Updated June 2, 2023
Introduction to Great Analytical Skills
We both know that jumping from entry-level to manager is difficult. There are several levels in many companies where you need to prove yourself before you get any further promotion.
But how can you make that mental leap from being an entry-level professional to a manager who has the power to change the game of the organization?
You can simply change your mindsets, and you’re done. This statement may sound like a fairy tale, but it’s true. We will articulate in detail why you’re focusing on mindset changes in a minute.
But for now, let’s take this issue of why you think it’s a fairy tale. You’re feeling like this because you’ve yet to shift your focus from an entry-level mindset to a manager mindset.
Many people go for MBAs, and after completing MBAs fetch great positions, but most don’t. Why? Because even if the MBA helps them learn the critical and great analytical skills of business success, they still need to understand the great analytical skills of mindset change.
To be a manager, you need to think like a manager. No, not after you become a manager from an entry-level employee; rather, before there’s any possibility of becoming a manager.
Does it make sense to you now? It’s not a fairy tale; it’s a process of putting in the arduous effort to change your mindset even before you think of anything else.
And in this article, we will hand you that mindset changes processes and great analytical skills. Using this guide, you can easily put your mindset before stepping into a manager’s position.
If you’re ready, let’s begin with some Great Analytical Skills.
Tips to Build Great Analytical Skills
Below are the 8 tips for building Great Analytical skills.
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Work harder on yourself than on your job with the great analytical skills
No, this is not just old stuff; it’s about your business. You are the most important person in your life. You are the CEO of your personal services corporation.
And you provide your service to an office which in exchange for your efforts pays your salary at the end of each month. Who is responsible for making this service extraordinary? You are. So how would you do that? Simply by changing your mindset about who you are!
Doing a job at the entry level is one part of you, not the whole. So, you should give more importance to the whole than the part/s. Moreover, if you work on yourself, your work will automatically improve.
It’s old advice that change begins with you. If you think you need to work harder than yourself on your job, you will do justice to your job. From an entry-level mindset, you will directly reach the mindset of a manager, even before becoming a manager in reality.
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Not either-or, but both
As an entry-level employee, you need to concentrate on your work and move around within a limited sphere. But as a manager, you move out of that cocoon and reach for the higher game.
Here’s how you do that.
When the organization sets goals, it allocates work to every resource available. As an entry-level employee, you get your share of work and only think about completing that staff.
You don’t need to think beyond that. But if you want to think like a manager, you must change your mindset. You need to think beyond just your “area of work” and try to have a helicopter view of your work.
As you think short-term as an entry-level employee, as a manager, you need to change your mindset and think both short-term and long-term.
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There’s another phase of this mindset. It’s said that you have two choices if you want to eat the cake from the plate. One, you can eat the cake. Two, you can let the cake sit on the plate and don’t eat it.
As an entry-level employee, you think like one or the other. But as a manager, you need to think about both. Your mindset would be if you eat the cake, what would be the opportunity cost of not eating the cake, and if you let it sit, what would be the opportunity cost of eating the cake?
This mindset approach is of utmost importance as a manager because when you think like this, you think of an organization instead of just an individual. And that does make all the difference.
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Lead without the title with the help of great analytical skills in business.
In the previous era of leadership, people were allowed to lead (by themselves) when they had a position to support their leadership. But the aspect of leadership has changed. This is Leadership 2.0 version. According to this leadership style, anyone can lead, irrespective of whether one has any title.
As an entry-level employee, you may think you have no right to lead. But according to the mindset described by Leadership 2.0, you are responsible for leading.
What is the basic difference between an entry-level employee and a manager?
It’s simply one – an entry-level employee who thinks his/her responsibility ends when his/her job is done. A manager thinks that until the organization achieves its target, the manager’s responsibility doesn’t end.
Thus, even before becoming a manager, if you change your mindset from being ‘no-one’ to ‘someone who takes responsibility, you don’t need to worry about your position. You will get to that level of leadership without becoming a manager.
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We, not me
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As an entry-level employee, your first concern is how you can get your things done, get your salary, and be happy at the end of the day. That’s ‘me-me-me’ thinking.
But to become a manager, you need to change your mindset. According to that mindset, you cannot simply think ‘me-me-me’; you need to think ‘we-we-we’. It’s funny, but if you put a mirror under ‘me-me-me’, you would see that there will be ‘we-we-we’ in the mirror.
So, according to this mindset, when you’re thinking of ‘me-me-me’, it’s the opposite mindset of ‘we-we-we.’
As a manager, you can’t only think about yourself. You need to think about everybody, the team, and the organization. If you think only about yourself, your team will do the same, and your organization will fail.
If your organization fails, you will be out soon enough. No, having a manager’s position is unnecessary before you adopt this sort of mindset; you can do it now, even if you’re an entry-level employee.
