While management training is often focused on P&Ls, corporate mandates and how to improve your team’s bottom line, there are some soft skills I believe are crucial for managers to master.
Throughout both my corporate career and external coaching work I’ve been able to identify five core traits of authentic management. These behaviors, which we can all adopt, are impact drivers across multiple layers of the organization, starting with your direct reports.
Core Traits to Mastering Management:
You're Coach Like
They ask their team open ended questions, explore their thinking with curiosity, acknowledge their strengths and, through their discussions, leave their team pointed in the best possible direction given the situation. They recognize it’s less about providing answers, but allowing space for individuals to discover solutions themselves.
You're Authentic
They come clean when they don't know something, they'll admit when the team is eating a sh*t sandwich, and they will be themselves, admitting to mistakes as much as humbly yet powerfully owning their strengths along the way. Honesty and realness go SUCH a long way when leading a team.
You're Values Driven
As a manager, being aware and in line with your values means you’re leading more meaningfully. Values are the cornerstone of authentic leadership and help rally support from the team and organization to get good work done.
You're Experienced
This goes for on the job skills, past roles, even life experience. They can bring what's worked for them in the past to the table as an offering, and have the wherewithal to not be attached to the solution being a perfect fit for their new role, team or organization.
You're Appreciative
They boost their team up through honest appreciation. They notice the hard work going on around them, step in to help as needed and acknowledge everything in real time from the strengths of their team, to the projects and organizational effects of their work. This appreciating nature helps to enroll the team toward a unified outcome and create an atmosphere of camaraderie.
If you or someone on your team is looking to enhance these aspects of authentic and effective leadership, let’s chat. I’m all about helping leaders at every level lead from the pallet of who they are to get great work done.