Step Up Your Manager Skills for Higher Performance
Regardless of your tenure, title, or experience as a people manager, we believe that you can always improve your manager skills for higher performance. Why? Because helping people to perform at their peak in a way that makes sense is a never-ending journey.
Top Manager Skills for Higher Performance – The 6 C’s
Based upon decades of data from people manager assessment center combined with decades of action learning leadership development and new manager training programs, we narrowed down the list of skills needed to manage well to the following 6 most critical skills for effective leadership.
- Clarity
For teams to be successful, everyone needs a basic understanding of why your team was formed, how you’ll accomplish your objectives as a team, and what success looks like.Our organizational alignment research found that strategic clarity accounts for 31% of the difference between high and low performing teams. High performing leaders co-create team charters with their direct reports and ensure that each team member has a clear line of sight to how they contribute to the overall success of the team.
Do your teams know what matters most?
- Communication
Great managers are great communicators. They know how to persuade and inspire their teams to perform at their peak. They recognize that there are different communication styles and are able to flex to a style that more directly reaches their team members as individuals.But, perhaps as important, they know how to listen. The best managers solicit honest input from their team members, listen carefully for ideas and concerns, and benefit from the best thinking the diverse team has to offer.
Can your managers communicate effectively?
- Collaboration
Yes, teams are made up of individuals, but it is the manager’s job to bring the individuals together with a common goal and a respect for each team member’s contributions. The best leaders foster team collaboration while also developing collaborative partnerships across functions.When we assess organizational culture, the majority of leaders tell us that collaboration is a key factor in organizational success.
Are your leaders creating a culture of collaboration?
- Change Management
Change management consulting experts know that change can often seem threatening and be met with resistance. The best leaders know how to manage change so that their team can accept its necessity, its urgency, and its value to them and to the organization.Managing change well requires actively involving the team early, dealing empathetically with their concerns, ultimately gaining their buy-in, and keeping them well informed throughout the process.
Can your managers lead change?
- Calling the Right Shots
Assembling the right team and creating the right operating rhythm requires making sound decisions. Without clear decision making guidelines, criteria, and processes, the team’s performance will suffer. When leaders apply thoughtful decision making, it allows their teams to cut through complexity and workplace politics to move work forward.Are your leaders making the right decisions fast enough?
- Continuous and Agile Learning
The best leaders at all levels understand, humbly, that they don’t know it all. They recognize that their leadership skills will be tested by unpredictable challenges in the marketplace. The best they can do to prepare is to hone their learning agility by keeping open to new knowledge, new behaviors, and new ways of thinking.Do your people leaders quickly and easily adapt to new circumstances?
The Bottom Line
If you aspire to be the best manager you can be and lead your team to ever high performance, focus on the 6 Cs of better leadership: clarity, communication, collaboration, change, calling the right shots, and continuous learning.
To learn more about the top manager skills for higher performance, download 7 Immediate Management Actions to Create Alignment with Goals