What skills do first-time managers most need? It’s a question as old as the field of management itself.
Being an effective manager isn’t easy. The reality is that many new managers are simply “thrown to the wolves” with neither the right skill set nor the temperament to succeed in the role.
This is why I was interested when I recently came across a new survey (conducted in Europe, Asia, and Latin America, thus giving it a useful global perspective) that examined the above question.
The survey also revealed discrepancies between what first-time managers felt they needed and what other experienced individuals in organisations believed new managers needed.
Skill Gaps
New managers are often promoted into the role with little or no formal training. Given this challenging start, it’s hardly surprising that they would have substantive skill gaps needing improvement.
Let’s take a look at the key survey data; this study was conducted by The Cegos Group, a French learning and development firm.
In the survey, the top “competencies” that first-time managers felt they needed to develop to achieve “better performance” also showed significant differences between the managers’ perceptions of their own abilities and how they were perceived by HR employees charged with management development.
For example, 30 percent of new managers felt they needed improvement in “team leadership and motivation.” Among the HR respondents, 37 percent felt the new managers needed improvement in this area.
A second important skill new managers wanted was “fast and strategic decision-making,” with 25 percent prioritizing it, compared to 30 percent in the HR group who felt that first-time managers could benefit from it.
The third-highest competency new managers wanted to improve was “clear and effective communication with the team,” which 24 percent of the first-time managers felt they needed. Interestingly, the gap between new managers and HR was largest here, as 38 percent of the HR group felt new managers needed to build communication skills.
A fourth attribute demonstrating the new manager versus HR gap was “conflict management and mediation,” with 22 percent of new managers seeking improvement here, while 27 percent on the HR side felt it was needed.
All of these competencies—motivating, communicating, making decisions, and resolving conflicts—are so-called “soft skills” crucial to successful everyday management.
The Most Foundational Skill
The reality, as most people who’ve been around management a while know, is that soft skills can be hard to find.
Why? Simply put, many managers are chosen for the wrong reasons.
Specifically, employees are frequently promoted into managerial roles because they’re technical experts who are high-performing individuals and know their subject matter well. That’s all good. However, it doesn’t mean they also have the right combination of interpersonal skills to be effective leaders of other humans.
In analyzing the survey data described above, I wasn’t at all surprised that the widest gap between the perceptions of HR and new management involved “clear and effective communication with the team.” To me, communication was always the most foundational of numerous core management skills.
If, for example, a new manager was a good natural communicator, he or she had the potential to be a solid team leader, an effective motivator, and a capable conflict-resolver.
If, however, a new manager was a weak or reluctant communicator, he or she was likely to always be a bit of a fish swimming upstream (regardless of technical abilities), continually fighting interpersonal headwinds in the role.
In all my decades in business, I never felt I met a really good manager who wasn’t also a good communicator.
