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Managerial skills help set a direction, clarify expectations, and drive a team forward. They also help with decision-making, managing tensions, and maintaining team momentum when priorities change.
A reorganization, a heavy workload, or a simmering conflict quickly reveal a manager’s strengths and weaknesses. In these situations, technical expertise alone is no longer enough. The manager must explain a decision, listen to feedback, weigh priorities, and create the conditions for cooperation.
Managerial skills, therefore, are not simply a list of abstract qualities. They are evident in everyday decisions, conversations, and behaviors. Here are the five skills you need to develop to manage with greater clarity, consistency, and impact.
A managerial skill is the ability to adopt the behaviors, methods, and decisions necessary to help a team move forward and achieve a collective goal.
It is based on three complementary dimensions: understanding a situation, choosing an appropriate response, and acting consistently. Simply knowing that feedback is useful is not enough. You must also know how to provide specific feedback, choose the right moment, and initiate a conversation that enables the employee to grow.
A managerial skill is therefore demonstrated through observable behaviors. It is developed through practice, particularly during:
Managerial leadership involves providing clear direction, making the necessary decisions, and creating the conditions for engagement. It is not based solely on hierarchical authority. It is built on consistency between a manager’s words, decisions, and behavior.
A team makes progress more easily when it understands the purpose of its work. Simply setting a goal is therefore not always enough. The manager must also explain why that goal matters, what it contributes to, and how each person can help achieve it.
Let’s take the example of a team that needs to improve customer satisfaction. The directive “we need to respond better to customers” is still too vague. The manager can specify the pain points to address, the expected level of service, and the decisions the team can make without additional approval. The goal then becomes more concrete and easier to translate into action.
This clarity also helps the team make decisions when multiple requests come in at the same time. A vision isn’t just about rallying people. It’s also about deciding what needs to be done, what can wait, and what isn’t a priority at the moment.
To strengthen this skill, a manager can:
Leadership also shines through when information is incomplete. A manager doesn’t always have all the answers, but must avoid leaving the team in limbo. A decision can be provisional, as long as its scope is clear. The manager can specify what has been decided, what remains open, and the date on which the situation will be reassessed.
This method avoids two common pitfalls: making a decision too quickly without consulting the people involved, or delaying the decision to the point of stalling the team. The resource "Deciding in the Face of Uncertainty" can help managers navigate this type of situation.
Finally, leadership depends on consistency between words and actions. A manager who asks for feedback but refuses to accept any criticism quickly erodes trust. Conversely, a manager who acknowledges his or her mistakes gives concrete expression to the culture he or she wishes to foster.
To make a practice credible, start by demonstrating it yourself. Ask for feedback after a meeting, listen to the response without immediately defending yourself, and explain what you’ll change. A managerial practice becomes credible when the manager implements it himself.
Managerial communication helps turn a decision or priority into a clear course of action. It reduces misunderstandings, facilitates cooperation, and helps the team know what to do as the situation changes.
A useful managerial message generally answers three questions:
An instruction such as “move quickly on this issue” leaves too much room for interpretation. A more specific statement indicates the expected outcome, the priority level, and the next deadline.
This clarity does not mean that the manager must control everything. It provides everyone with a sufficient framework to act with greater autonomy. When expectations are explicit, employees can ask better questions and take initiative more easily.
Communication also plays a central role in feedback. Useful feedback describes a specific behavior, explains its effects, and opens a discussion about next steps. Saying “Your presentation lacked impact” provides little information. Instead, the manager can explain what happened, the observed effect, and what could be adjusted for the next presentation.
Useful feedback helps employees understand what they can replicate, modify, or try out. Managers should therefore avoid making general judgments and instead rely on observable facts.
Timing is also important. Feedback given several weeks after the fact loses some of its effectiveness. Conversely, a comment made too quickly, in the heat of the moment, can shut down the conversation. Managers should prepare their message and make sure their intent is clear.
Communication must ultimately be tailored to the situation. A written message may be sufficient to convey simple information. A face-to-face conversation is often preferable for addressing tension, explaining a sensitive decision, or supporting a colleague who is struggling.
This focus on communication channels becomes particularly important in hybrid teams. Decisions, responsibilities, and deadlines must remain accessible after meetings. Shared documents and asynchronous messages ensure that the team does not have to rely on a single person being available at the right time.
