How to List Management Skills on a Resume | Best Skills and Examples

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Companies often want candidates to provide their management skills for a reason: The success of the company depends on them. As you prepare to write your resume, you can plan to showcase your abilities, experience and managerial skills. In this article, you can learn how to list your management skills on your resume.

Why employers want to see management skills on your resume

Management skills enable you to use resources properly. As a manager, you must be able to achieve your goals through the daily operations of your company. You can use your skills to direct the activities of employees as they work through complex processes, to determine the optimum level of daily production, and to ensure you use technological and financial resources efficiently. Most of these tasks require an individual with experience, technical knowledge and a special skill set—management skills. 

Best management skills to highlight on your resume

If you are applying for a management position, you can consider including these skills on your resume: 

  • Time management skills
  • Leadership skills
  • Communication skills
  • Organizational skills
  • Problem-solving skills

Remember, the employer’s main aim is to realize their organization’s objectives by hiring competent managers. Your resume should clearly show that you have these skills. 

How to list management skills on a resume

You need to make sure that your management skills are visible and stated clearly on your resume. 

The following techniques will help you list management skills effectively on your resume:

1. First, conduct extensive research on the company and carefully study the job description

Every job description highlights different management skills you need. While your strengths could be many, you need to align your skills to those of the hiring company. If the job description indicates they are looking for a team manager, you may need to highlight your leadership, communication or organizational skills. Also, different levels—mostly senior—of management require a set of skills that may not be common; an organization facing constant industrial action, for example, may require someone who has crisis management or negotiation skills.

2. Then, create a separate management skills section

While there is more than one way to list your skills in a resume, there is no harm in creating a separate section for your skills; be sure to list more managerial skills than the others. Unlike other positions, recruiters pay a lot of attention to the skills you possess as a prospective manager. Imagine this scenario: All applicants have the required level of academic qualifications and professional experience, but how will the employer pick the best candidate? The answer is straightforward: Management skills and achievements.

3. Next, include some management skills in your career objective or summary section

Your career objective introduces your professional achievements or ambitions; use it to include one or two of your managerial skills. Again, the skills you put in this section should be the most aligned to the company’s objectives for the role. Use statements like, ‘a skilled negotiator,’ or ‘seeking to leverage my leadership and problem-solving skills to…’ In short, introduce yourself as a manager right from the beginning.

4. Then, intertwine your management skills into your experience section

Despite creating a separate skills section, use your professional experience section to sneak in a few of your managerial skills. If, for example, you are applying for a financial manager position, use statements like ‘successfully managed the internal audit process.’ Recruiters, expectedly, give more attention to this section of your resume; introducing your skills in this section is likely to make you stand out.

5. Next, use action words while describing your skills

Action verbs give power to your skills and experience, unlike adjectives. They allow you to own the actions that led to success in your previous job. You should use them to place more emphasis on your managerial skills. Use words like supervised, appointed, planned, delegated, achieved, established and consolidated. Be careful to choose verbs that reflect your exact contribution to your achievements. Use statements like, ‘appointed a team of three to analyze…’

6. Then, quantify some of the successes that resulted from your managerial skills

Where possible, quantify your achievements. Recruiters like to know the weight of your actions at your previous position. A hospital administrator, for example, should use statements like ‘managed a 300-bed capacity hospital’ or ‘coordinated the activities of 643 hospital employees.’ If you have been serving as a sales manager, you should use statements like ‘revolutionized sales and marketing methodologies, increasing sales by 23% in the process.’

7. Last, highlight some success you achieved in a team

Recruiters sometimes like to hear the results of your team as opposed to individual results. This is especially true for project management jobs. While highlighting team success, be sure to indicate you were in charge. You can use statements like ‘supervised a multidisciplinary team that oversaw the acquisition.’ Use keywords like inspired, delegated, motivated or trained to accompany your team success. Remember to be specific: If your team managed to cut costs and increase revenues or market share, say so and by how much.