What skills does a manager need?
There are three fundamental skills of a manager:
TECHNICAL
The manager should be proficient at specific tasks. This in turn helps to provide the credibility or knowledge to persuade people to do certain things.
HUMAN
The manager has to know how to work with people.
CONCEPTUAL
The manager can see the organisation as a whole. In other words, there has to be some knowledge of the organisation and what it does and how it interacts with other organisations.
The most important skill of a manager
For more specific skills, here is a list compiled by management experts in decreasing order of importance:
- People skills
- Strategic thinking (planning ahead and predicting what was going to happen)
- Visionary
- Flexible/adaptable to change
- Self-management
- Team player
- Solve-complex problems and make decisions
- Ethical/high personal standards
Hence the most important skill of a manager is to understand people and what makes them motivated to do the work in the achievement of certain goal(s).
Are managers leaders?
Firstly we need to know the difference between a leader and a manager.
A leader is someone described as a creative genius who has the vision of leading his/her people within an entire organisation or nation to something that we can all believe in and realistically achieve as something worthwhile to strive for in our lives.
A manager is someone described as a practical genius who is aware of the vision for an entire organisation or nation and can achieve various goal(s) to help reach for this vision in a practical way.
Now a good manager is one that has both managerial and leadership skills. Thus a manager can be a leader. It all depends on the person's upbringing, nature of the managerial job, and the kind of knowledge and experience he/she acquires to become a good manager.
What makes a good manager?
A management expert by the name of Charles Gibbon described the key elements of a quality manager as follows (Person 1983, p.334.):
- Possess well-defined goals.
- Be able to allocate resources according to priorities
- Be able to make decisions, act upon them, and accept responsibility for them.
- Be willing to compromise.
- Be able to delegate and to depend on subordinates.
- Be self-motivated and self-controlled.
- Be able to organize, plan, and communicate for effective use of resources.
- Maintain good relationships with others.
- Possess emotional maturity and the internal resources to cope with frustration, disappointment, and stress.
- Be able to appraise oneself and one's performance objectively, to admit to being wrong.
- Expect that one will keep on growing, improve one's performance, and continue to develop.
But just keep in mind the following points and you should do well:
- If not in survival-mode, a manager should avoid creating hierarchies in an organisation as this will only create inferiority and superiority complexes in people after a while and will reduce the full potential of everyone.
- Consistency in behaviour is an important characteristic of a good manager.
- Managers should perform their work exactly as they preach to others. This is all part of consistency. As Marion Nicolson, managing director of the Australian firm Library Locums, said: "Our philisophy is simple - we treat people with respect and do what we say we'll do."
- Managers should be friendly and approachable.
- Communicate with everyone regularly and when it is necessary.
- Managers should support their staff through praise, encouragement and improving the work environment.
- Managers should be leaders. They must have creativity and not just the practical skills to solve problems.
- Managers should have the ability to confidently and appropriately direct others to work if they have not yet actualised and reached the level of being self-managed.
- It is claimed that internal customers should never crack under pressure from others. This is the robotic view of management. The human view of management is that people are allowed to express their emotions and views. It is the job of a manager to look for these situations and to talk to staff as early as possible to understand why and resolve them before the emotions reach a level that can affect external customers. Similarly, the reverse is true: look for situations where external customers may find themselves under stress or become frustrated, talk to these customers, listen to them, and resolve the problems for things the manager has control over.
- Remember when things go wrong, everyone is responsible, not just staff, but also management. Everyone must work together. Sacking people is not the way to solve problems. It should be seen as a last resort.
- The people who must improve the situation is everyone. We are all the solution to our problems.
How many staff should a manager be managing?
It depends on how many staff the manager can handle, and what the staff themselves are doing or can bring to the table in terms of additional skills (e.g. self-management).
If staff are doing a wide variety of different things and/or self-managed in their tasks and other activities and are already fulfilling the role and beyond (e.g. finding creative solutions not expected of the role but is making a positive difference to others and the organisation), you can supervise/manage less staff (but technically you can handle more people under your wing). If staff are doing similar things but need to be told what to do after completing various tasks (especially if people might suddenly find themselves facing new tasks and are not highly skilled in themselves), you will usually have to supervise/manage more staff more of the time. And if you find this too challenging, you may need more than one manager to manage the staff (i.e., delegate your management work to other managers). It also depends on you: How capable are you to be a good manager to the right number of people? Do you receive assistance in this work from others? Do you like to supervise people or let them get on with it? How much self-confidence have you got to do this work? Or do you prefer to teach staff how to self-manage to reduce the workloads?
How many staff you can manage and what staff are doing will determine your span of management as the experts would say. The wider your span, the more staff you can manage just so long as you don't lose out on developing a quality relationship with all your staff. If you are having shallow relationships with your staff, it is quite likely your span of management is too great and it should be reduced so that you can keep in regular touch with your staff (seriously, managers and staff are human beings too).
Latest skills required of managers
For additional skills needed in the 21st century, consider the following:
- Leading with digital fluency and AI literacy
Managers must be fluent with digital tools and understand how to responsibly apply artificial intelligence to improve decision-making, automate routine tasks, and augment team capabilities; this includes knowing when to rely on AI outputs, how to validate model results, and how to communicate AI-driven changes to stakeholders in plain language.
