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Alexandra Powell
Effective leadership is one of the most important predictors of an engaged, aligned and productive workforce. This blog post explores the core skills needed to be a great people manager.
If there’s one thing we all know for sure, it’s that people managers have the single biggest impact on team engagement. I’ve seen time and time again how variations in management capabilities can create a gulf in the culture and performance of different teams within the same organisation.
Cutting straight to the chase, people managers can make or break a team… regardless of the initiatives, benefits or incentives that are offered at company level. The positive impact of the great things happening at an organisational level whittles down to almost nothing when a team has a bad manager at its helm.
But transitioning from an individual contributor to a people manager is a big change that requires a totally different skillset, with new challenges and new responsibilities. Throughout this blog post, I explore what it takes to become an effective people manager who delivers results for their team and their organisation.
If you’re a new leader or if you’re looking to improve your skills, you’ve come to the right place.
How can people management impact employee engagement?
Our Economic Value Study found employee engagement to be the most pressing priority influencing organisations’ approaches to people strategy. And for very good reason. At Reward Gateway | Edenred, we've seen countless examples of the positive correlation between effective people leadership and employee engagement.
Good managers are the lynchpin of an organisation. Their impact on the everyday experience of the people in their team is significant, but our research found that only 59% of UK employees would recommend their line manager. That’s a worrying statistic.
So, what makes a ‘good’ or ‘bad’ manager? How do you know if you’re doing the right thing? Here are a few telltale indicators of effective versus poor people management:
Effective vs poor people management
Indicators of effective people management
✅ Team members communicate regularly and openly, and are not afraid to speak up and give feedback
✅ Team members understand the organisation's mission and strategy, know the part they play in it, and have trust in leadership
✅ Team members raise any challenges or barriers to success promptly, and feel empowered to perform at their best
Indicators of poor people management
❌ There is a sense of distrust within the team, and team members do not feel comfortable sharing feedback or asking for help
❌ Team members feel unappreciated, and have begun to disengage from their work and the organisation
❌ Performance and productivity levels are lower than expected, without team members having shared any issues or barriers to success with the manager
How to improve your people management and leadership skills
So, let’s get down to business. What are the people management skills needed to be an effective leader?
In my experience, there are ten skills that come up time and time again as requirements for effective people management and team leadership:
- Communication
- Emotional intelligence
- Active listening
- Empathy
- Coaching
- Accountability
- Problem solving
- Motivation
- Adaptability
- Time management
I've distilled this list down into four actionable ways that you can demonstrate great people management that will empowers your team to thrive:
1. Prioritise appreciation
Prioritising appreciation is closely tied to many of the common management skills I mentioned above, including emotional intelligence, motivation and empathy.
When it comes to employee appreciation, the data speaks for itself. Our Appreciation Index revealed that 88% of employees in the UK say they work harder when they feel appreciated for the work they do. A feeling of appreciation leads to increased engagement (91%), and, in turn, greater job satisfaction (92%).
Importantly, the study also uncovered that ‘managerial recognition’ is the most important driver of appreciation. Despite this, 37% of people admit they don’t feel appreciated by their manager.
To be a great people leader, you need to make appreciation a priority. It’s important to build an understanding of the total needs of your team members, and cultivate a sense of gratitude for
who they are as well as what they do. In fact, 83% of employees in the UK say they feel more motivated and productive when they have a manager who genuinely cares about them as a person.
So, try to look further than outputs and actions (which would fall under recognition), and take a more holistic and inclusive angle of appreciating your team members as whole people…not just resources.
2. Hold yourself accountable
Accountability is an incredibly important skill for people managers, but what does it mean in practice?
The reality is that you will be judged on the success of your team, so becoming an effective leader means shifting your mindset to continually think about how you can empower and enable the people in your team to succeed. This means holding yourself accountable for time and workload management, for creating a working environment where people feel comfortable to speak up, for focusing your team around a common mission, for aligning them to the most important priorities. The list goes on. But I encourage you to focus in on two simple questions:
- How can I enable my team to work at their best?
- How do I make best use of my team’s time?
Accountability is about more than just reporting, performance and metrics. It’s about taking ownership over the engagement and success of your team. Regularly checking in with yourself and referring back to these two questions will help keep you on track.
3. Commit to two-way communication
Effective two-way communication incorporates several of the key management skills we talked about earlier, including active listening and coaching.
It’s important to remember that it is as much about listening as it is about speaking, and sharing company information with the team. Getting the balance right is important – great leaders can be relied upon to convey important organisational updates and information to their teams, but also regularly invite feedback and amplify the voices of their direct reports. They localise company-wide messaging for their teams, while also escalating feedback and ideas.
Creating a positive team culture where employees feel psychologically safe always starts with this kind of open and honest communication. You can make sure your team members feel comfortable speaking up by actively encouraging and rewarding feedback, and making sure you always follow through with the commitments you make.
4. Embrace change
Last but certainly not least is to embrace change. This links to both ‘adaptability’, ‘emotional intelligence’ and ‘empathy’ from the core management skills list.
Change is a constant in any successful organisation, and we have to adapt and innovate to succeed. But change can also be difficult for people to handle – we are all programmed to be cautious of change to protect ourselves. Great people managers embrace organisational change, while acknowledging the emotional toll it can place on their team members. They proactively support their teams through periods of change, leading in a way that helps employees to adjust and acclimatise as easily as possible.
Great leaders do not shy away from difficult conversations. Embracing change means always staying connected to the bigger picture, even when talking about something challenging such as an org restructure or a ‘return to office’ mandate. Whatever the programme of change, it’s important to highlight its connection to the overarching strategy and long term goals while being empathetic and supportive.
Your mindset will impact your behaviours and actions, so remember to always embrace innovation and reward adaptability.
So there we have it – four actionable things that you can do to significantly improve your people leadership.
Is people management a hard skill? Well, it might take some time and effort to hone your craft, but it doesn’t have to be hard if you follow the advice in this blog post.
If you’re looking for even more ways to level-up engagement in your team, speak to one of our experts to find out about our total employee experience platform.
