5 important skills you need if you manage people

4 minute read

If you’ve ever heard me talk at conferences, or on podcasts, you’ll know I feel strongly about the role of the people manager. In my experience, they can make working life great or extremely difficult. In a recent article I wrote for the print edition of HR Magazine, I talked about the productivity crisis being faced in the UK and elsewhere. I think a big part of this is down to the quality of management in organisations.

Here are the five management skills I think can make a positive difference:

1. Listening well

Many people listen to respond, rather than listen to understand. Jack Zenger and Joseph Folkman surveyed almost 3,500 managers and found the best listeners did these four things:

1. They behaved in ways that made the other person feel safe and supported.
2. They were helpful and co-operative.
3. They asked questions to challenge gently and constructively.
4. They offered up occasional suggestions.

When we feel the other person is really listening and not judging us, we’re more likely to be open to other views and ideas.

One tip to help you be a better listener is to eliminate distractions. Go to a quiet space for the conversation and leave your phone behind.

2. Good communication

Good communication is the bedrock of good management. This is about communicating in a timely way using the most appropriate methods. As the playwright George Bernard Shaw said,

“The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion it has taken place.”

To communicate and engage effectively, we need to understand our audience. Whether that’s one person in your team, where you need to give them bad news about a project, or telling your whole team about changes affecting them. Download this checklist to help you take into account different communication preferences and adapt your approach accordingly.

3. Giving feedback

This is the skill that seems to strike fear into most managers. This might be down to a prior experience of giving feedback and it went wrong, or their own experience of being given feedback in a clunky way. It’s no surprise that one study found people tend to give negative feedback in an indirect way. Ironically, this can make the situation worse.

Giving feedback can be a positive experience. Here are my top tips:

1. Prepare beforehand – think about the key point(s) you want to make. And stick to these.
2. Avoid dominating the conversation – ask questions, listen, pay attention.
3. Be specific in your feedback. Avoid generalities.
4. Give feedback as near to the event as possible. It makes it relevant and meaningful.
5. Agree next steps, including what you will do to help the person.

And if you really want to create a feedback culture in your team, proactively ask your team for feedback, make it okay for them to give you feedback (as long as its constructive) and role-model to them how to receive feedback.

4. Motivating others

One of the most powerful psychological theories when it comes to motivation is Psychological Empowerment Theory. This is a useful theory for people managers to know as it sets out four things we need to pay attention to help people do their best work. The four factors of psychological empowerment are:

1. Getting meaning from the work we do. This is about a fit between the role a person has and their own values and beliefs. Finding out what matters to each individual team member is an important activity for managers.
2. The tangible impact of the work we do. This is about a person feeling like they have some influence over what happens in the workplace. the extent to which someone can influence outcomes at work. These can be outcomes on a big scale, such as strategic outcomes, or smaller scale, outcomes related to a task or project.
3. The level of competence we need to do our work. This is about a person having the necessary knowledge, skills, and abilities to do a job. When teams or roles evolve, it’s important that managers conduct a learning needs assessment.
4. The level of autonomy we need to do our work. This is about a person having some control over how their work is done. This could be decisions about scheduling the order of work tasks, using initiative to make decisions, and deciding how work gets done.

5. Planning and prioritising

A good people manager makes clear what needs to be done, by when and why. According to a 2018 Gallup survey, among the main causes of burnout are an unmanageable workload, unrealistic time pressure, and a lack of role clarity.

In his book, The Accountable Leader, Brian Dive says one of the main management accountabilities is service delivery. This is about setting timelines and establishing goals which then need to meet quality, quantity, and service standards.

Here are three important questions for managers to ask:

1. What outcomes must we achieve as a team, this year?
2. Where should we focus our efforts?
3. What should we stop doing or not do?

STUDY REFERENCES

Asmuß, B. (2008). Performance appraisal interviews: Preference organization in assessment sequences. The Journal of Business Communication, 45, 408-429.

Itzchakov, G., et al. (2018). The listener sets the tone: High-quality listening increases attitude clarity and behavior-intention consequences. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 44, 762-778.

Spreitzer, G.M. (1995). Psychological empowerment in the workplace: Dimensions, measurement, and validation. The Academy of Management Journal, 38, 1442-1465.

Zenger, J., & Folkman, J. (2016). What great listeners actually do. Harvard Business Review, July.

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