Find out the top 10 core skills you need to master as an operations and maintenance manager and what hard skills you need to know to succeed in this job.
An Operations and Maintenance Manager is responsible for directing the maintenance and repair activities as well as overseeing the production of goods and provision of services. This position also ensures that the organization is running smoothly meeting the expectations and needs of the customers and clients.
The duties of this post include monitoring and investigating the current system of production or requirement to check its effectiveness, working out a strategy for improving the production systems, planning and controlling change, managing quality assurance programs, overseeing inventory, distribution of goods and facility layout, researching new technologies and alternative methods of efficiency, setting and evaluating budgets and managing costs, planning, directing, assigning and supervising the subordinate staff.
Core Skills Required to be an Operations and Maintenance Manager
Core skills describe a set of non-technical abilities, knowledge, and understanding that form the basis for successful participation in the workplace. Core skills enable employees to efficiently and professionally navigate the world of work and interact with others, as well as adapt and think critically to solve problems.
Core skills are often tagged onto job descriptions to find or attract employees with specific essential core values that enable the company to remain competitive, build relationships, and improve productivity.
An operations and maintenance manager should master the following 10 core skills to fulfill her job properly.
Interviewing:
Interviewing is an essential skill in making a sound hiring decision that seeks to find out the candidate's background, work experience, skill level, general overall intelligence, enthusiasm, attitudes, etc.
An Operations and Maintenance Manager ought to be equipped with the right techniques to handle interviews whether they are face to face or telephone as they can be grueling and intimidating to the candidate; clarity and calmness of tone and the atmosphere are ideal.
Critical Thinking:
Critical Thinking is the ability to think clearly and rationally while understanding the logical connection between ideas in a reflective and independent thinking.
An Operations and Maintenance Manager will always seek to determine whether the ideas, arguments and findings do represent the entire picture while identifying, analyzing and solving problems by deducing consequences from what he knows and making use of the information gathered.
Managing Remote Teams:
Managing Remote Teams is working under no physical supervision from your manager or supervisor while staying on task and communication to report on the daily progress.
An Operations and Maintenance Manager ought to nurture, guide and support the employees to do their job right without compromising on the quality and wasting the allocated time to grow the team and the company as well.
Supervisory Skills:
Supervisory Skills is the ability to lead and manage people effectively in a difficult and challenging atmosphere in the day to day life.
An Operations and Maintenance Manager must cultivate, develop and refine management and supervisory skills to strengthen the present as well as build the future of the business by becoming competent in such roles like problem-solving, communication, managing people, time management, leadership, planning, etc.
Initiative:
An initiative is the ability to assess and initiate things independently often done without any managerial influence offered.
An Operations and Maintenance Manager must train his workers to take up tasks without being asked to and work on them without being supervised to a quality that is accepted by the company, therefore nurturing a skill that grows the individual and the group as well.
Orientation to Work:
Orientation to Work is the introduction that is given to a new worker whereby he is introduced to coworkers and given relevant information like schedules, performance standards, benefits and facilities, names of the supervisors, etc.
An Operations and Maintenance Manager must ensure that all new employees go through an orientation process to assimilate into the workplace and become familiar with what is expected of them.
Realistic Goal Setting:
Realistic Goal Setting is the skill to hone in the specific actions that we need to perform to accomplish everything we aspire to live.
An Operations and Maintenance Manager should invest his time in planning and set both short and long-term goals that stretch and initiates the growth in every employee causing each to perform at his level best bringing in real benefit to their life and the business as well.
Cost Cutting:
Cost Cutting is the ability to reduce costs or workplace expenses that may be excess costs that can be limited.
An Operations and Maintenance Manager should come up with cost-cutting tactics that will earn the company a better revenue even if they aren't massive; it will teach employees also to be reserved with every dollar that simply goes into the enterprise.
Project Management:
Project Management is structuring a to-do list for your project or company containing tasks and responsibilities as well as creating a roadmap for the execution of those duties promptly.
An Operations and Maintenance Manager must place emphasis on the application of the project management methodologies and principles by the staff in the daily functions and responsibilities to foster efficiently as well as create a competitive advantage in the heavily competitive business space.
Diversity Awareness:
Diversity Awareness is the understanding that people are different and unique in their particular way and respecting their uniqueness.
An Operations and Maintenance Manager ought to successfully identify the various types of diversity presented in his company to be able to benefit from these individual differences in the hope of improving the success of his team and encourage the team members to become aware of these qualities and use them appropriately.
Hard Skills Required to be an Operations and Maintenance Manager
Hard skills are job-specific skill sets, or expertise, that are teachable and whose presence can be tested through exams. While core skills are more difficult to quantify and less tangible, hard skills are quantifiable and more defined.
Hard skills are usually listed on an applicant's resume to help recruiters know the applicant's qualifications for the applied position. A recruiter, therefore, needs to review the applicant's resume and education to find out if he/she has the knowledge necessary to get the job done.
An operations and maintenance manager should have a good command of the following hard skills to succeed in her job.