How to Be a Good Manager and Leader: (7 Essential Qualities)

Managers of all levels play a vital role in the success of your company. Not only are they leaders in their teams and departments, but their example also has a strong influence on the employees around them.

In fact, over 70% of variance in employee engagement scores are a result of managers. In other words, effective managers are key to keeping employees engaged, productive, and satisfied at work. Poor management, conversely, can lead to disengagement and high turnover.

Whether you’re a seasoned manager looking to improve on leadership skills or you’re an HR professional seeking out training materials for all your company’s managers, we’ve got some of the most impactful traits of good managers. Knowing these management strengths will help you enhance your leadership capabilities and spread them to other leaders.

What Makes a Good Manager and Leader?

Great managers distinguish themselves through key management qualities such as strategic thinking and effective problem-solving. They maintain a clear vision and adeptly prepare their team for future challenges, ensuring adaptability and sustained organizational growth.

Their ability to creatively solve problems under pressure is crucial for facilitating smooth operations and continual progress. Additionally, consistency in their actions and decisions builds trust and stability, fostering a secure and supportive work culture. Let’s dive into the management qualities that are fundamental in shaping a leader's ability to guide their team successfully.

7 Qualities of a Good Manager and Leader

The essential qualities of a good manager and leader can be broken down into hard skills and soft skills. While hard skills such as SMART goals, work ethic, and budget are all equally important, it’s the soft skills that strengthen a manager’s emotional intelligence and encourage teamwork.

1. Effective Communication

Communication is about more than just giving instructions; it involves honesty and transparency, which build trust within the team. Great managers foster an environment where openness flows in both directions—encouraging employees to provide honest feedback while also being receptive to it themselves.

The best managers also know how to communicate goals and expectations to employees to ensure that everyone knows what’s expected of them. And don’t forget, half of communicating is listening—the best managers listen to their employees and respond thoughtfully.

2. Vision and Inspiration

In a nutshell, management is all about getting great work done through other people. Good managers know their employees’ strengths, weaknesses, and work preferences, and they empower those employees to perform their best.

This includes delegating tasks in an effective way, helping employees set goals for themselves, and providing the resources and guidance they need without micromanaging. With all this in mind, remember to work with your employees, not above them.

3. Genuine Interest in Employees

To be a good leader, you have to take an interest in the people you manage. And not just in their professional lives—good managers learn about employees’ personal interests, families, and situations. This helps leaders be more empathetic and understanding.

Managers don’t have to be best friends with their direct reports, but they should be friendly and develop a healthy manager-employee relationship where employees feel valued and cared for.

4. Fostering a Positive Culture

The team needs to feel supportive and safe, and managers are the main foundation of the team culture. One of the best ways to do this is through recognizing employee accomplishments and milestones.

Recognize small things and large things, such as birthdays, a task well done, or a service anniversary. When leaders regularly offer praise, engagement, productivity, motivation, and performance all go up.

5. Adaptive Management Style

Different types of employees respond differently to different types of management styles. For example, high-maintenance employees may need more constant attention, affirmation, or feedback. On the flip side, self-managing employees respond to being left alone to succeed independently—and constant managing will annoy them.

Remote and in-office employees require different levels of support and care, as well. So do introverted and extroverted employees. This goes back to managers understanding their employees so that they know how to care for and support them in the most effective ways.

6. Advocates for Team Members

Employees respond well when their managers show that they care for their well-being. Whether that means advocating to leadership for nap rooms in the office, more PTO, a bigger bonus, or even simply physical or mental health resources.

When employees want a change and their managers advocate for that change, employee trust is strengthened, even if the change doesn’t end up happening.

7. Leading By Example.

Great managers are examples to their employees. When managers are disengaged, selfish, negative, unhappy, or lazy, employees are much more likely to mimic those behaviors. 

That doesn’t mean leaders have to be perfect; but it does mean that they personify company values, stay positive through challenges, and, if they have any critiques for the company or senior leadership, they only share that through appropriate channels.

The Impact of Good Managers

Good managers influence nearly every aspect of a company, from the culture and the employee experience to the success of the organization as a whole. Here are some stats that show the impact of management can have:

• 96% of engaged employees trust management, which leads to 50% higher productivity, 106% increased energy levels, and 13% fewer sick days.
• 76% of employees with empathetic managers are engaged compared to 32% without.
• When managers are great at recognizing, employees are 40% more engaged.
• 92% of employees are more likely to stay when they have empathetic leaders.
• 63% of people with bad managers are thinking about quitting.

Great managers make employees more engaged, productive, happy, and loyal. But bad managers often cause employees to quit.

Strategies to Support Your Managers

HR and senior can’t expect their managers to automatically know how to nail all of these traits. Becoming a great manager is a process, and the organization has ways to support and help managers improve.

In recent years, managers have struggled with burnout and disengagement, with 53% of managers feeling burned out (which is higher than the level of burnout in direct reports).

A big reason for this is that managers are stretched between multiple responsibilities, heavy workloads, and limited resources. Not only do managers have to succeed with their own work, but they’re also responsible for ensuring their team members have the support they need to succeed, too.

Here are some ways to help managers feel less burned out and more engaged:

• Recognize them. Managers do a lot, and they deserve to be recognized for their hard work just as much as their employees do. Recognition improves well-being, lowers turnover, increases engagement, and will help your managers feel valued and supported.

• Bonus tip: peer-to-peer recognition allows employees to recognize their managers when they do something the employee appreciates, which will cause the manager to repeat that behavior. This strengthens team bonds and improves manager performance.

• Upskill them. Manager dissatisfaction and burnout happen in part because they don’t have avenues of growth. Career development is important for everyone, and managers are no different. Ensure they have ways to learn new skills, gain new responsibilities, and have a way to grow their career in a way that’s meaningful for them.
• Take the pressure off them. Flexible work is one of the best cures for burnout. Ensure managers have as much freedom as possible to work in the way that best suits them and their team. Also, give them time to relax and recharge without work stress getting in the way.
• Don’t overload them. Regularly assess manager workloads to ensure they aren’t drowning in work. Revise your workflows to give them time to take care of projects before new ones come around. And make sure the tasks taking up the majority of their time are ones they enjoy and have the resources to complete.

Be the Best Manager You Can Be

Managing any number of employees is challenging for a variety of reasons. But we need good managers. It’s that simple. Businesses can’t excel without a network of managers who are happy, engaged, and supportive because without that, many employees won’t be engaged or productive.

As a manager, develop your soft and hard skills to better serve your team. And as a leader, help your managers balance their workloads, grow in their roles, and enjoy the resources they need.

To learn more about how employee recognition can help both managers and employees, schedule a demo today.