6 People Management Skills Every Manager Needs To Succeed

4 min read |

Last Updated on 27 April 2023

People run businesses. To foster a loyal team and to keep them motivated is an uphill task. Ask anyone who wears a managerial hat, and they will tell what it takes to build a productive team. It is not easy and takes a conscious effort and good people management skills.

An employee's relationship with its managers and executives decides the fate of the company. You may have skilled employees, but if you do not know how to nurture and empower them, you will lose them sooner or later. They say employees do not leave their companies but their managers. Though the infamous statement is difficult to digest, a report from Gallup backs it with data. According to the report, 70% of an employee's motivation is influenced by his/her manager.

It all boils down to the manager's relationship with its employees. It simply means having good people management skills, that influences the boss-employee relationships. Managers with bad people management skills are tragic to the company. That results in disengaged employees, unhappy customers, and low productivity.

Here in this blog, we talk about the six crucial people management skills that every manager must-have.

1. Active Listening Skills

The art of effective listening is essential to clear communication, and clear communication is necessary for management success. ~James Cash Penney

How you communicate with your employees shapes your relationship with them. Before responding, managers must listen to their employees actively. Yeah, we understand that it is not easy, but like any other skills, active listening can also be developed. Actively listening to team members also means yo respect their time and perspective. You may not agree to every they say, but that does not mean that you have to interrupt them.

How to develop this skill?

Encourage your employees, ask questions, and be considerate.
Try to understand their perspectives before responding.
Actively listen and mind their body language.
Show the verbal and non-verbal signs of interest.

2. Empower Employees

Empowering employees means giving the employees the freedom to decide and take action within the organization. When you empower employees, you built trust by showing your confidence towards them. Managing a company is not a single person job. It is the accumulated knowledge and skills that your employees bring on the table. For sustainability and productive outcomes, employee empowerment is crucial.

How do you do it?

Give employees autonomy over assignments.
Support their ideas and inputs.
Provide the resources they need.
Provide training and development.

3. Emotional Intelligence

Emotional Intelligence is the capability to identify, manage, evaluate, and understand our own emotions and the people around us. And it is one of the most vital people management skills any manager can have. You run a business with people. And it is essential to identify and understand how you feel managing people and what is expected from you. That gives you the ability to understand your employees and their perspectives and needs. In today's workplace culture, how we know ourselves, and each other makes all the difference.
It is believed that every person is not built with the same level of EI, but with practice, it can be developed.

Here is how you do it.

Empathize with your employees, build a connection, and relate to them on a human level.
Stay self-motivated and be mindful of your thoughts and emotions.
Take a pause and introspect the situation before responding.
Practice active listening.

4. Leadership Skills

A manager with good leadership skills knows how to keep its employees engaged and motivated. Employees follow and respect their managers who know how to lead their team. Building good leadership skills is not easy. Every work culture is self-defined and has unique ways to function. To put everyone on the same page and motivate each other to accomplish the same goals and objectives is difficult. Therefore, it requires skills to influence the employees to believe, act, and work with perseverance to attain the greater good."

How to improve leadership skills?

Be passionate and have resilience.
Be a role model and set examples.
Admit when you fall, and don't lose hope and enthusiasm.
Inspire others and remind them of the higher purpose frequently.

5. Be flexible and Supportive

Every employee brings their unique traits on the table and may have unconventional ways of completing their tasks. Some may thrive by being more flexible, and others may perform better under supervision. There is no one size fits all where it comes to your employees' way of doing work. Therefore, understand their sentiments and provide a work environment where they can thrive. The ultimate goal is the company's bottom line. And till your employees take care of that, you need not worry. If a few of your team members want to take care of the family and work from home, be supportive. That way, you would boost not only productivity but also employee loyalty.

What can you do?

See the bigger picture and keep yourself in their shoes.
Show genuine support in terms of crisis.
Have one-on-one communication when needed.

6. Recognize your Employees

Often the top performers are ignored, and they do not get the recognition they deserve. This impacts their morale and eventually, their performance. When employees' esteem needs are compromised, it affects the interpersonal relationship between the employer-employee link. Therefore, following a culture of recognition is vital and cannot be ignored.

How do you do it?

Give a shout-out for your top performers publicly.
Remind them how valuable they are to the company.
Encourage the culture of peer-to-peer recognition.
Celebrate great work.

This article is written by Braja Deepon Roy. He works as a Content Creator and Digital Marketer at Vantage Circle. He actively participates in the growth of corporate culture and keeps himself updated in this space. For any related queries, contact editor@vantagecircle.com