Carrie Skowronski is the founder and CEO of Leadology, specializing in upskilling managers to become influential communicators.
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Year after year, workplace managers at all points in their leadership journeys are fed the idea that there are shortcuts to effective leadership, but this couldn’t be further from the truth. While many companies have historically underinvested in manager development, the tenets of effective leadership have remained the same—leaders need the time, space and resources to be able to learn and practice new skills.
With market changes top of mind and so many managers looking to upskill and take the next step in their professional development, I’m digging in on the top things managers should be focused on doing more of, starting now.
As a leadership development coach with over 15 years of experience coaching managers of all backgrounds through their leadership development, I’m thrilled to be offering insight into the five best practices every manager should be implementing in today's modern workplace. Here are five leadership practices that are actually helping managers grow:
1. Frequent And Ongoing Conversations
When it comes to a manager’s ability to communicate with their teams, consistency is key. By sparing as little as 15 minutes each week to check in with direct reports about expectations, feedback and growth, leaders can show a vested interest in an employee’s performance and address obstacles as they arise. In turn, frequent one-on-ones with teams can empower them to take greater ownership of their work, boosting employee engagement and freeing manager bandwidth for bigger-picture thinking.
Over time, these conversations become the building blocks of meaningful workplace relationships. By planting the seeds for greater rapport and trust across teams, leaders set their teams up for better collaboration and higher performance.
2. Investing In Self-Development
All too often, we hear that managers are too overwhelmed with growing to-do lists and loaded work calendars and that there never seems to be a good time to commit to leadership development. The truth is there’s no better sign that it is the right time than when managers feel as though they’re drowning in work. Of course, there are peak seasons in business across industries, but this just means that it’s even more important that leaders prioritize time for their own growth by carving it out ahead of time.
What’s so exciting about leadership development is that it doesn’t take a single form—it can be anything from reading a book to signing up for a course or coaching sessions. Whatever the method, managers can then transfer this knowledge to their teams in an environment where they have the space, time and resources to practice their new skills.
3. Prioritizing Curiosity
Approaching conversations, challenges and opportunities with a sense of curiosity is vital for manager growth and resilience in the workplace, and asking open-ended questions during one-on-ones is one of the best places to start. For instance, if your boss changes direction when making an important decision, ask them for additional context during your next catch-up. Eager for a new stretch opportunity? Ask them how you can be of greater value to your team. The next time your employee brings up a persisting roadblock, widen the scope of your questions to make them stop and think critically about a solution. Channeling curiosity through open-ended questions tends to elicit more interesting, authentic and fruitful answers. Though our instinct might be to ask questions that are based on assumptions, it’s important that we stay curious for a bit longer to see what else we discover along the way.
4. Leading With Empathy
When we lead with empathy in the workplace, we transform the way we approach and nurture relationships. In her New York Times bestseller Atlas of the Heart, researcher and thought leader Brené Brown defines empathy as understanding someone else’s experience though it may differ from ours. Between perspective-taking, avoiding judgment and intuitively recognizing others’ emotions, practices in empathy are critical to offering the appropriate kind of support that your teams may need. Leading with this mindset, managers have the opportunity to facilitate conversations with greater authenticity and care.
As it relates to upholding systems of accountability at work, empathy also allows managers to ensure that conversations around unmet expectations are still had, even though they might be uncomfortable. Effective managers understand how it may feel to receive negative feedback, posing it as an opportunity to learn and grow, as opposed to resorting to punishment or skipping the conversation altogether. As a result, empathy has the power to strengthen workplace relationships, cultivating space for employees to come to managers when they truly need support.
5. Modeling Rest
Generally, the increased responsibility of a manager may lead many to believe that their ability to set proper boundaries around work is limited. In reality, rest and time offline are essential to showing up to do our best work. Whether it’s a planned trip, a mental health day or an extra break throughout your workday, take it. Time off spent completely offline rejuvenates us substantially more than passively staying on top of work matters while out of the office. And when we commit to our breaks, we increase our chances of returning to work with a greater sense of self-awareness, authenticity and creativity.
Better yet, when we honor the need for rest, we set a precedent for self-care and boundary-setting in our organizations, especially when demonstrating these practices ourselves for employees to see. Transparency around our relationship to rest ultimately promotes a healthier work-life balance for our teams, empowering them to do their very best work while on the clock.
With ever-changing market conditions, such as the emergence of artificial intelligence (AI), continued hybrid work plans and an expanded multigenerational workforce, the future of leadership is all about people skills. Humanizing the workplace is more important than ever before. Giving leaders the skills they need to create meaningful connections with their employees is no longer just a perk—it is a strategic initiative.
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