How to Develop Managerial Skills for New Managers | Guide
March 4, 2025 · Education · 9 min read
Becoming a manager changes the job. You are no longer judged only by the quality of your own work. You also have to create clarity, make decisions, coordinate work, give feedback, remove obstacles and help other people perform well.
That transition is often under-supported. In UK research published by the Chartered Management Institute, 82% of managers entering management positions had received no formal management or leadership training. The figure is specific to CMI’s UK research, not a universal global rate, but it illustrates a common problem: people are frequently promoted because they are strong individual contributors and then expected to learn management while doing it.
Source: Chartered Management Institute, Better Management Report
The good news is that managerial skill is developable. The most useful approach combines clear expectations, deliberate practice, feedback, reflection and increasingly difficult management situations rather than relying on theory alone.
What changes when you become a manager?
A new manager has two connected responsibilities: deliver the work and create the conditions in which the team can deliver it. CIPD describes line managers as central to day-to-day operations, people management, implementation of organisational policies and team development.
Source: CIPD, Line managers’ role in supporting the people profession
That means the role is broader than supervising tasks. A capable manager needs to be able to:
- translate goals into clear priorities;
- set expectations and define what good performance looks like;
- delegate work without abandoning accountability;
- give useful feedback early;
- handle disagreement and performance problems directly;
- make decisions with incomplete information;
- coach people without doing their work for them;
- manage time, capacity and competing demands;
- communicate upward as well as downward;
- build enough trust that problems surface before they become crises.
Start by diagnosing your own management gaps
Do not begin with a generic list of leadership traits. Start with the situations you actually face. Review the last few weeks and ask where work became slower, less clear or more stressful because of something you did or did not do.
| Situation | Possible skill gap | Practice to build |
|---|---|---|
| Team members keep asking what to prioritise | Goal setting and communication | Set weekly priorities and define trade-offs |
| You keep taking work back from others | Delegation | Delegate outcomes, authority and checkpoints |
| Performance issues surprise people | Feedback | Address observable issues early and specifically |
| Meetings produce discussion but no action | Decision-making | End with owner, decision, deadline and next step |
| You are constantly interrupted | Operating rhythm | Create predictable check-ins and escalation rules |
| Conflict stays unresolved | Difficult conversations | Separate facts, impact, perspectives and agreed action |
CIPD’s management-development guidance similarly emphasises identifying development needs, choosing appropriate development methods and evaluating whether capability is improving.
Source: CIPD, Management development
A practical 90-day development plan for a new manager
Days 1 to 30: create clarity
Use the first month to understand the team before trying to redesign everything. Clarify each person’s responsibilities, current priorities, recurring problems, important stakeholders and decision boundaries.
Useful actions include:
- hold an individual conversation with each team member;
- document the team’s main goals and current commitments;
- identify work that is duplicated, unclear or repeatedly delayed;
- learn which decisions you can make and which need escalation;
- agree how urgent issues should be raised;
- set a regular rhythm for one-to-ones and team updates.
Days 31 to 60: practise the core management moves
Now focus on the behaviours that most directly affect performance: delegation, feedback, prioritisation and decision-making.
Choose one or two skills at a time. For example, if delegation is weak, deliberately delegate a meaningful piece of work, define the result, clarify the person’s authority, agree checkpoints and then resist the urge to take the work back at the first sign of difficulty.
Days 61 to 90: increase judgement and autonomy
By this stage, look for patterns. Which issues keep returning? Which decisions are still bottlenecked with you? Who is ready for more autonomy? Where is the team dependent on one person?
Your development goal should shift from simply handling today’s work to improving how the team operates.
1. Learn to communicate expectations clearly
Many management problems begin as clarity problems. “Do your best”, “keep me updated” and “this is urgent” are not precise instructions.
For important work, clarify:
- the outcome required;
- why it matters;
- the deadline;
- the quality standard;
- constraints that cannot be changed;
- what the employee can decide independently;
- when you want an update;
- what should trigger immediate escalation.
Clear expectations reduce unnecessary checking because both sides know what success and escalation look like.
2. Delegate outcomes, not just tasks
Delegation is not handing someone a task and disappearing. It is transferring appropriate responsibility while keeping managerial accountability.
A useful delegation conversation covers five points:
- Outcome: What needs to be achieved?
- Context: Why does it matter and who is affected?
- Authority: What can the employee decide without you?
- Checkpoints: When will you review progress?
- Escalation: What problems should come back to you immediately?
Do not delegate only low-value admin. Development happens when people gradually take responsibility for work that requires judgement.
3. Give feedback while it can still change the outcome
Feedback is most useful when it is specific, timely and connected to observable work. Avoid vague labels such as “not strategic enough” or “needs more confidence” unless you can explain the behaviour behind them.
A simple structure is:
- Situation: When and where did it happen?
- Behaviour or output: What did you actually observe?
- Impact: What effect did it have?
- Next step: What should happen differently?
