How Will Learning SQL Make You a Better Boss?

Want to improve the performance of your team, of your own, of your department, or of your entire company? Try SQL! Why should you learn SQL? Because it just pays off!

What does learning SQL and being a better boss have to do with each other?

Being a better manager can make your employees happier while growing your business. When employees feel a sense of fulfillment, they are more motivated to do well. Employees who like their jobs deliver better results. Your KPIs (key performance indicators) improve. As a manager, a supervisor, or a CEO, you know that KPIs track all the activities of your team and of your business to achieve key goals. This is a win-win situation.

So, how do you become a better manager? In this article, we show you one way—learning SQL. You can look at it from at least two different angles: it improves your own competencies as a supervisor, manager, or CEO, and you invest in developing the skills of your team.

Develop Yourself as a Manager by Learning SQL

If you have never had any experience with databases or with the SQL language, you might be wondering whether this is useful for yourself, your department, or your company, especially if what you do is not IT related. This is indeed one of the most common questions from people who want to learn SQL but are unsure of its benefits to them. The answer is short and positive: SQL is surprisingly present in many different areas of business. When you start learning SQL, you will also discover a new world that is full of data.

The typical next questions are: how do I start? Is it very expensive? Will I have the time? A platform dedicated for SQL users and learners can give you a wide range of online courses. You can find something suitable for you, your time, and your budget.

When you decide to expand your knowledge and learn SQL, you also want to see that this investment pays off, because you are a manager. What are the benefits and the returns you can expect?

Make Quicker Decisions With SQL

Managing a team or an organization involves making a lot of decisions. You are no longer just taking care of the details. You are not just responsible for one activity or one aspect of a project; rather, your job is to keep the whole big machine working. You have people who are bringing you lots of data.

You need the ability to analyze the situation and make decisions quickly. They are your strategic decisions for growing the organization and making it more competitive. You might sometimes rely on your intuition and your years of experience. But to build a successful strategy, it is important to draw good conclusions from data.

And this is where you can really use the SQL language. It helps you make sense of data. As you learn SQL, you will get to know how to use databases. This means you will have faster access to the information you need. You will also be able to analyze metrics and trends. You can even create an SQL report for yourself to compare, filter, and organize data, from the bird’s-eye view down to the fine details.

With your new skills, you can get a quick view of the important issues for your business. Even if you have a team that does this for you, you need to understand the basis for your decision. Learning SQL allows you to do so quickly.

Understand the Data on Your own by Learning SQL

Data is everywhere, so the ability to analyze databases with SQL is useful in almost every business. But where does that data live?

Suppose you need to investigate a new market for your business. You need to understand your prospective customers. You also need to understand what your new product should look like, how it will work, and what adjustments are needed for the new market.

When you learn SQL, you will find out how to look up and understand the data you need. You won’t have to rely on your analysts and engineers all the time as you might today. You will learn to decipher the language you once found difficult; it will now be one of your languages! With SQL, you can investigate data about a new market or business on your own. You will then be better prepared to delegate the generation of more detailed reports to your employees.

Here’s another situation. You receive a SQL report from your IT department. If you learn SQL, you can review the report on your own and ensure it makes sense, without needing anyone else to go through the report for you. With SQL, you will be able to understand the report on your own to help you develop new products or new directions for your business.

Another situation is when you receive a CSV file. You can transform it into a database, organize the data, and select the data you need yourself, all using SQL.

Challenge Yourself by Learning SQL

As an accomplished manager with so much success already, what do you do next? By being focused all the time on the growth of your organization and your department, it is easy to forget about your own professional development. Maybe you are unmotivated, or maybe you simply do not know what you could do next to develop yourself.

Learning new skills such as SQL can open up new possibilities. Your brain wakes up from being forced with new knowledge. The very process of learning SQL can energize you to be more productive and creative. A new language can help you look at things from different perspectives. It can help you think outside of the box to tackle challenges and find new solutions.

Learning SQL can also be a beginning of your new career path. Being a successful manager in one business does not mean you cannot become one in another.

Develop Your Team With SQL

A good manager develops his or her employees. Investing in SQL courses for a team will pay off with new skills for them. It will provide them with tools to help them better understand the business and ultimately help them succeed.

Your team may need SQL to calculate and forecast expenses. Employees with SQL knowledge will be able to answer important business questions and find the right solutions. Your team will be an asset to the business, if you, the manager, invest in its development.

Our SQL learning platform, LearnSQL.com, lets you create customized courses for your specific needs. For example, you can have an SQL course to be used during your onboarding process. For more information, contact us.

Our interactive online SQL courses also give you the ability to follow the learning progress of your team at your fingertips. You can manage the learning paths of your team and track the usage of the courses. But more important than the control over your employees is the value you get when they use their new skills in practice. They will be more motivated and more willing to learn about the business. You will see that your business quickly becomes data-driven.

Learning SQL Will Make you a Better Manager

We saw examples of how learning SQL could improve the work of people in management roles. Whether you are a supervisor, a manager, or a CEO, the SQL language can open new possibilities. You can get a better understanding of the data in your business. You can learn as a manager and support your employees by investing in their SQL education. Be smart and learn SQL before your competitors do!