Level up your leadership skills with these 7 tips
The perfect manager does not exist. Managing employees well means you, as a leader, need to have a considerable number of (personal) skills. The COVID-19 crisis and the measures that came with it didn’t make this task any easier. Rather, the post-COVID era is seeing traditional management skills increasingly being questioned.
Manager nightmares
Good managers have a significant impact on employees’ mental health. Unfortunately, the same is also true of lesser managers. This was made abundantly clear by a survey of more than 1700 Belgian employees conducted by StepStone in November 2021. Their answers indicate that managers at Belgian companies need to raise their game.
1 out of 3 employees have nightmares about their manager. And as many as 74% of respondents said they wanted a different manager. Comparing this survey to a similar one conducted in 2019 reveals a doubling, to 31%, in the number of people who sought professional help for mental health issues.
No improvement
The remaining respondents seem also not to have made any improvement in the intervening three years. In the 2019 survey, 1 employee in 4 confirmed having nightmares about their manager regularly and 1 in 5 avoided contact outside the workplace. The three most unacceptable forms of managerial behaviour were: disrespectful behaviour (49%), taking credit for someone else’s work (44%) and favouritism (38%). It was also notable that employees gave their managers an average score of 5.9 out of 10, while managers gave themselves 7.5 out of 10.
Managers’ own stress
In its latest survey, StepStone polled the opinions of around 250 managers. How do they rate their job in these turbulent times?
Nearly six out of ten managers experience their job as stressful. As a result, 1 in 5 managers had sought professional help to improve their mental health. The same number of managers admitted to not feeling sufficiently prepared to conduct recruitment interviews. And 23% of respondents said they regularly had nightmares about employees.
Get to work on good leadership!
These sobering figures should not stand in the way of reversing the trend. On the contrary, with hybrid working as the new normal, investment must continue in equipping modern managers with must-have skills. We’ve compiled a list of 7 crucial skills:
- Be a coach
A manager who acts only when employees make mistakes and who dictates how tasks should be done is doomed to fail. A talented manager coaches on the job—not just at the mandatory annual performance review—and ensures that employees get sufficient attention, including through informal interactions. An engaged coach leads to engaged employees.
- Create a safe working environment
A working environment where there is mutual respect and trust brings out the best in employees. A safe working environment means that colleagues are not afraid to make mistakes, because errors can also provide interesting insights. As a coach, you encourage your employees to work together as a team and seek consensus when there are differences of opinion.
- Trust and delegate
Good managers surround themselves with employees who literally know better. As a leader, it is your job to steer that expertise in the right direction so that the entire team achieves better results. Colleagues able to apply their know-how independently will score highly in terms of productivity, engagement and motivation. - Communicate clearly and listen actively
Many managers do not listen actively to staff members or give insufficient or incorrect feedback. What kind of outcome can this lead to? Colleagues who lack confidence and who are adrift in the company.
Dealing with complaints or problems quickly and purposefully is crucial to maintaining solid relationships between managers and employees. This includes constructive criticism, too, because this approach promotes personal growth.
- Be honest and sincere
The numbers above show that employees are allergic to managers who take credit for the work done by others or who show favouritism. However, a good manager side-lines their self-interest in favour of their mission to create an inspiring working environment and help employees grow beyond their limitations. So: instead of manipulative games, team spirit!
- Dare to make tough choices
Leading a team or a department is not always a walk in the park. Managing can be quite stressful; it sometimes demands decisive action in difficult and complex situations. This means experimenting from time to time and daring to make and acknowledge mistakes. After all, playing it safe does not help the department or the company in the long run.
- Invest in lifelong learning
Due to the rapidly evolving labour market—including new technological developments in the workplace — lifelong learning has become essential. Employees are asking that their professional knowledge be updated through upskilling and reskilling. As a manager, you help guide these ambitions in the right direction, using suitable tools and training courses.
