So you’re ready to become a manager in 2020—this is your year to shine! But the path to shining greatness is paved with more than industry experience and people skills. To maximize your chances of promoting to management, you’ll first want to develop an understanding of five key areas.

Communication

As a manager, you’ll have to communicate a lot of messages clearly and adaptively. Your communication toolkit needs to include constructive feedback, employee recognition, grievance management, and possibly even employee interviews and terminations. None of this is easy, but it can be practiced! The best place to perfect communication? Great listening. Think before you speak! Also watch your body language for face-to-face communications, and check that you’re sending your intended message (both in tone and content) for written communications. Always consider the best medium to deliver a message.

Emotional Intelligence

Your emotional intelligence will help determine the kind of leader you are and how you handle those difficult communications. Can you keep your cool when the situation heats up? Can you practice empathy and understanding when your employees face challenges with their work, their personal lives, or with each other? Can you be fair and reasonable but also firm?

Project Management

With great power comes great responsibility. That makes you responsible for your own success, as well as the success of your team and its projects. That also means stepping up even when a misstep was not directly yours. Start out on the right foot by setting realistic project goals, delegating to each team member’s strengths, and keeping the team motivated and on target.

Time Management

You’re responsible for the team’s success, but you can’t be mired in their day-to-day when you have higher-level management duties. It’s time to prioritize your day and delegate, delegate, delegate! Trust your team and empower them to get their jobs done. Identify the most critical aspects of your role—the tasks you must handle yourself—and prioritize them by difficulty and importance. Let the rest go.

Money Management

You can only go so far without a working knowledge of budgets and finance, so study up! You’ll want to understand your department’s revenues and expenditures, including salaries, contracts, and travel. If you’re in charge of managing and setting an annual budget, it will help to learn some basic accounting principles and statistics skills. Know where your numbers come from, and keep real-time track of your expenses so you can stay nimble in the moment and know how to adjust your asks for next year.

In Conclusion

Promoting to management is a big career move for 2020! With a little bit of prep work to round out your core skills, you’ll be ready to shine like a star when that next opportunity winks.