- Critical thinking, problem framing and adaptive decision-making
Beyond traditional problem solving, managers now need to frame ambiguous problems quickly, weigh trade-offs under uncertainty, and make iterative decisions that can be adjusted as new data arrives; cultivating structured thinking and encouraging hypothesis-driven experiments across teams helps organizations move faster and reduce costly rework.
- Empathetic communication for hybrid and remote teams
Effective managers intentionally build psychological safety and connection across distributed teams by practicing active listening, checking in on workload and wellbeing, and designing inclusive rituals for recognition and feedback that work both in-person and online.
- Emotional intelligence, strategic agility and inclusive leadership
High-performing managers combine self-awareness and empathy with the ability to pivot strategy as markets change; they model inclusive behaviors, remove systemic barriers for underrepresented team members, and align short-term execution with longer-term strategic priorities.
- Resilience, change management and growth mindset
Managers should coach teams to treat setbacks as learning opportunities, embed rapid feedback loops, and lead structured change initiatives that reduce friction during transitions such as reorganizations, technology rollouts, or shifts to new operating models.
- Data literacy and cybersecurity awareness
Managers must be comfortable interpreting basic analytics, asking the right data questions, and ensuring their teams follow data governance and cybersecurity best practices so that decisions are evidence-based and organizational risk is minimized.
- Coaching, talent development and career-pathing
Modern managers act as talent developers: they provide regular, actionable coaching, create stretch opportunities, map clear career pathways, and partner with HR to design learning experiences that close skill gaps and retain high performers.
- Ethical decision-making and sustainability leadership
Managers increasingly need to evaluate decisions through ethical and environmental lenses, ensuring products, processes, and partnerships align with regulatory expectations and stakeholder values while balancing commercial objectives.
- Continuous learning and personal upskilling
To stay current, managers should model continuous learning by dedicating time to upskill in areas such as digital tools, DEI practices, data interpretation, and remote leadership techniques, and by creating team-level learning plans that keep capabilities aligned with evolving business needs.
- Wellbeing stewardship and workload design
Managers are expected to design sustainable workloads, normalize boundaries around work hours, and proactively support mental health resources so teams remain productive without burnout.
- Practical tips for implementation
Start small: pilot new practices with one team before scaling.
Measure impact: track engagement, retention, and performance metrics tied to new management practices.
Communicate clearly: explain the why behind changes and invite feedback to iterate quickly.
Where can I get more information?
Here are four high-quality, actionable resources where people can learn more about the additional managerial skills in depth:
- Harvard Business Review: 6 Essential Leadership Skills, and How to Develop Them
This practical article outlines modern leadership capabilities such as adaptive decision-making, emotional intelligence, and inclusive leadership, and gives concrete development steps managers can apply immediately to teams and projects.
- Harvard Business Impact: Leadership Reframed for the Workplace of the Future (Global Research Report)
A comprehensive research report that defines critical leadership capabilities for a changing workplace, including digital fluency, ethical decision-making, and resilience; useful for leaders who want evidence-based frameworks and survey-backed priorities for capability building.
- Coursera: Executive AI Leadership Mastery (specialization)
A multi-course program focused on using generative AI for strategy, transformation, and responsible innovation; it teaches how to design AI strategies, evaluate AI risks, and lead adoption across organizations—ideal for managers seeking structured, hands-on learning about AI leadership.
- Coursera: Navigating Generative AI for Leaders (specialization)
A practical, shorter program that helps leaders understand GenAI capabilities and limitations, how to use AI as a “thought partner,” and how to translate AI insights into business decisions—good for managers who want quick, actionable guidance on GenAI adoption.
- How to be a Good Manager: 8 Quick Tips
WorkAwesome article provides practical, actionable tips such as leading by example, giving positive feedback, and being self‑aware — useful for managers seeking quick behavioural changes.
- What Makes a Good Leader
Harvard Alumni Bulletin contains a more in‑depth discussion of leadership traits and context, valuable for strategic thinking and evidence‑based perspectives on leadership development.
- People Management Styles
Tutor2u explains classic management styles (autocratic, paternalistic, democratic) and links them to motivation theories — helpful for teaching or structured training materials.
- How a Good Boss Responds to Mistakes
Useful information for managers on how to handle mistakes.
Or if your interests happen to lie more in the world of freelancing — an understandable decision given the more rewarding and varied jobs available from a greater number of clients (especially when combined with the internet to connect with clients through certain web sites) as well as to provide the necessary flexibility to one's working life and to better survive the economic downturns in your area — you may find the following links to be a great starting point:
- An Independent Contractor Guide (U.S.) from FormSwift (prepared by Jackson Hille and Justin Gomer), which also includes a section on tax-related matters for American freelancers
- The Freelance Work Guide
Do you want to simply become a great manager for either your own or an existing business or company? Are you looking to find the latest management concepts and skills but need to know the best places where to gain this knowledge? If this is you, the Education section at this page provides the latest and best MBA rankings by educational institution or course as prepared by people like Forbes and the Financial Times. The links you will find there should provide the first steps to helping you find the best programs for your business education.
And if you still want more, don't hesitate to search around on Google.com or Bing.com.