The transition from individual contributor to manager is significant and requires essential skills. Suddenly, your focus expands from crushing your own tasks to empowering and guiding a whole team.
While technical expertise is a valuable asset, it takes more to become a truly exceptional manager. We’ve collected ten essential skills you’ll need to develop to not only climb the management ladder but to thrive once you reach the top. From embracing vulnerability to influencing others positively, this inventory from executive leaders will outline which essential skills you need to become a leader your team will respect and admire.
Vulnerability
Vulnerability breeds credibility. Managers tend to think they need to have all the answers all the time and ensure whoever they are leading looks at them as “perfect”—they are managers, after all. But this builds managers who people simply report to, it doesn’t create managers who are leaders.
For a manager to be truly successful as a leader, they need the essential skills to develop a rapport deeper than just knowing the answers and being in charge. True leaders need to be credible. The fastest way to paint yourself as a credible leader is to humanize yourself through vulnerability.
Managers are leading other human beings who want to feel seen, heard, and valued. They want to work for a manager that is human, too. Humans have flaws, vulnerabilities, and areas they can continue to improve.
Develop your credibility by being vulnerable with your team; you will be surprised by how quickly the team will have your back as you lead them to success!
Sam Panitch, cofounder and COO, Elevation Nation
Emotional intelligence
In our ever-changing, increasingly global world, emotional intelligence (EQ) is the key to successful leadership. The ability to understand and manage your own emotions, while effectively navigating the emotions of others, is critical for building strong teams, greater collaboration, and driving results.
Leaders face mounting pressures and constant change, making EQ even more essential. High EQ allows leaders to remain calm under stress, make better decisions, and adapt faster to new challenges. It also enables them to create psychologically safe environments where team members feel valued and empowered to contribute their best work.
Aspiring managers can intentionally develop their emotional intelligence by actively listening, seeking feedback, practicing empathy, and engaging in self-reflection. By cultivating these skills, leaders can enhance their own resilience and build more adaptable and high-performing teams.
Andrea Miller, CEO, LeadWell Company
Coaching
One skill that is crucial for success in a leadership role is developing a coaching approach to leadership. Rather than traditional directive styles of leadership, a coaching approach empowers team members, creates a safe space for development, and enhances performance through curiosity, empathy, trust, support, and guidance rather than commands.
To develop a coaching approach to leadership, you first must develop a coaching mindset, viewing your role as a coach to help others succeed. Shift your perspective from being directive and top-down to being supportive and facilitative. Relate to your colleagues (at all levels) as a whole and complete, full of potential yet to be realized. Take ownership to help them realize this potential. This can and should be practiced before you have direct reports.
Strong relationships that engender trust through transparency, consistency, integrity, and empathy are key to this approach, as is active listening, which requires being present and curious. When delivering constructive feedback, be specific and balanced, acknowledging your team member’s strengths along with his/her/their gaps.
The coaching approach to leadership means being self-aware and encouraging others to be as well. Modeling that you are doing your own work to reflect on your experiences, strengths, and areas for improvement models your humanity and leads the way for others to follow.
Finally, the coaching approach to leadership means fostering a growth culture where learning is encouraged, risk-taking is valued, and celebrating milestones and achievements is routine.
Over the years, I have seen this approach to leadership create more motivated, engaged, satisfied, resilient, and high-performing teams.
Emily Golden, CEO and strategic talent advisor, Golden Resources, LLC
Strategic thinking
Don’t shy away from sharing your opinion. If you see something that could be done better, say it. But don’t just poke at it. Think through how you would actually do it better, talk to stakeholders involved across departments to investigate how quickly this can be achieved, and present a well-rounded proposal for fixing what needs to be fixed.
As a leader, you are expected to improve the current state of business. Show how you would do it. This might become your first project to showcase your leadership skills.