For example: “In yesterday’s client update, the project risk was mentioned only at the end. That left little time to discuss options. In the next update, put the highest-impact risk near the top and recommend a response.”
CIPD’s current performance-management guidance emphasises that employees need to understand what is expected and have the skills, resources and support required to perform, while remaining accountable for their work.
Source: CIPD, Performance management
4. Improve decision-making by defining the decision first
Managers often waste time discussing a topic without being clear what decision is actually required.
Before a decision meeting, write down:
- the decision to be made;
- who owns it;
- what information is essential;
- what constraints apply;
- what happens if the decision is delayed;
- which stakeholders should be consulted rather than asked to approve.
Not every decision needs perfect information. Good managerial judgement includes knowing when more evidence would materially change the choice and when additional analysis is simply delaying action.
5. Manage priorities instead of merely managing your calendar
Time-management problems are often priority problems. A manager can have a perfectly organised calendar and still spend the week on the wrong work.
At the start of each week, identify:
- the few outcomes that matter most;
- deadlines that genuinely cannot move;
- work only you can do;
- work that should be delegated;
- decisions currently blocking others;
- meetings that can be shortened, combined or removed.
Protect time for work that requires thought. If every hour is available for meetings and instant responses, strategic work will always be displaced by whatever arrives next.
6. Handle conflict before positions harden
Do not treat every disagreement as a personality problem. Start with the work.
Ask each person:
- What happened?
- What outcome were you trying to achieve?
- What information did you have at the time?
- What impact did the disagreement have?
- What needs to change now?
Separate disagreements about facts, priorities, roles, resources and behaviour. They require different solutions. A role-clarity problem will not be solved by telling people to communicate better.
7. Build coaching into normal work
Coaching does not need to be a formal programme. It can happen in a five-minute conversation after a difficult meeting.
Instead of immediately giving the answer, ask:
- What do you think is happening?
- What options have you considered?
- What risk matters most?
- What would you do if I were unavailable?
- What support do you need from me?
The aim is not to withhold help. It is to help the employee build judgement so the same problem does not always need to return to the manager.
8. Use mentoring and formal training deliberately
Formal training can provide models, language and structured practice. Mentoring can provide perspective and organisational context. Neither should stand alone.
Before choosing a development activity, define the capability you want to improve. Afterward, decide where the manager will apply it in real work and how progress will be reviewed.
If structured development is appropriate, MATSH’s Supervisory Skills Development Course is one route to explore alongside workplace practice, coaching and feedback.
A one-to-one meeting structure that develops people
A useful one-to-one should not become a second status meeting. A simple agenda is:
- What is going well?
- What is blocked or unclear?
- What decisions or support are needed?
- What feedback should we discuss?
- What are you learning?
- What responsibility are you ready to take on next?
- What will each of us do before the next meeting?
Keep operational updates elsewhere when possible so development does not disappear under task reporting.
Common mistakes new managers should avoid
- Doing the team’s work yourself. It may feel faster today but creates dependence.
- Waiting too long to give feedback. Small issues become harder once they turn into patterns.
- Trying to be liked by avoiding difficult decisions. Unclear standards usually create more frustration, not less.
- Micromanaging because you are accountable. Accountability does not require controlling every method or detail.
- Using the same management style for every person and task. Capability, risk and experience differ.
- Confusing activity with performance. Focus on useful outcomes, not visible busyness.
- Assuming silence means agreement. Ask directly where people see risk, confusion or disagreement.
How to measure whether your managerial skills are improving
Do not measure development only by courses completed. Look for changes in how the team operates.
Useful evidence can include:
- fewer repeated clarification problems;
- decisions made at the appropriate level;
- better quality of delegated work;
- earlier escalation of risks;
- clearer performance conversations;
- less work bottlenecked with the manager;
- employees taking on greater responsibility successfully;
- feedback from the manager’s own supervisor and team.
Review these indicators periodically and choose the next skill to practise. Management development works best as an ongoing cycle: diagnose, practise, get feedback, reflect and repeat.
Frequently asked questions
What managerial skill should a new manager learn first?
Start with clarity: setting expectations, priorities and decision boundaries. Delegation, feedback and accountability are much easier when everyone understands what good work looks like.
How can a new manager learn without formal training?
Use real work deliberately. Ask for feedback from an experienced manager, practise one skill at a time, reflect after difficult situations and seek mentoring where useful. Formal training can accelerate development, but it should be connected to workplace application.
How do I stop micromanaging?
Agree the outcome, authority, checkpoints and escalation triggers before work begins. Then review at the agreed points instead of repeatedly checking how the employee is doing the task.
How often should I give feedback?
Give it when it is useful and close enough to the work to be actionable. Do not save important performance feedback for an annual review.
What is the difference between managing and leading?
In practice, new managers need both. They must organise work, make decisions and maintain standards while also creating direction, trust and commitment. Treating management and leadership as completely separate skills is rarely helpful in day-to-day team responsibility.
Sources and further reading
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