To choose the right format, ask yourself what effect the message should have:
The more sensitive or complex the topic, the more the discussion should allow room for questions and adjustments. The Feedback Training and the resource dedicated to asynchronous communication can complement this practice.
Emotional intelligence helps managers recognize what is going on inside themselves, understand others' reactions, and choose a constructive response. It enhances the quality of conversations, builds trust, and helps manage tension.
It doesn't mean hiding your emotions. Rather, it helps prevent them from taking control of the situation on their own.
Stress, irritation, or frustration can quickly affect the tone of a conversation. A manager who responds impulsively can escalate a conflict or shut down dialogue. Taking a step back doesn’t mean avoiding the issue. It means delaying your reaction so you can understand what really needs to be addressed.
Before a difficult conversation, a manager can start by clarifying their objective. Do they want to understand a situation, address a behavior, make a decision, or restore a working relationship? Asking this question helps them avoid confusing their current emotions with the outcome they’re seeking.
Emotional intelligence also involves picking up on subtle cues. Unusual silence, a decline in participation, or repeated interruptions can signal tension. While these behaviors do not prove the cause of the problem, they warrant attention.
In a hybrid team, two employees may gradually stop reaching out to one another. The manager can start by observing their interactions and then gathering their perspectives separately. The manager can then bring the individuals involved together if the situation warrants it.
This approach helps avoid provoking a confrontation without first understanding the problem. It also allows the manager to stick to the facts and not jump to conclusions about the intent behind a behavior.
Trust is built through consistency. It depends on how a manager follows through on commitments, explains decisions, and handles disagreements. It also rests on recognition, provided that such recognition is based on a specific contribution.
Saying “You did a good job” is still rather vague. Saying “You reframed the disagreement and enabled the group to reach a decision” describes observable behavior. The employee understands what was helpful and can replicate that approach in other situations.
Interpersonal skills are developed through everyday interactions. A one-on-one meeting, a team meeting, or a performance review all provide opportunities for growth.
The "Emotion and Conflict Management" training course can complement this work with methods tailored to managerial situations.
Managing performance involves translating the organization’s priorities into clear objectives, tracking progress, and prioritizing efforts. Managers must maintain high standards while ensuring the team’s ability to sustain its performance over the long term.
A useful objective specifies the expected outcome, the scope of responsibility, and the key metrics for tracking progress. A team may know that it needs to improve a process but may not know which step to tackle first. The manager must then clarify the priority and help each team member understand their role.
Goals must also remain open to revision when conditions change. Reevaluating a priority does not mean abandoning the requirement. It allows us to focus our collective energy on what truly contributes to the expected outcome.
Performance also depends on making trade-offs. A team that treats every request as a priority ends up spreading itself too thin. The manager must make these choices clear and explain what takes precedence over everything else.
Several questions can help structure a discussion:
These questions make it possible to discuss priorities without reducing performance to a mere list of tasks. They also help the team understand what they need to let go of in order to move forward.
Delegation is another aspect of leadership. Delegating involves entrusting responsibility along with a degree of autonomy, expected outcomes, and follow-up points. Vague delegation creates dependency. The employee returns to seek approval at every step, while the manager retains decision-making authority.
Before delegating, be sure to specify:
Successful delegation provides a framework without taking back the responsibility that has been entrusted. The manager remains available, but avoids turning every follow-up into constant monitoring.
The Action Plan and OKR Training, the Prioritization , and the Delegation and Performance training can help you address these various aspects.
Fostering collaboration involves facilitating communication, highlighting interdependencies, and enabling everyone to contribute. The manager does not have all the answers. Instead, the manager creates the conditions for shared responsibility and helps the team solve problems together.
A productive meeting is not just about sharing information. It should enable participants to make decisions, solve problems, or coordinate actions. The manager can begin by reiterating the purpose of the meeting, clarifying the expected decision, and assigning the necessary roles.
He must then ensure that discussions are not dominated by the same voices. Some people speak up easily, while others need a more explicit framework to contribute.
A question posed to everyone, some preparation time, or a shared document can improve the quality of the discussion. These practices give more opportunity to people who think before speaking or who don’t speak up as spontaneously.
