4 Essential Skills For New Managers

Being a manager is never an easy job, but being a new manager is especially difficult. When you think about the competencies required of a good manager, they are constantly changed, updated and reviewed. Whether you have just been promoted to a leadership position or have switched jobs and started managing a new team, this career move comes with certain challenges.

Gaining your team’s respect, confidence and trust will require dedication and skills. Especially if you want to learn to be successful as a business development manager or another type of manager, management classes for new managers will concentrate on a specific set of skills that will help you achieve and succeed.

These 4 skills are essential for new managers to succeed in their role. See if you can recognise these as competencies of a good manager:

Self Awareness

Of all the competencies required to be an effective manager, it’s extremely important for new managers to be aware of their own opinions and behaviours towards their employees. Especially in the beginning, it is helpful to understand how you come over to people. Are you overly excited? Too serious and stern? Are you a talker, or do you tend to keep to yourself? Understanding how others view you can help you adjust your behaviours in new situations and with new people, helping you to create a bond with your team. Being self-aware of how you appear to others in your team is vital in developing those management competencies.

Build Credibility

A new manager is a big uncertainty for the people who will be managed by the person. They don’t know if she is a skilled professional or someone that received the job through simple connections or nepotism. This is why new managers should work diligently to build credibility in the first weeks and months of employment. This is done by truly taking the time to get to know your colleagues, listening to them and working as a team. By doing so, you build up trust and become effective in building that credibility as a manager.

Coaching

One of the fastest ways to build a good rapport with your team members is to show that you are invested in their success as well as your own.

• Brush up on your coaching skills so you can not only impart your own knowledge to your staff but help them grow in their positions.
• Find out what their goals are and create a plan for helping them get there.
• Mentor them to learn new skills to add to their CV.
• Answer their questions and offer them networking opportunities to meet important contacts to help them with career choices.
• Successful business development managers coach their staff to be resilient under pressure and offer them mentoring in all circumstances.

Be Open And Honest

Possibly one of the most important skills new managers need to have is the ability to be open and honest with their team. Admitting to them that you are on a learning curve with the new position and will do your best by them and telling them you will likely make mistakes along the way but will learn from them will only help to humanise you in their eyes. Always be honest with your employees so that they can trust you and create a true team that relies on transparency and openness.

These four skillsets will help you develop your managerial skills and prove that you have the right competencies as a manager to succeed.

Thanks again

Mark Williams

Head of Training and Development

MTD Training