Anna Khomenko, founder, Startup Dials
Practice what you preach
To build strong teams, members first need to feel safe to share their ideas, try new strategies, and even miss the mark from time to time. It should be no surprise that building this type of culture starts at the top.
One way for leaders to foster safety is to regularly practice the behaviors they seek in their teams, like being honest about mistakes and taking responsibility when the situation warrants. Team members who witness their managers practicing what they preach will feel safe to do so themselves, resulting in strengthened interpersonal bonds and greater dedication to group success.
Kayla McGuire, business consultant and project management coach, Kayla McGuire Consulting, LLC
Prioritizing
Being crystal clear, calibrated, and aligned on what your priorities are is critical for managerial success. Then, it will be much easier to communicate those priorities, build trust, motivate your team, and of course, delegate.
To develop this skill, consistently ask yourself, “What is urgent and important?” Map out your priorities by identifying three target areas. Start with the items that you can tackle first, that are both urgent and important. In the second area, include items that are solely urgent, but not as important.
Then in the third area, list the items that are important, but not urgent. The resulting list will be your starting map for what you need to manage. Finally, check in with leadership and organization-wide goals to ensure alignment. You may need to pivot and adjust, but you will have your roadmap established for what to manage and when.
Marian Astor Hunt, high-performance coach, MPowered
Conducting valuable one-on-ones
If you’re aspiring to move into management, the single most essential skill you need to refine is the art of conducting consistent, value-added one-on-ones with your team.
Think of it this way: one-on-ones are the heartbeat of a healthy team. They’re not just meetings for status updates or task management. Instead, they’re a dedicated space for building trust, understanding individual motivations, and providing personalized coaching and guidance. When done right, they can significantly boost employee engagement, performance, and overall team morale.
So, how do you develop this skill? Start by scheduling regular one-on-ones with each of your team members. Come prepared with thoughtful questions and a genuine interest in their growth. Be an active listener, offer constructive feedback, and celebrate their wins. Most importantly, be consistent. It takes time to build trust and establish a rhythm, but the investment will pay off in spades.
Remember, great leadership isn’t about micromanaging or dictating tasks. It’s about empowering your team, fostering open communication, and creating a culture where everyone feels valued and heard. And it all starts with those one-on-one conversations.
Trent Cotton, senior director of Talent, Hatchworks
Balancing push with guidance
The most essential skill for being successful in a leadership role is knowing when to push. Some managers push all the time—pushing their employees to burnout to get results.
Other managers don’t offer enough guidance, leaving teams to flounder and also to feel that their contribution doesn’t matter. Striking a balance here is critical for helping your team feel purposeful but not pressured.
Jessica Sweet, owner, Wishingwell Coaching
Curiosity
For me, remaining curious is the best thing any leader can do.
You’re never going to have all the answers (and if you think that you do, then you probably aren’t going to be the type of leader that people trust and respect).
Being curious about your industry, your customers, your team, and the world helps you to stay current. Asking good questions and actually listening to the answers that you are given helps others to know that you care.
You become someone that people want to share information with, which helps you to keep learning and growing, which in turn helps your business grow. The world is constantly changing, and by staying curious and open, you allow yourself to be part of that change.
Colleen Paulson, executive career consultant, Ageless Careers
Influence
Having spent more than a decade in talent and executive development, I’ve learned that the most critical skill you can develop to move into management and be successful in a leadership role is your ability to influence others positively.
Positive influence is all about getting your team members to say “yes” to you and your vision for the team, not because they have to, but because they have their full commitment.
It is also about inspiring and motivating other people—clients, external partners, peers in another department, or company executives—to decide and act in ways that will result in win-win scenarios for both of you. Such an approach to relationship building will amplify your impact as a leader and position your team for growth.
How can you develop your ability to influence others positively? I’ve observed that leaders who have mastered this skill do three things regularly: They invite feedback through thoughtful questions, listen, and learn about the psychology behind human behavior.
Snjezana Ana Billian, career coach, Workmazing