Collaboration also takes place between teams. Challenges often arise when everyone focuses on optimizing their own area of responsibility without considering the impact on others. Priorities become less clear, decision-making slows down, and responsibilities overlap.
The manager can facilitate coordination across departments, clarify roles, and share relevant information. The manager can also highlight the dependencies between projects so that each team understands what depends on its work.
Rituals contribute to this dynamic when they address a real need. A team meeting can help coordinate priorities. A one-on-one meeting can help address a challenge. A retrospective can help us understand what facilitated or hindered a project.
Consistency is more important than holding more meetings. Try out a routine for a few weeks, see how it works, and adjust it with the team. If no one knows why the meeting exists, its format probably needs to change.
To develop this capability, the resource dedicated to collaborative leadership can provide complementary methods.
Managerial skills improve when managers can learn, practice, and receive feedback on their performance. Training is most effective when it extends into real-world work situations and peer-to-peer interactions.
Start by identifying a recurring situation: a task that’s stalled, a meeting that drags on, feedback you keep putting off, or a decision you’re having trouble making. Then choose a practice to try in that specific situation.
You can prepare a response, use it in a real conversation, and take a few minutes to analyze the outcome. What worked? What caused confusion? What question could have helped take the conversation further?
To organize this progression, use the following:
Group coaching helps participants compare experiences with their peers. Individual coaching can be useful when starting a new position, during a reorganization, or during a stressful period. In both cases, the goal remains the same: to turn an intention into observable behavior.
The training and support services offered by NUMA can be tailored to the specific needs of managers and organizations.
The five managerial skills are complementary. Leadership provides direction. Communication makes expectations clear. Emotional intelligence improves the quality of interactions. Performance management helps with decision-making and accountability. Collaboration enables the team to work better together.
You can start with just one situation. Choose a conversation, a meeting, or a decision that’s causing problems. Identify the skill involved, try out a new approach, and see what changes.
Developing your managerial skills requires consistency, practice, and concrete feedback. Progress becomes evident when the methods you’ve learned are incorporated into your day-to-day decisions and conversations. To structure this progress, check out NUMA’s training and coaching programs.
Managerial skills help set a direction, clarify expectations, and drive a team forward. They also help with decision-making, managing tensions, and maintaining team momentum when priorities change.
A reorganization, a heavy workload, or a simmering conflict quickly reveal a manager’s strengths and weaknesses. In these situations, technical expertise alone is no longer enough. The manager must explain a decision, listen to feedback, weigh priorities, and create the conditions for cooperation.
Managerial skills, therefore, are not simply a list of abstract qualities. They are evident in everyday decisions, conversations, and behaviors. Here are the five skills you need to develop to manage with greater clarity, consistency, and impact.
A managerial skill is the ability to adopt the behaviors, methods, and decisions necessary to help a team move forward and achieve a collective goal.
It is based on three complementary dimensions: understanding a situation, choosing an appropriate response, and acting consistently. Simply knowing that feedback is useful is not enough. You must also know how to provide specific feedback, choose the right moment, and initiate a conversation that enables the employee to grow.
A managerial skill is therefore demonstrated through observable behaviors. It is developed through practice, particularly during:
Managerial leadership involves providing clear direction, making the necessary decisions, and creating the conditions for engagement. It is not based solely on hierarchical authority. It is built on consistency between a manager’s words, decisions, and behavior.
A team makes progress more easily when it understands the purpose of its work. Simply setting a goal is therefore not always enough. The manager must also explain why that goal matters, what it contributes to, and how each person can help achieve it.
Let’s take the example of a team that needs to improve customer satisfaction. The directive “we need to respond better to customers” is still too vague. The manager can specify the pain points to address, the expected level of service, and the decisions the team can make without additional approval. The goal then becomes more concrete and easier to translate into action.
This clarity also helps the team make decisions when multiple requests come in at the same time. A vision isn’t just about rallying people. It’s also about deciding what needs to be done, what can wait, and what isn’t a priority at the moment.
To strengthen this skill, a manager can:
Leadership also shines through when information is incomplete. A manager doesn’t always have all the answers, but must avoid leaving the team in limbo. A decision can be provisional, as long as its scope is clear. The manager can specify what has been decided, what remains open, and the date on which the situation will be reassessed.
