Management Skills which are not taught, but should be

Business school does not teach people some of the most fundamental skills which a manager will need. How to give a review, how to fire someone, how to interview a job candidate may be more important at times than the most complex strategic issues. In fact, dealing with people is an area where I suspect that the manager of today is not much better than the manager of 50 years ago even thought there is much more theory on motivation and rewards.

Some of the most simple and basic communication skills are missing in the workplace. I recently saw an example where a manager asked a subordinate to think about a promotion, but gave no timetable so that while the manager assumed a few days, the subordinate assumed a few weeks. When the subordinate did not respond within a few days, the manager assumed he did not want the promotion, which was not correct.