The 10 Management Skills that Distinguish Effective Managers (and How to Develop Them)
There’s a well-known adage that says people don’t quit companies, they quit managers. And with over half of employees (57%) claiming to have quit a job in the past because of their managers, it’s safe to say that there’s some truth to the saying.
Lack of management skills doesn’t just affect individual managers. It can have a domino effect that impacts employees, cross-functional teams, and overall company performance. For first-time managers, investing in leadership development has been shown to drive as high as 29% ROI within the first three months and 419% over the course of a year.
Fortunately, management skills can be developed with the right training and experience.
In this guide, we discuss the skills that make effective managers and break down some strategies you can use to augment these management skills within your organization.
What makes an effective people manager?
Anyone who’s responsible for a team is technically a people manager. However, simply managing a team doesn’t necessarily make for an effective manager.
The most effective people managers drive results while also fostering an environment where team members feel valued and supported. This holistic approach ultimately drives both individual satisfaction and an overall high-performing team.
And what do these managers have in common? They listen, go out of their way to support the individuals on their team, and they embrace a learning mindset. They recognize that the best managers are adaptable and always evolving, so they actively seek opportunities to expand their skill set and refine their approach.(We'll explore some of the essential skills they must constantly hone below.)
Management skills vs. leadership skills
Management and leadership are often used interchangeably. While many managers are leaders and vice-versa, the two roles are slightly different.
Managers need the skills to ensure that their team can complete tasks and reach their objectives. On the other hand, leaders require the skills that allow them to set direction while influencing and motivating their teams.
The importance of strong management skills
Strong management skills help managers create more successful work environments and effectively lead their teams. However, the sad reality is that three out of four employees claim that their managers are ineffective.
Here are some of the benefits of organizations that have managers who possess strong management skills:
1. Higher employee engagement
A series of Gallup studies compared the workplace metrics of teams with upskilled managers against a control group. The studies found that the upskilled group experienced 10% to 22% higher manager engagement and 8% to 18% higher team engagement.
Another report found that up 70% of the differences in engagement between teams is directly attributed to the manager, making the correlation between employee engagement and effective management crystal clear.
2. Better business and employee performance
Successful managers don’t just elevate employee engagement, they make a direct impact on the business's bottom line. The same series of studies from Gallup found that teams with skilled managers benefit from a 20% to 28% likelihood of better performance. And employees reporting to effective managers are 15.4x more likely to be high performers when compared to their peers.
Neither stat is entirely surprising, given that we know employee engagement and performance are closely related, with highly-engaged organizations experiencing as much as 23% higher profitability.
3. Lower employee turnover
The Gallup study also found that teams with upskilled managers experienced anywhere from 21% to 28% lower employee turnover. When employees are engaged and feel like they’re making an impact on the business, they’re less likely to look for employment elsewhere.
Effective managers can also prevent employees from becoming flight risks by creating lines of open communication, so employees get the opportunities they’re looking for—before it’s too late.
4. Less employee burnout
Many top-performing and high-potential employees—including managers—are susceptible to burnout. 53% of managers report feeling burned out at work.
When managers are equipped with the right skillset, they are able to delegate and plan strategically, so they can mitigate their own risk of burnout. They’re also able to create a supportive work environment that fosters resilient and engaged employees.
10 examples of good management skills
The skills that make for the most impactful managers are constantly changing.
However, if you’re wondering which skills to invest in, here are some of the most essential management skills for high-performing organizations.
1. Strategic planning
Leadership sets the direction. Management guides their team through the execution.
Strategic planning is the process of putting a roadmap in place to reach your team’s goals. To effectively do so, managers need to have the acumen to understand which levers make the biggest impact within their team and when to pull them.
They need to know how to strike a careful balance between resources—including people hours and budget—in order to deliver results that align with or exceed the direction that’s been set by leadership.