This method avoids two common pitfalls: making a decision too quickly without consulting the people involved, or delaying the decision to the point of stalling the team. The resource "Deciding in the Face of Uncertainty" can help managers navigate this type of situation.
Finally, leadership depends on consistency between words and actions. A manager who asks for feedback but refuses to accept any criticism quickly erodes trust. Conversely, a manager who acknowledges his or her mistakes gives concrete expression to the culture he or she wishes to foster.
To make a practice credible, start by demonstrating it yourself. Ask for feedback after a meeting, listen to the response without immediately defending yourself, and explain what you’ll change. A managerial practice becomes credible when the manager implements it himself.
Managerial communication helps turn a decision or priority into a clear course of action. It reduces misunderstandings, facilitates cooperation, and helps the team know what to do as the situation changes.
A useful managerial message generally answers three questions:
An instruction such as “move quickly on this issue” leaves too much room for interpretation. A more specific statement indicates the expected outcome, the priority level, and the next deadline.
This clarity does not mean that the manager must control everything. It provides everyone with a sufficient framework to act with greater autonomy. When expectations are explicit, employees can ask better questions and take initiative more easily.
Communication also plays a central role in feedback. Useful feedback describes a specific behavior, explains its effects, and opens a discussion about next steps. Saying “Your presentation lacked impact” provides little information. Instead, the manager can explain what happened, the observed effect, and what could be adjusted for the next presentation.
Useful feedback helps employees understand what they can replicate, modify, or try out. Managers should therefore avoid making general judgments and instead rely on observable facts.
Timing is also important. Feedback given several weeks after the fact loses some of its effectiveness. Conversely, a comment made too quickly, in the heat of the moment, can shut down the conversation. Managers should prepare their message and make sure their intent is clear.
Communication must ultimately be tailored to the situation. A written message may be sufficient to convey simple information. A face-to-face conversation is often preferable for addressing tension, explaining a sensitive decision, or supporting a colleague who is struggling.
This focus on communication channels becomes particularly important in hybrid teams. Decisions, responsibilities, and deadlines must remain accessible after meetings. Shared documents and asynchronous messages ensure that the team does not have to rely on a single person being available at the right time.
To choose the right format, ask yourself what effect the message should have:
The more sensitive or complex the topic, the more the discussion should allow room for questions and adjustments. The Feedback Training and the resource dedicated to asynchronous communication can complement this practice.
Emotional intelligence helps managers recognize what is going on inside themselves, understand others' reactions, and choose a constructive response. It enhances the quality of conversations, builds trust, and helps manage tension.
It doesn't mean hiding your emotions. Rather, it helps prevent them from taking control of the situation on their own.
Stress, irritation, or frustration can quickly affect the tone of a conversation. A manager who responds impulsively can escalate a conflict or shut down dialogue. Taking a step back doesn’t mean avoiding the issue. It means delaying your reaction so you can understand what really needs to be addressed.
Before a difficult conversation, a manager can start by clarifying their objective. Do they want to understand a situation, address a behavior, make a decision, or restore a working relationship? Asking this question helps them avoid confusing their current emotions with the outcome they’re seeking.
Emotional intelligence also involves picking up on subtle cues. Unusual silence, a decline in participation, or repeated interruptions can signal tension. While these behaviors do not prove the cause of the problem, they warrant attention.
In a hybrid team, two employees may gradually stop reaching out to one another. The manager can start by observing their interactions and then gathering their perspectives separately. The manager can then bring the individuals involved together if the situation warrants it.
This approach helps avoid provoking a confrontation without first understanding the problem. It also allows the manager to stick to the facts and not jump to conclusions about the intent behind a behavior.
Trust is built through consistency. It depends on how a manager follows through on commitments, explains decisions, and handles disagreements. It also rests on recognition, provided that such recognition is based on a specific contribution.
Saying “You did a good job” is still rather vague. Saying “You reframed the disagreement and enabled the group to reach a decision” describes observable behavior. The employee understands what was helpful and can replicate that approach in other situations.
Interpersonal skills are developed through everyday interactions. A one-on-one meeting, a team meeting, or a performance review all provide opportunities for growth.
The "Emotion and Conflict Management" training course can complement this work with methods tailored to managerial situations.
