New Manager Skills

As a new manager stepping up into the role for the first time is a real challenge. I look back at my move and realise the skills that made me good in my role as an IC were not going to be help me in my role as a new manager.

At the time I didn’t know what skills I needed or how to really develop them. It took me a while to realise there are certain skills that will help you much more going forward. There are a lot of skills for managers and what needs to be learnt.

Over the next few weeks I will be delving more into different skills and how to develop these further. As well as guidance on how to continue learning so that you can help your time move the needle on development and growth.

With any development or learning the only way to really improve this is:

1. Knowing you aren’t the best at everything

2. Putting in the effort to learn

Over the coming weeks I just ask that you really hone in and work on these skills. And hopefully by the end of this you will be amazed at the transformation.

Communication Skills

As a new manager you will be spending more time communicating with your team on various things around:

• Team mission

• Goals

• Feedback

• Projects

• Performance

• Team dynamics

How well you communicate will be the underlying aspect on how well the team performs and delivers. If you don’t communicate with the team at all they will feel lost and alone, resulting in poor team morale with high chances of people leaving the team.

Tips for improving communication skills

You may well think that communication is something that can’t be improved on, there are certain people that have the ‘communication’ gift. Those people are great at public speaking. This is not the same as communication.

When leading a team communication is much focussed on how you communicate and whether this is clear for those listening. Clarity is king.

Here are some tips for developing communication skills more broadly:

1. Active Listening: One area a lot of managers could really find very powerful. As they say we have two ears and one mouth. When connecting with your team 1:1 make sure you spend time actively listening to what they saying. Engage at the right time and ask follow up questions. Doing this will help you to gain more insights and build trust with your team. Worth reading this article for more insights.

2. Clarity and Conciseness: Too often we can complicate the simple things and can be very unclear with our points. When speaking with the team use simple and clear language. Get feedback on what you are going to say from someone else, is it clear? If not edit this again. Avoid all jargon words and filler words.

3. Regular Feedback: This covers both sides, give feedback but also ask for feedback on your communication, what’s missing and did things land well with the team. Getting this feedback will help you to understand what you need to do to improve at the next steps and going forward. Also practicing giving feedback to the team will also help you with ensuring your communication approach is clear and concise.

4. Open Door Policy: Have a place where you are available to hear ideas and thoughts. This will help you to have a healthy dialogue with the team and help you structuring your communication approach further.

5. Non-Verbal Communication: They say body language plays up to 70% of the basis of a conversation and how we communicate the most. This is an area that a lot of people don’t do that well. When communicating pay attention to others body language, what position are they in? Are their arms folded? Understanding this will help you to change the style or ensure that you are engaging with the team in the right way.

These are some simple and practical things that you can work on not just with your team but also family friends. Great communication skills aren’t just for the workplace but really important in our daily lives. Our family whilst being our harshest critic can also be our greatest cheerleaders and provide the best space to practice these skills.

Other resources

If you want to take this to the next level then you will need to shift more into courses and other tools. Here are a list of some of the most helpful ones:

• Toast Masters: This is a great space to really help you with communication and developing confidence in your approach too. Mostly aimed at junior employees but can be really helpful regardless of level.

• Look out for LinkedIn learning or other learning platforms for communication topics

• Read books like “Crucial Conversations” or “How to win friends and influence people”.

• Get feedback from peers, team, manager and friends. Getting the full view will help you apply what is most relevant and ignore the not so useful things.

• Look at attending events, webinars or even podcasts where you get to talk and speak on matters that work for you / connect with people to share your experience

• Become a mentor this will help you with communication skills and coaching others too.

• Become and interviewer for your company, this is a great way to develop these skills really well. Check out this interviewer training course.

Hopefully you have found these tips and guidance useful.

Have fun practicing them and would love to know how you get on with communication skills.

Book recommendation

How to win friends and influence people by Daniel Carnegie. This book has been around for years and is still one of the leading books on influencing but also communicating with others. A must have on the book shelf for all good managers.

PS Before you go if you enjoyed this content and really want to develop further check out some of my additional free content:

• First 90 days as a new manager 

• Hire like a pro notion resource