2. Coaching and performance management
The top priority for managers is to oversee a team of employees and guide them to success. As the primary touchpoint for employees within the organization, good managers invest in and share in their team’s success.
They should regularly take the time to evaluate employee performance. They also know how to deliver actionable and constructive feedback so that employees can grow and achieve success beyond their current roles.
“Don't be afraid to get really tactical with people, especially with frontline managers. The amount of people who don't know how to run a good one-on-one is astounding. [...] Training people on some of the basics can go a long way and giving them the content and materials. You've got to build communities around this in two forms: Managers have to have communities where they can turn to each other, as well as to you for support.” - Brian Elliott, Co-founder, Future Forum; Author of "How the Future Works”; Former Slack & Google Executive
3. Communication and feedback
No employee should work in a silo. But this is particularly true for managers. Their core responsibilities include interacting with their team and other peers.
Whether it’s coaching their own team or collaborating with other departments, managers should be able to effectively communicate their goals and provide feedback so everyone can work together seamlessly.
Managers should also be strong listeners. It goes beyond making eye contact or acknowledging the other person. They take the time to truly internalize the information that’s being shared with them, so they can take the appropriate actions.
4. Delegation
The best managers know that they can’t do everything themselves. In order to be better managers and get more done as a team, managers need to strategically delegate tasks. This includes looking at all the tasks that are needed to achieve business objectives and allocating the resources on their team appropriately.
Managers who can delegate tasks effectively can boost overall team performance while mitigating their own risk of burnout and empowering employees to build new skills.
At the executive level, delegation skills have been shown to increase revenue by as much as 33%. While we can’t directly extrapolate that value to all mid-level or senior-level managers, we certainly can’t underestimate the value of delegation skills.
5. Decision-making
Studies have shown that adults make as many as 35,000 decisions a day. For managers, many of those decisions will revolve around propelling the business and their team forward.
Effective managers can strategically weigh the options in front of them. And they’re able to make those decisions in an appropriate amount of time.
Sure, even the best managers aren’t going to make the perfect decision every time. However, when managers—and their teams—are confident in their decision-making skills, it minimizes wasted time, reduces confusion, and drives better results.
6. Problem-solving
It’s rare that things always go as planned. Skilled managers expect the unexpected and are able to pivot when needed.
They can quickly identify challenges as they come up and identify all possible solutions. At which point, they’re able to lean into their decision-making skills to carve a path forward for themselves, their team, and in many cases, the business.
7. Relationship and trust building
The most effective managers understand that relationship building extends far beyond their immediate team. They nurture relationships at all levels to create a thriving work environment.
With their team, they prioritize creating psychologically safe spaces where employees feel supported, valued, and empowered to be themselves. This fosters trust, encourages open communication, and promotes risk-taking, ultimately leading to more innovative and high-performing teams.
Beyond their team, they connect with leaders and stakeholders to share their vision, collaborate, and gain support. They also network with peers to exchange ideas and learn, enhancing their own skills. This creates a supportive network that benefits the manager, the team, and the entire organization.
You build a trust within a team by actually getting people to know and understand one another, what they're like, how they operate, and then you can go deeper into backgrounds, and then you can get into, ‘I've got your back and I'm going to cover you when you've got needs.’ ” - Brian Elliott, Co-founder, Future Forum; Author of "How the Future Works”; Former Slack & Google Executive
8. Motivation and inspiration
Motivation and inspiration are two of those people management skills that teeter on the edge of leadership. Effective managers don’t simply force employees to do their jobs. Rather they encourage employees so that they want to do their best work out of their own volition.
When employees are motivated and feel a sense of purpose in the work they’re doing, they’re more likely to be committed to organizational goals and produce higher-quality work.
9. Mentorship
Mentorship, like coaching, is designed to help unlock employee potential. However, when managers double as mentors they also support employees with their professional development beyond their current roles.
This means providing mentees with feedback on long-term goals, opening doors to stretch opportunities for skills development, and expanding their networks.
