The essential office manager checklist for fall 2023.

When you take on the position of office manager, you are committing to being at the hub of the company. It is you who will nurture the culture, take care of the staff, support the bosses, and act as the unofficial ambassador of the entire brand. With this daunting array of duties facing you, take some time to incorporate a set of essential skills that will reduce your stress, help you to achieve the goals of your job, and enhance the overall success of your company.

1. Strong communication.

Office managers must bring together a diverse team encompassing a wide variety of skill sets, job responsibilities, and senioritis. Through it all, they must understand the message that needs to be disseminated and convey it in a way that everyone understands. Additionally, they must be able to bring accurate, comprehensive reports to the attention of management to ensure that the company’s short- and long-term goals are achieved.

2. Decision-making skills.

When you run an office, situations and dilemmas arise constantly. In order to respond effectively, you must be able to quickly and accurately assess the problem and determine how it can be addressed and by whom. Finally, you must have the authority and assertiveness to delegate tasks to the appropriate people, ideally in a positive way that fosters cooperation.

3. Process management.

Even if the company is small, it contains numerous operations, all of which need to run smoothly. As the office manager, you are in a unique position to analyze these various components to determine what is working well and what needs improvement. Subsequently, the more challenging job is to express your findings to the right people so that you can bring the entire team into alignment with your vision.

4. Attention to detail.

Some offices appear to run seamlessly on their own. However, the truth is that the best of these are in the hands of topnotch office managers who know how to attend to everything from major project coordination and supply chain issues down to the minutiae that must be tackled every day. When you run the gamut from supporting a large budget to ordering the coffee that keeps the team fueled, you have a full skill set that can take the company forward on all levels.

5. Maximum flexibility.

Considering the range and importance of your priorities, it is imperative that you as the office manager hone your ability to be flexible. To be rigid in this position would mean that you could not assess problems and situations, prioritizing them on the fly, and delegating responsibilities accordingly. As the keeper and promoter of the company culture, you also must find a way to do this in a respectful way that takes each worker’s unique needs and duties into consideration.

Accessing the sales reporting and employee management tools in your company’s point of sale system can be invaluable as you strive to meet this goal. That’s because they furnish you with important details about each person’s hours, product expertise, and past performance that you can use to tailor the tasks you are assigning.

6. Strong leadership.

You might not be the owner of the company, but your position as office manager puts you at the forefront of the organization. Embracing and enhancing your leadership qualities means that you take responsibility for your own work while helping those around you to excel. These behaviors naturally flow down to everyone on your team, enabling you to add value and make a difference throughout the company.

7. Technical abilities.

An office manager is at the master control switch of the equipment and technology that is the backbone of every type of operation. Even if you have an IT team, it will often be you who will be tapped when questions or problems arise with computers, printers, phones, or even firewall settings. While you don’t need to be an expert in every piece of hardware or software, it is vital to know the basics so that, at the very least, you will know who to call.

8. Ability and willingness to collaborate.

In spite of the vast array of responsibilities that face you as an office manager, the good news is that you won’t need to contend with them on your own. The best managers know that they don’t live on an island or in a vacuum and are willing to reach out to experts and colleagues. Moreover, collaboration involves regular interactions with management where views can be exchanged in order to promote the company’s mission and priorities.

As we approach the final quarter of 2023, your talents as an office manager are more important than ever. That’s because it will be you who coalesces diverse groups, identifies needs, delegates tasks, and solves problems, all the while maintaining clear and constant communication with everyone involved. Focus on attaining and honing these skills every day, and both you and the company for whom you work will thrive.