Managing performance involves translating the organization’s priorities into clear objectives, tracking progress, and prioritizing efforts. Managers must maintain high standards while ensuring the team’s ability to sustain its performance over the long term.
A useful objective specifies the expected outcome, the scope of responsibility, and the key metrics for tracking progress. A team may know that it needs to improve a process but may not know which step to tackle first. The manager must then clarify the priority and help each team member understand their role.
Goals must also remain open to revision when conditions change. Reevaluating a priority does not mean abandoning the requirement. It allows us to focus our collective energy on what truly contributes to the expected outcome.
Performance also depends on making trade-offs. A team that treats every request as a priority ends up spreading itself too thin. The manager must make these choices clear and explain what takes precedence over everything else.
Several questions can help structure a discussion:
These questions make it possible to discuss priorities without reducing performance to a mere list of tasks. They also help the team understand what they need to let go of in order to move forward.
Delegation is another aspect of leadership. Delegating involves entrusting responsibility along with a degree of autonomy, expected outcomes, and follow-up points. Vague delegation creates dependency. The employee returns to seek approval at every step, while the manager retains decision-making authority.
Before delegating, be sure to specify:
Successful delegation provides a framework without taking back the responsibility that has been entrusted. The manager remains available, but avoids turning every follow-up into constant monitoring.
The Action Plan and OKR Training, the Prioritization , and the Delegation and Performance training can help you address these various aspects.
Fostering collaboration involves facilitating communication, highlighting interdependencies, and enabling everyone to contribute. The manager does not have all the answers. Instead, the manager creates the conditions for shared responsibility and helps the team solve problems together.
A productive meeting is not just about sharing information. It should enable participants to make decisions, solve problems, or coordinate actions. The manager can begin by reiterating the purpose of the meeting, clarifying the expected decision, and assigning the necessary roles.
He must then ensure that discussions are not dominated by the same voices. Some people speak up easily, while others need a more explicit framework to contribute.
A question posed to everyone, some preparation time, or a shared document can improve the quality of the discussion. These practices give more opportunity to people who think before speaking or who don’t speak up as spontaneously.
Collaboration also takes place between teams. Challenges often arise when everyone focuses on optimizing their own area of responsibility without considering the impact on others. Priorities become less clear, decision-making slows down, and responsibilities overlap.
The manager can facilitate coordination across departments, clarify roles, and share relevant information. The manager can also highlight the dependencies between projects so that each team understands what depends on its work.
Rituals contribute to this dynamic when they address a real need. A team meeting can help coordinate priorities. A one-on-one meeting can help address a challenge. A retrospective can help us understand what facilitated or hindered a project.
Consistency is more important than holding more meetings. Try out a routine for a few weeks, see how it works, and adjust it with the team. If no one knows why the meeting exists, its format probably needs to change.
To develop this capability, the resource dedicated to collaborative leadership can provide complementary methods.
Managerial skills improve when managers can learn, practice, and receive feedback on their performance. Training is most effective when it extends into real-world work situations and peer-to-peer interactions.
Start by identifying a recurring situation: a task that’s stalled, a meeting that drags on, feedback you keep putting off, or a decision you’re having trouble making. Then choose a practice to try in that specific situation.
You can prepare a response, use it in a real conversation, and take a few minutes to analyze the outcome. What worked? What caused confusion? What question could have helped take the conversation further?
To organize this progression, use the following:
Group coaching helps participants compare experiences with their peers. Individual coaching can be useful when starting a new position, during a reorganization, or during a stressful period. In both cases, the goal remains the same: to turn an intention into observable behavior.
The training and support services offered by NUMA can be tailored to the specific needs of managers and organizations.
The five managerial skills are complementary. Leadership provides direction. Communication makes expectations clear. Emotional intelligence improves the quality of interactions. Performance management helps with decision-making and accountability. Collaboration enables the team to work better together.
You can start with just one situation. Choose a conversation, a meeting, or a decision that’s causing problems. Identify the skill involved, try out a new approach, and see what changes.
Developing your managerial skills requires consistency, practice, and concrete feedback. Progress becomes evident when the methods you’ve learned are incorporated into your day-to-day decisions and conversations. To structure this progress, check out NUMA’s training and coaching programs.
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