As mentorship and management closely overlap, developing mentorship skills can also help translate into better management skills.
10. Adaptability
Ironically, one of the only constants in the workplace is change. With many organizations going through periods of transformation, such as restructuring, M&As, or even accelerated growth, adaptability has quickly climbed the ranks as a top skill of 2024.
Managers who are agile and adaptable embrace change rather than avoid it. They understand how to confidently navigate change themselves and guide their teams through transformation while minimizing negative effects on productivity, engagement, and performance.
Strategies for developing management skills within your organization
Most team managers don’t possess all the skills they need to be effective in their roles right off the bat. Nor should we expect them to.
It’s up to your organization to support leaders in developing strong management skills by providing the right learning and development opportunities. Not just for existing leaders but also the high-potential employees that make up your pipeline of future leaders.
When it comes to skills development of any kind, investing in training is always a great place to start. However, in the modern workplace, training needs to go beyond videos and seminars. While traditional training programs and coursework offer a valuable foundation in management principles, there needs to be more attention focused on fostering the practical application and retention of these skills.
To bridge the gap between knowledge and action, organizations also need to invest in social learning strategies. Social learning leverages the power of relationships, interactions, and hands-on experiences to create a dynamic learning environment. By encouraging employees to learn from their peers and apply leadership skills in real-world scenarios, organizations can significantly enhance the effectiveness of their development programs.
If leadership and manager development are top of mind for your organization, you’re in good company. Here are some high-impact social learning strategies to help managers develop the skills they—and your business—need.
Peer Networking
Given the collaborative nature of management, peer learning strategies provide a natural environment for managers to hone their skills through interactions and knowledge-sharing with their colleagues.
This networking ecosystem encourages managers to share real-life challenges, solutions, and best practices with their peers. Rather than leaving employees to create opportunities for themselves or waiting for those elusive water cooler moments, intentionally introducing current and future managers to each other helps grow their networks.
Not only do you create learning opportunities for your management team, but through network expansion, you promote cross-team collaboration and enhance the exchange of knowledge within the organization.
“What we've been trying to do is talk about this growth mindset, learning and development, and dispel this notion that everything happens in the classroom. We can provide that formal training, but how are you learning in your everyday and incorporating this? [...] I do believe that we need to talk more about that, to look at that social learning element and coaching and continuous feedback.” - Tiffany Smye, Senior Director, Talent, Learning & Development, Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment
Mentorship programs
Managers can be mentors, but they can also be mentees. Particularly when it comes to first-time and mid-level managers.
Pairing emerging managers with experienced leaders provides them with personalized opportunities for skills development. Seasoned managers can help mentees work through challenges, identify areas of growth, and put a plan in place to reach their leadership and professional potential.
Where there are specific skills development goals, structured curriculums and programs can guide mentorship conversations so those objectives stay top of mind.
Leader-led AMAs
While management skills can be developed through learning opportunities, a lot of it simply comes with experience. When managers can learn from experienced leaders, they can skip at least some of the trial and error that comes with management.
AMAs and office hours are just a few ways that you can facilitate skills development opportunities between seasoned leaders and front-line or mid-level management. It provides an open forum for managers to ask questions while providing access to senior leaders that they may not otherwise have the opportunity to connect with.
Management skills FAQs
What are management skills?
Management skills are the abilities and competencies that make for an effective manager.
The skills that managers need to succeed in their roles continue to evolve as the way we work continues to change. However, some of the most in-demand management skills include strategic thinking, coaching, problem-solving, relationship building, and adaptability.
What is an effective manager?
An effective manager is someone who is able to help employees perform their best. On paper, this often means reaching company targets and KPIs. However, it also refers to a manager that is able to motivate their team and create a positive work environment that boosts employee engagement, productivity, and performance.
How do you measure manager effectiveness?
