People skills are increasingly important these days as business leaders try to navigate their companies and employees through the COVID-19 pandemic. Many workers are traumatized from this year's events, and so, it's crucial for managers to lead effectively and inclusively with empathy and compassion. The recent talent shortage resulted in many first-time managers who lack soft skills and, unfortunately, employees are paying the price.
A survey from the Society for Human Resource Management revealed these top 5 skills that employees wish their managers would improve.
1. Effective communication
Strong managers truly listen to their workers, and they pass along information from upper management to keep everyone in the loop.
2. Ability to develop and train the team
Employees want to gain the skills they need to move up in the company. Employees who receive development and training feel supported and heard by their manager, and they're more likely to stick with the company.
3. Good at managing time and delegating
Failure to delegate is often a result of poor time management. When it's crunch time, a manager might take on tasks that should be delegated. This makes the employee feel like their manager doesn't trust them to do important things. The employee is also missing out of valuable experience.
4. Can cultivate an inclusive team culture
This is where empathy and compassion come in. Every employee works in a different way, and it's up to management to make adjustments to ensure that every employee has the same opportunities to succeed as everyone else.
5. Skilled at managing team performance
There's nothing worse than having a team member who just won't carry their load. Everyone else has to pick up the slack and morale suffers if a manager doesn't intervene.
Check out this article from Fast Company for more on these 5 skills.