How Will Learning SQL Make You a Better Boss?

Updated on: April 6, 2024

Looking to enhance the performance of your team, elevate your own productivity, or boost the efficiency of your entire department or company? Consider learning SQL! Why? Because its benefits are substantial and the return on investment is significant.

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 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 your team and business activities to achieve key goals. This is a win-win situation.

So, how do you become a better manager? In this article, we’ll show you one way—by learning SQL. You can look at it from at least two different angles:

1. It improves your own competencies as a supervisor, manager, or CEO, and
2. You invest in developing your team’s skills.

Develop Your Managerial and SQL Skills

If you’ve never had any experience with databases or SQL, 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. The answer is short and positive: SQL is surprisingly present in many different areas of business.

When you start learning SQL, you will dive into the world of relational databases, discovering how data is interconnected and managed.

The typical next questions are: how do I start? Is it very expensive? Will I have the time? Our SQL course offerings on LearnSQL.com are designed to meet the needs of both new and experienced learners, providing a wide range of topics from basic to advanced SQL. You can find something suitable for you, your schedule, 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. These 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 utilize Structured Query Language to its fullest potential. 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 to compare, filter, and organize data – from a 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

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 so you can 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 by acquiring 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 a different perspective. It can help you think outside of the box, to tackle challenges and find new solutions.

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

Develop Your Team with SQL

A good manager develops his or her employees. Investing in SQL courses for a team will pay off in new skills. 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. And many companies are using our SQL courses – check how we are helping UBER! You can have an SQL course as part of 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. You can manage their learning paths and track their course usage. But more important than overseeing your employees is the value you get when they use their new skills. 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've explored various ways in which mastering SQL can significantly enhance managerial effectiveness across all levels of leadership, from supervisors to CEOs. The versatility of the SQL language unlocks new opportunities for understanding and leveraging business data more efficiently. By integrating SQL into your skillset, you gain deeper insights into operational performance, customer behavior, and market trends, enabling more informed decision-making.

Moreover, learning SQL isn't just about personal development; it's also a strategic investment in your team's capabilities. When managers understand SQL, they can better guide their teams, streamline data analysis processes, and foster a culture of data-driven decision-making. This collective proficiency in SQL not only enhances productivity but also positions your team to respond more agilely to business challenges.

Embracing SQL education for yourself and your employees can set your company apart from the competition. In today's data-centric business environment, the ability to quickly interpret and act on data insights is a key differentiator. Start your journey with SQL today, and unlock the full potential of your leadership and organizational performance.

Be proactive in adopting SQL — a smart move that could keep you ahead in the competitive business landscape.