How to supercharge the management skills of your leaders

A summary of the blog

• Give leaders more time and space to reflect on what they need to create ownership and lead to more informed decisions.
• Encourage leaders to be their true selves and speak openly about their feelings to create a sense of engagement and authenticity.
• Be specific with your training to meet current needs across hybrid working, wellbeing and employee engagement.
• Check for barriers between management and employees by auditing leadership behaviours and coaching line managers.
• Offer access to critical leadership-focused training in a non-judgmental environment to help leaders develop emotional management skills.

There’s a management evolution in place, with colleagues looking much more closely at what they want from their working life.

This means managers and leaders need to incorporate hugely varied needs across changing cultures and ways of working.

They’ll likely need support to update their management skills and approaches.

With this in mind, we’ve included a list of five things to build into your learning and development plans for your managers. 

How to improve the management skills of your leaders

1. Let them lead the way

Start by giving your leaders time to reflect on what they need. If they know and understand what their skills are, and where they want to build more expertise, they’ll have a greater sense of ownership. So, allow ongoing space for reflection and articulation.

Remember, any investment in self-improvement for your managers will inevitably lead to business improvement.

2. Nurture authenticity and transparency

Your colleagues need to see the human side of leadership too. Being vulnerable, human, and owning where we need work is becoming increasingly normal, especially for millennials, although this is not limited to that demographic.

So, let your managers be human. Even just telling their teams what they are trying to learn about will foster encouragement and engagement.

3. Provide need-specific training

As we complete our transition to the new normal, any learning and development programmes should reflect current needs, such as managing the fresh challenges of hybrid working, wellbeing, and employee engagement around your teams.

New areas can be new opportunities for growth – be specific with your training to get the most out of it.

4. Check for barriers

All the management skills and coaching in the world won’t make a difference if there’s a disconnect between your managers and the people they lead.

Identify and remove any thought patterns, actions, or habits within the organisation that might negatively affect or weaken the relationships between leaders and their teams, so that trust and engagement can produce the best work. If that sounds daunting, talk to us. We’re already supporting brands by auditing their leadership behaviours and coaching line managers.

5. Think about social and emotional skills

There’s been a dramatic rise in the need for new abilities in the workplace, with critical leadership skills, such as empathy, going down well with a changing workforce.

Some leaders might feel reluctant about asking for training in these areas, so make it as easy as possible for them to think about, articulate, and access relevant training if needed in a safe, non-judgmental way.

Let’s improve our management skills together

The demands of leadership are constantly evolving. But you don’t have to tackle the challenges alone.

At McCann Synergy, we’re already supporting brands to audit leadership behaviours, coach line managers and create tools to support them. To find out more, get in touch with Blair Meyler – blair.meyler@mccannsynergy.com.