There are many ways to measure manager effectiveness. In many cases, you’ll want to look at a combination of metrics to get a full picture of a manager’s impact on the business.
Common ways to measure a manager effectiveness include:
- Employee feedback, including surveys and anecdotal feedback.
- Rate of employee retention.
- Employee satisfaction scores.
- Team performance, including goal completion rates.
The 10 Management Skills that Distinguish Effective Managers (and How to Develop Them)
What makes an effective people manager?
Anyone who’s responsible for a team is technically a people manager. However, simply managing a team doesn’t necessarily make for an effective manager.
The most effective people managers drive results while also fostering an environment where team members feel valued and supported. This holistic approach ultimately drives both individual satisfaction and an overall high-performing team.
And what do these managers have in common? They listen, go out of their way to support the individuals on their team, and they embrace a learning mindset. They recognize that the best managers are adaptable and always evolving, so they actively seek opportunities to expand their skill set and refine their approach.(We'll explore some of the essential skills they must constantly hone below.)
Management skills vs. leadership skills
Management and leadership are often used interchangeably. While many managers are leaders and vice-versa, the two roles are slightly different.
Managers need the skills to ensure that their team can complete tasks and reach their objectives. On the other hand, leaders require the skills that allow them to set direction while influencing and motivating their teams.
The importance of strong management skills
Strong management skills help managers create more successful work environments and effectively lead their teams. However, the sad reality is that three out of four employees claim that their managers are ineffective.
Here are some of the benefits of organizations that have managers who possess strong management skills:
1. Higher employee engagement
A series of Gallup studies compared the workplace metrics of teams with upskilled managers against a control group. The studies found that the upskilled group experienced 10% to 22% higher manager engagement and 8% to 18% higher team engagement.
Another report found that up 70% of the differences in engagement between teams is directly attributed to the manager, making the correlation between employee engagement and effective management crystal clear.
2. Better business and employee performance
Successful managers don’t just elevate employee engagement, they make a direct impact on the business's bottom line. The same series of studies from Gallup found that teams with skilled managers benefit from a 20% to 28% likelihood of better performance. And employees reporting to effective managers are 15.4x more likely to be high performers when compared to their peers.
Neither stat is entirely surprising, given that we know employee engagement and performance are closely related, with highly-engaged organizations experiencing as much as 23% higher profitability.
3. Lower employee turnover
The Gallup study also found that teams with upskilled managers experienced anywhere from 21% to 28% lower employee turnover. When employees are engaged and feel like they’re making an impact on the business, they’re less likely to look for employment elsewhere.
Effective managers can also prevent employees from becoming flight risks by creating lines of open communication, so employees get the opportunities they’re looking for—before it’s too late.
4. Less employee burnout
Many top-performing and high-potential employees—including managers—are susceptible to burnout. 53% of managers report feeling burned out at work.
When managers are equipped with the right skillset, they are able to delegate and plan strategically, so they can mitigate their own risk of burnout. They’re also able to create a supportive work environment that fosters resilient and engaged employees.
10 examples of good management skills
The skills that make for the most impactful managers are constantly changing.
However, if you’re wondering which skills to invest in, here are some of the most essential management skills for high-performing organizations.
1. Strategic planning
Leadership sets the direction. Management guides their team through the execution.
Strategic planning is the process of putting a roadmap in place to reach your team’s goals. To effectively do so, managers need to have the acumen to understand which levers make the biggest impact within their team and when to pull them.
They need to know how to strike a careful balance between resources—including people hours and budget—in order to deliver results that align with or exceed the direction that’s been set by leadership.
2. Coaching and performance management
The top priority for managers is to oversee a team of employees and guide them to success. As the primary touchpoint for employees within the organization, good managers invest in and share in their team’s success.
They should regularly take the time to evaluate employee performance. They also know how to deliver actionable and constructive feedback so that employees can grow and achieve success beyond their current roles.