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People, Strategy, and Execution with great analytical skills
The Apple CEO was asked about the three main focuses of the company, and he replied – People, strategy, and execution.
As an entry-level employee, you may not think you can work as a CEO. But what if you can?
As an entry-level employee, you take care of the details and consider short-term goals. But what if you can change your mindset to align what the organization wants and what you’re doing in the long term?
The position of a manager is like a CEO. CEO manages the entire region of an organization, if it’s a global business or the whole organization. And a manager takes care of his small department, a sub-unit. If we view that sub-unit as a sub-organization, a manager is also the CEO of that sub-organization.
Now, to make the mental leap from an entry-level employee to a manager, you need to decide what control you have and become the CEO of that sphere of the company.
Suppose, as an entry-level employee, you’re handling 2 employees who work with you per your guidance. You’re the CEO of your 3-members unit, and now you can think as Tim Cook thinks.
What would be the strategy to achieve the maximum output for this quarter? How would you help your 2 employees grow and get better at what they do? And how you and your employees can implement the tactics flawlessly? You can simply sit with your employees and discuss and etch out a plan for success. Before becoming a manager, you need to have the mindset of a manager.
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Taking responsibility for whatever happens to your unit
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As an entry-level employee, if no one works for you, you are only responsible for your mistakes, successes, failures, and inactions. But as a manager, you are not only responsible for your successes, failures, mistakes, and errors; rather, you’re responsible for each of the employees in your unit.
Thinking like this is tough when you’re not managing a team, members, or employees under your direct supervision. But there is a way to this.
This is a tweaking of a deeply believed mindset we all suffer from. If something good happens to us, it’s our responsibility; but by chance, if something odd happens, we won’t take responsibility for it.
So, if you want to jump from an entry-level employee to a manager, you need to make sure that you take responsibility for everything that happens to you. It may be as small as one important task not being done for a client meeting.
You can’t give any excuse. When you’re entrusted to do any work, you must ensure you finish it within the deadline. It’s not to appease your supervisor or any significant other; rather, it’s for you.
Once you have that mindset, becoming a manager will become significantly easier. Because as a manager, you’re not only accountable to the organization for your own success, but you’re also responsible for your team’s success and each team member’s success.
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Making Tough Decisions
As an entry-level employee, you make very few decisions in the organization (if any). But as a manager, you need to make many decisions, some of which are tough. It’s in the decision that organizations expand or collapse. So making tough decisions right is the cornerstone of success.
But how would you practice this as an entry-level employee? You just watch the organization from the mindset of a manager and think through what makes this organization tick.
If the organization is in some sort of bottleneck, how can you take the organization out of the crisis? Role-playing is one way to change your mindset of an entry-level employee to that of a manager.
There’s another way to practice it. You need to practice tough decisions for yourself. Making tough decisions is like a muscle. The more you exercise the muscle, the more it will grow.
Suppose you’re feeling lazy to do the work on a Friday afternoon! But you know that it’s a high-value task, and a lot of it depends on this task. Choosing to sit and do the work is also a tough decision. Yes, it seems silly. But firmness doesn’t come by being firm with others first. It begins with you.
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Build Trust
Trust is everything. You need to know that from the beginning. If your employer doesn’t have trust in you, you aren’t going to stay in the organization for long. And who is responsible for building that trust? You!
As an entry-level person, you don’t always think in these terms. You do your work, take your salary at the end of the month and leave. But your actions either build trust or rob your employer’s faith in you.
And as a manager, a person doesn’t need only to show trustworthiness to his/her employer but also to his/her team members.
So, even if you think no one pays heed, they do. Whatever you do is observed and talked about. You don’t have an idea about it. From the beginning, as an entry-level
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employee, make sure that you build trust. Before doing anything silly, think twice because the mindset of being casual doesn’t work very well in the professional arena.
You need to be sincere in your dealings and ensure that whatever you’ve been given is done with all your effort, might, strength, and spirit.
A manager is a seller of trust. When his/her team members believe in his/her ability and trust that s/he does what s/he says, winning the team members’ hearts is easy. Build that trust even when you’re an entry-level employee. It is everything.
These are mindset changes you need to make from the beginning. There are people who don’t want to grow. But as you’ve come this far while reading this article, we know you want to make your mark in your organization.
Simply follow these great analytical skills advice, and you will see the drastic difference you will feel in your personality and how people perceive you. It’s said that to be able to do something. You need first to become. Thus, becoming a manager is the most important thing before you can act as a manager.
Recommended Articles
This has been a guide to Great Analytical Skills. Here we have discussed the basic concept with 8 tips to build great analytical skills for a managerial level. You may also look at the following articles to learn more –
