns to perfect over time. When an office manager is organized, the executives get the materials they need for their meeting on time, the new receptionist gets the training she needs and all of the annual administrative staff reviews are done on time.
3) Managing Office Equipment
When a piece of office equipment not supported by the IT staff breaks down , the administrative personnel turn to the office manager. The copy machine, binder, calculator and phone are just examples of the many pieces of equipment that the office manager would be expected to handle if something were to go wrong.
In most cases, the office manager would not be expected to fix the equipment. But he would be expected to know the fastest way to get the equipment repaired. The office manager’s phone book contains all the contact numbers for support and repair to keep the office functional at all times.
4) Diplomacy
When important visitors come to see the company operations, the office manager is asked to act as the company diplomat. The office manager needs to have excellent social skills, an understanding of business protocol and the ability to make visitors feel comfortable during their stay with the company.
An office manager with strong diplomatic skills can mean the difference between bringing in new business and watching an unhappy prospect walk out the door. This is often the unwritten part of an office manager’s job description that takes on significance as the company starts to grow and attracts larger and more important clients.
5) Finance
The office manager is often responsible for overseeing financial activities such as payroll, client credit administration and departmental budgets. It is essential that an office manager knows how to read, understand and use financial documents to help maintain company cash flow and assist administrative personnel with using those documents, as well. If a departmental manager indicates the need to hire more administrative personnel, it is the job of the office manager to make sure there is room in the company budget to accommodate new personnel.
Office managers wind up taking on a variety of jobs and responsibilities that are designed to keep the office running smoothly. Whether it's an office of a service provider, a lawyer's office or that of a small manufacturing concern, an understanding of the basic skills of an office manager are essential to being a successful administrator.