“Don't be afraid to get really tactical with people, especially with frontline managers. The amount of people who don't know how to run a good one-on-one is astounding. [...] Training people on some of the basics can go a long way and giving them the content and materials. You've got to build communities around this in two forms: Managers have to have communities where they can turn to each other, as well as to you for support.” - Brian Elliott, Co-founder, Future Forum; Author of "How the Future Works”; Former Slack & Google Executive
3. Communication and feedback
No employee should work in a silo. But this is particularly true for managers. Their core responsibilities include interacting with their team and other peers.
Whether it’s coaching their own team or collaborating with other departments, managers should be able to effectively communicate their goals and provide feedback so everyone can work together seamlessly.
Managers should also be strong listeners. It goes beyond making eye contact or acknowledging the other person. They take the time to truly internalize the information that’s being shared with them, so they can take the appropriate actions.
4. Delegation
The best managers know that they can’t do everything themselves. In order to be better managers and get more done as a team, managers need to strategically delegate tasks. This includes looking at all the tasks that are needed to achieve business objectives and allocating the resources on their team appropriately.
Managers who can delegate tasks effectively can boost overall team performance while mitigating their own risk of burnout and empowering employees to build new skills.
At the executive level, delegation skills have been shown to increase revenue by as much as 33%. While we can’t directly extrapolate that value to all mid-level or senior-level managers, we certainly can’t underestimate the value of delegation skills.
5. Decision-making
Studies have shown that adults make as many as 35,000 decisions a day. For managers, many of those decisions will revolve around propelling the business and their team forward.
Effective managers can strategically weigh the options in front of them. And they’re able to make those decisions in an appropriate amount of time.
Sure, even the best managers aren’t going to make the perfect decision every time. However, when managers—and their teams—are confident in their decision-making skills, it minimizes wasted time, reduces confusion, and drives better results.
6. Problem-solving
It’s rare that things always go as planned. Skilled managers expect the unexpected and are able to pivot when needed.
They can quickly identify challenges as they come up and identify all possible solutions. At which point, they’re able to lean into their decision-making skills to carve a path forward for themselves, their team, and in many cases, the business.
7. Relationship and trust building
The most effective managers understand that relationship building extends far beyond their immediate team. They nurture relationships at all levels to create a thriving work environment.
With their team, they prioritize creating psychologically safe spaces where employees feel supported, valued, and empowered to be themselves. This fosters trust, encourages open communication, and promotes risk-taking, ultimately leading to more innovative and high-performing teams.
Beyond their team, they connect with leaders and stakeholders to share their vision, collaborate, and gain support. They also network with peers to exchange ideas and learn, enhancing their own skills. This creates a supportive network that benefits the manager, the team, and the entire organization.
You build a trust within a team by actually getting people to know and understand one another, what they're like, how they operate, and then you can go deeper into backgrounds, and then you can get into, ‘I've got your back and I'm going to cover you when you've got needs.’ ” - Brian Elliott, Co-founder, Future Forum; Author of "How the Future Works”; Former Slack & Google Executive
8. Motivation and inspiration
Motivation and inspiration are two of those people management skills that teeter on the edge of leadership. Effective managers don’t simply force employees to do their jobs. Rather they encourage employees so that they want to do their best work out of their own volition.
When employees are motivated and feel a sense of purpose in the work they’re doing, they’re more likely to be committed to organizational goals and produce higher-quality work.
9. Mentorship
Mentorship, like coaching, is designed to help unlock employee potential. However, when managers double as mentors they also support employees with their professional development beyond their current roles.
This means providing mentees with feedback on long-term goals, opening doors to stretch opportunities for skills development, and expanding their networks.
As mentorship and management closely overlap, developing mentorship skills can also help translate into better management skills.
10. Adaptability
Ironically, one of the only constants in the workplace is change. With many organizations going through periods of transformation, such as restructuring, M&As, or even accelerated growth, adaptability has quickly climbed the ranks as a top skill of 2024.
