Learning business management skills is crucial to success, no matter your ambitions. It’s important to know how to manage a business, a team, and projects in general. 

There are full college courses and degrees dedicated to business management. The subject is so vast and so important. People with top-notch business management skills have practically no ceiling in their careers. 

From senior management positions to c-suite positions, the world is their oyster. That’s why it’s so important to learn them early and never stop learning. 

One of the best ways to learn is to take advice from those who already have the skills and experience. Someone like Koen Vanpraet has agreed to share his process with us. 

Koen Vanpraet has years of experience as a business leader and has transitioned to consulting businesses and managers on cutting-edge techniques and management strategies.

Reading and Research 

Koen Vanpraet recommends reading books to improve your leadership style. He recommends authors such as Gary Vaynerchuk and Simon Sinek to help your knowledge. There’s never a chance to stop learning. 

Always read, always research, and always keep an open mind. Some processes and mentalities have been prominent for centuries before proven wrong. 

So never get set in your ways, and always accept the knowledge of experts and others. Confidence is great, but even the best business leaders in the world need to continue their research if they want to stay at the top. 

Experience

You can read every book in the world, but there’s nothing more valuable than experience. Koen Vanpraet has spent many years managing teams and businesses. 

He has worked with and experienced many different management styles. The best way to gain management knowledge is to expose yourself to as many different styles as possible. 

This way, you can see what works for which industries and types of people. Especially now that the era of remote work is at its peak, a leader must know how to remain effective while managing and growing a remote team.

Mentors

As we mentioned in the introduction, one fantastic way to learn is to take advice from those who have been at the top. Mentors are great because they can give personalized advice based on your shortcomings and strengths. 

Reading and research are great but are much more generalized than what a mentor can offer. A mentor doesn’t even need to be someone above you. You can ask a colleague for criticism on your performance and help identify your weaknesses. 

Many Mistakes

Koen Vanpraet emphasized that he has made many mistakes to be where he is today. No one is born perfect, and no one has an ideal track record. The important thing is to learn from mistakes as much as possible and not give up after failing. 

Use failure as a driving force for improvement. Identify why something failed, and use that information to ensure it doesn’t happen next time. 

Improvement Mindset

Playing off of Koen Vanpraet’s last piece of advice, always focus on improving over everything. When you start a new project or endeavor, set side goals for yourself and strive to accomplish them. 

Whether the project fails or succeeds will come second to accomplishing your specific goals. Your project failed, but you successfully managed your time and set realistic deadlines. 

Now deadlines and time management will be second nature, and you can focus on another skill for your next project. Applying this strategy to years of real experience is the key to mastering business management and any other skill that you desire.