Introduction to Management – 3 Skills For New Managers

New Managers need to learn and develop certain skills if they are to be successful when leading others and to ensure they help nurture improved productivity, efficiency and performance from their team.

Attending an Introduction to Management training course (part of our management training courses London) would be a useful method to up-skill new Managers and give them more confidence to do their job more effectively.

This article will explore three essential skills that are key for new Managers:

Introduction to Management
Introduction to Management
Delegation

New Managers sometimes feel like they need to do everything and struggle to delegate tasks. They might also feel that it will take longer to explain to someone else how to complete a task so it is quicker to do it themselves. This can sometimes be true but the art of delegation is an essential skill that all new Managers need to master.

Just like in sports Managers should try to get the right players in the right positions. When delegating a task try to learn the strengths, weaknesses, likes and dislikes of your team members and where possible allocate tasks to team members that match their strengths and preferences.

When delegating it is also key to give clear instructions and double check the other person understands what is expected of them. Therefore new Managers should ensure that they use good listening skills to check understanding.

How to give and receive feedback

The ability to create an open feedback culture in your team and be able to give and receive feedback in a clear and professional manner is of upmost importance to new Managers but also for Professionals of any level. As the saying goes “Feedback is a gift and not an attack!”

There are two main types of feedback – constructive (negative) and reinforcing (positive). Some Managers are too worried to give their staff feedback so they only do it once each year in their annual appraisal. Feedback should be constant. Some Managers also only give constructive or negative feedback as opposed to reinforcing (positive) feedback. This is definitely a great way to demotivate your staff!

Feedback should be timely – meaning that if a Manager notices an opportunity to give feedback to their team on performance it should preferably happen within 24 hours and clearly face-to-face communication is the best method. New Managers should also give a healthy balance of both constructive and reinforcing feedback.

To be a great Manager it is also important to be open to feedback not only from your Manager but also from the staff that work for you. Instead of seeing feedback as criticism you should be hungry to get it from others to help you improve your skills and become a better Manager. This requires a high level of Emotional Intelligence – to learn more about the wide field of EI and how it links to feedback take a look at our Emotional Intelligence training London.

Organisational Skills

Strong organisation skills are important for new Managers so they are able to manage their own time effectively but also to ensure that they spend enough face-to-face time with their team. It is very common for new Managers to feel overwhelmed due to having to both manage their own workload and find time to manage their subordinates.

Time Management techniques such as having clear goals, writing a regular things-to-do-list, reducing distractions and staying focused are useful for new Managers to optimise their time through strong organisational skills.

You might wish to attend a training course to improve your organisational skills. Many books on Management and Leadership say that in order to be a good Manager or Leader the first step is self-management – meaning having strong self-awareness and being able to manage your own time and emotions effectively.

5 tips for giving more effective feedback to staff

The ability to give and receive feedback effectively is an extremely important skill for any Manager or Leader. This article will focus on 5 different ways Managers can give more effective feedback to their staff:

5 tips for giving more effective feedback to staff
5 tips for giving more effective feedback to staff
 Ask before giving feedback

 Some Managers are worried about offending their subordinates when giving feedback so they procrastinate feedback conversations or don’t prioritise them. Instead of rushing a feedback conversation and directly giving a team member negative feedback a good technique is to ask the person if they mind you giving them some feedback.

For example you might simply ask: “ Can I give you some feedback about the report you wrote? “ or “ are you happy for me to give you some feedback about the report that you wrote? “

Usually the other person will reply “ yes “ and they will be more willing to receive some feedback than if you directly give them negative feedback.

Don’t judge just describe  

When giving feedback it is important to not judge the behaviour of the other person as this could cause them to be defensive. Simply describe the behaviour you observed and also the impact that it had on you or the team. A simple but powerful model is the SBI method. Explain the situation, describe the behaviour that you observed and outline the impact that it had.

After using the SBI model to give feedback it is a good idea is to ask the other person an open question such as “ what are your thoughts about this? “ 

Don’t only give negative feedback 

Be careful to not only give negative or constructive feedback to your team as no one likes to be criticised all the time.

Heaphy and Losada found in their research with 50,000 Managers what was the ideal ratio of positive to negative comments. For example positive comments might include (“I agree with that,” for instance, or “That’s a terrific idea”) to negative comments (“I don’t agree with you” “We shouldn’t even consider doing that”) that the participants made to one another. (Negative comments, could go as far as sarcastic or disparaging remarks.) The average ratio for the highest-performing teams was 5.6 (that is, nearly six positive comments for every negative one).

Describe the value of feedback

If your team are not familiar with the value of getting feedback to help them improve you could talk about how feedback has benefited you in your career. As the say goes “ don’t just tell, sell. “ This will increase the chances that the other person will be more willing to accept your feedback without being defensive.

Avoid using “but, always, never”

When giving feedback some Managers first give a compliment (positive feedback) and then give constructive (negative) feedback. This a great method, however after giving the positive feedback some people risk ruining the conversation by saying “ but “ before giving the constructive comments. This can give the other person the impression that the constructive feedback was not sincere.

Likewise, if you use the words “ always “ or “ never “ when giving feedback the other person might feel you are attacking them. For example “ why do you always arrive late for work? “ 

If you want to improve the feedback as well as other skills of your Managers why not send them on one of our professional development courses so they can learn and practice the skills to both give and receive feedback.

The Power of Feedback