Notoriously aggressive leaders, like Travis Kalanick and Leon Black, have been successful at running their respective companies. But so have Bob Iger and James Sinegal — leaders who are known to be gentle, and to place great importance on the wellbeing of their employees. Both groups have mastered methods of people management that work within their companies. Although there are many different types of leadership, there are various people management skills that are universal, and essential to effective leadership.

Let's talk about these essential people management skills, their importance, and how to develop your own leadership abilities.

In This Article

What is People Management?

To judge where your people management skills stand, ask yourself this simple question. How well do I work with others? If you can honestly say you’re good at working within a group, and at motivating the people around you, you’re well on your way to being a great manager.

What Does Good People Management Look Like?

Being a good people management requires the ability to:

• Establishing trust with your team members
• Work with them at reaching goals
• Get tasks done
• Maintain results
• Create an overall positive experience for those working alongside you

Why are People Management Skills Important?

People management refers to a group of practical and soft skills that collectively make someone a good leader, motivator, and manager.

Acquiring various people management skills helps managers become better team members and leaders. Here is how your work life will improve if you acquire or build out the following people management skills:

Mastering Communication and Trust

A great leader establishes trust with their team, knows how to communicate effectively, and is able to look out for their interests. If you can manage these three things, you will have a much easier time navigating common challenges and changes in the workplace.

According to a study by Emerald, communication and trust both have a direct impact on change management.

Resolving Workplace Conflicts

Resolving conflict in the workplace has always been a manager’s job, be it conflict between team members or between a senior and their subordinate. Naturally, everyone wants a conflict-free work environment. The better you are at conflict resolution, the happier and more productive your team will be.

The ability to relate to others, negotiate, resolve the tension, and be patient in high-pressure situations are all skills that can help resolve tense situations.

Empathy Towards Your Team

When employees are going through a tough time in their personal or professional lives, it is management’s job to make balancing their personal and work demands as easy as possible.

This responsibility can be made easier when you’re able to motivate others, maintain a positive attitude, and understand the individual needs of all your team members. By mastering the skills of supporting an employee, you go a long way towards earning their trust, loyalty, and dedication.

Collaborative Thinking

Even when you’re leading it, you’re still one part of a team. Knowing how to work with others allows you to be a better team player and produce better results. A truly great leader can direct a team, but will also roll up their sleeves and work with the team from time to time. Especially when their expertise would benefit the project.

Understanding when to get out of your team’s way, and when to get stuck in the details of a project is the secret to seeing optimal results.

What Are the Roles of People Managers?

The job of a good people manager is to recognize the uniqueness of all team members, and then harness it to the organization’s benefit. The end goal here is to use everyone’s strengths to improve individual performance and drive optimal results.

This requires knowing who to give certain tasks to, who works better in a team, and who works best when they’re left alone. Great leadership is also about building people, which means the assignment of those tasks must align with the employee’s own career goals.

Besides managing the workforce you have, effective people management requires the ability to build out the team with new skills and new hires. Inevitably, it also involves dealing with employees leaving, getting demotivated, and losing focus.

Luckily there are tools to help with this humongous task.

The People Manager’s Toolkit

Talent management software

A lot of organizations use a talent management system to help build out and manage their company’s workforce. Besides hiring, onboarding, and offboarding, a talent management system can help with performance reviews, recruitment, and training and development.

Performance management systems

A performance management system can be purely a method of results measuring, a holistic part of your company structure, or a software solution. Regardless of what you implement, monitoring performance is necessary to identify areas within your team for growth. It is also an important indicator of when