Managers who are agile and adaptable embrace change rather than avoid it. They understand how to confidently navigate change themselves and guide their teams through transformation while minimizing negative effects on productivity, engagement, and performance.
Strategies for developing management skills within your organization
Most team managers don’t possess all the skills they need to be effective in their roles right off the bat. Nor should we expect them to.
It’s up to your organization to support leaders in developing strong management skills by providing the right learning and development opportunities. Not just for existing leaders but also the high-potential employees that make up your pipeline of future leaders.
When it comes to skills development of any kind, investing in training is always a great place to start. However, in the modern workplace, training needs to go beyond videos and seminars. While traditional training programs and coursework offer a valuable foundation in management principles, there needs to be more attention focused on fostering the practical application and retention of these skills.
To bridge the gap between knowledge and action, organizations also need to invest in social learning strategies. Social learning leverages the power of relationships, interactions, and hands-on experiences to create a dynamic learning environment. By encouraging employees to learn from their peers and apply leadership skills in real-world scenarios, organizations can significantly enhance the effectiveness of their development programs.
If leadership and manager development are top of mind for your organization, you’re in good company. Here are some high-impact social learning strategies to help managers develop the skills they—and your business—need.
Peer Networking
Given the collaborative nature of management, peer learning strategies provide a natural environment for managers to hone their skills through interactions and knowledge-sharing with their colleagues.
This networking ecosystem encourages managers to share real-life challenges, solutions, and best practices with their peers. Rather than leaving employees to create opportunities for themselves or waiting for those elusive water cooler moments, intentionally introducing current and future managers to each other helps grow their networks.
Not only do you create learning opportunities for your management team, but through network expansion, you promote cross-team collaboration and enhance the exchange of knowledge within the organization.
“What we've been trying to do is talk about this growth mindset, learning and development, and dispel this notion that everything happens in the classroom. We can provide that formal training, but how are you learning in your everyday and incorporating this? [...] I do believe that we need to talk more about that, to look at that social learning element and coaching and continuous feedback.” - Tiffany Smye, Senior Director, Talent, Learning & Development, Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment
Mentorship programs
Managers can be mentors, but they can also be mentees. Particularly when it comes to first-time and mid-level managers.
Pairing emerging managers with experienced leaders provides them with personalized opportunities for skills development. Seasoned managers can help mentees work through challenges, identify areas of growth, and put a plan in place to reach their leadership and professional potential.
Where there are specific skills development goals, structured curriculums and programs can guide mentorship conversations so those objectives stay top of mind.
Leader-led AMAs
While management skills can be developed through learning opportunities, a lot of it simply comes with experience. When managers can learn from experienced leaders, they can skip at least some of the trial and error that comes with management.
AMAs and office hours are just a few ways that you can facilitate skills development opportunities between seasoned leaders and front-line or mid-level management. It provides an open forum for managers to ask questions while providing access to senior leaders that they may not otherwise have the opportunity to connect with.
Management skills FAQs
What are management skills?
Management skills are the abilities and competencies that make for an effective manager.
The skills that managers need to succeed in their roles continue to evolve as the way we work continues to change. However, some of the most in-demand management skills include strategic thinking, coaching, problem-solving, relationship building, and adaptability.
What is an effective manager?
An effective manager is someone who is able to help employees perform their best. On paper, this often means reaching company targets and KPIs. However, it also refers to a manager that is able to motivate their team and create a positive work environment that boosts employee engagement, productivity, and performance.
How do you measure manager effectiveness?
There are many ways to measure manager effectiveness. In many cases, you’ll want to look at a combination of metrics to get a full picture of a manager’s impact on the business.
Common ways to measure a manager effectiveness include:
- Employee feedback, including surveys and anecdotal feedback.
- Rate of employee retention.
- Employee satisfaction scores.
- Team performance, including goal completion rates.
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