Teaching leadership skills to managers

Not every manager is a good leader. But to be a great manager, a manager needs to have the leadership skills that can make him or her a great leader.

Start early

Managers have a lot of responsibilities, and one of the important responsibilities is being a leader to the other employees who working for the business. Some businesses choose to hire their managers by giving their very skilled employees or the employees that stand out in their current position a promotion. While these employees may be very capable of handling the responsibilities that come along with being a manager, they may not have the leadership skills that are needed to be the best manager they can be.

Of course even a manager that has had managerial experience elsewhere may still need to have some leadership training to make sure they will be a great leader for the company they currently work for.

Because a manager may not be equipped with the right leadership skills it is essential that the business owner begins right away to train the manager and teach them the leadership skills they will need to be a good manager.

Teaching leadership skills

There is more than one way for a business owner to teach their managers leadership skills. One way is for the business owner to teach the manager themselves. This way does take a lot of time and energy and many business owners do not have the time to teach the leadership skills that need to be taught to their managers.

One of the best ways for a business owner to ensure that their managers are taught the leadership skills they need to know is for them to send them to a leadership training. There are leadership trainings available to small businesses in the community. This can be a great and inexpensive way for a small business to train their manager or managers.

Larger businesses may be able to offer their very own leadership training to their managers. They can set up speakers and teachers who can train the managers and teach them all they need to know about leadership.

What they need to know

For a manager to be a good leader there are many things that they need to know. For example, they need to know how to handle conflicts, especially those that may come up between employees in the workplace, they need to know how to handle stress, how to encourage employees to work hard, how to communicate, and how to help employees work well together, among other things.

Trial period

A business owner should give their managers a trial period. Some managers catch on quickly and are naturally good leadership. But other managers may take a little longer to become good at being a manager. If they are given a little time they may grow accustom to their responsibilities instead of just being overwhelmed, and may blossom into a great leader and manager.

Keep up the leadership education

While teaching a manager what they need to know and do to be a good leader, it is important not to teach the manager once and never teach them again. Not all managers will use all of their leadership skills each day, week, or even month at work and it can be very helpful for them to have a refresher course on what they need to do to be a terrific leader.

A manager can stay keep their leadership skills up-to-date by reading leadership books, periodically attending leadership trainings, and by having a six month or once a year review with the business owner.