Whether your team is made up of 2 people or 200, there are some universal management skills that every manager needs in their management toolkit. Here are what we believe are the top five management skills that every manager needs to master, at every stage of their career.

1. What’s my motivation?

Your ability to determine exactly what motivates your team members will enable you to manage them in a way that gets the best possible performance from each individual. While it’s tempting for new managers to expect team members to simply do as they’re told, being able to inspire individuals to achieve their potential will achieve much greater results. Recognising your team members’ achievements and regularly encouraging them with praise and feedback is a key management skill that every manager should employ.

2. Room to grow

You’ll get your best results as a manager when you’re allowing all of your team members to achieve their potential. People development is a crucial management skill as it allows you to increase the value you receive from each team member in terms of productivity and performance. By offering your team members opportunities to learn new skills while consistently coaching and mentoring them at appropriate times, you’ll find them reciprocating these efforts by performing above and beyond their potential.

3. Choose wisely

As the person in charge, it’s up to you to make decisions on behalf of your team and your organisation. Decision making is a vital management skill as you’ll be frequently called upon to weigh up a variety of options, to make decisions and take the most appropriate action. Using your judgement on which course of action to take, at any particular time, will ultimately determine your own success and will also be one of the greatest contributors to your overall credibility as a manager.

4. Getting the message

Unfortunately, none of the other management skills in this list will be possible if you don’t develop your communication skills. In order to explain your decisions while also mentoring and motivating your team members, it’s essential to have both good written and verbal communication skills. Fortunately, even if you’re not a natural writer or talker, you can learn the skills you need for effective management communication through short courses and training. Communication skills, once you’ve learned them, will allow you to build better relationships with your team members and your senior leaders.

5. Stick to the plan

For your team members to be effective in their role, it’s essential they have a clear idea of which direction you’re steering them in. Objective setting is a relatively simple management skill to master but it’s also one that many managers neglect to actually use as regularly as they should. Taking the time to discuss, agree and document objectives with your team members will give them the clarity and confidence they need to work autonomously and apply their initiative in achieving team goals.

The great part of these management skills is that you’ll always have room to improve them at every stage of your management career. While there are many other management skills that will also require attention and development, by consistently taking the time to hone these particular skills, you’ll be setting yourself up for a very successful management career.

For more than 75 years, we’ve been helping Australian professionals to become better managers and outstanding leaders. With over 20 dedicated short courses to choose from, we’ve got you covered on the knowledge you need now to get ahead in your leadership and management career. Our leadership and management qualifications have been honed over decades in order to provide Australian managers and leaders with the most in-depth and practical study programs in Australia.