12 Effective Ways to Be a Good (or Better) Manager

You’re a manager. Chances are, you’ve never received the training to be one. Managers are often promoted for their skills and performance as individual contributors, not their leadership potential.

The good thing is that leadership potential isn’t rigid. You can step into your power as a great leader even without management training by mastering specific skills like effective communication and interpersonal intelligence. Ahead, we’ll explain how.

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1. Care genuinely about your team.

Management is fundamentally a people job, whether you’re in sales, engineering, or pharmaceuticals. The world of work is rife with fatiguing changes and demands emotional intelligence, resilience, and yes, caring, from leaders.

Unlike other items on this list, which are skills developed with practice, caring is a decision that’s wholly in your power to make.

How to Take Care of Your Team:

• Champion inclusion and equity. Every team member arrives with unique lived experiences shaped by their race, gender, sexuality, disability status, and life journey. Learn about and honor their differences, but don’t stop there. Real inclusion isn't just awareness — it's action. Offer flexible hours to parents, arrange accessibility tools proactively, or celebrate special observances meaningfully.
• Create an atmosphere of psychological safety. Make your team a safe space to admit mistakes, ask for help, and share honest feedback without fear of retaliation. Start with yourself — share your own stumbles, welcome tough feedback, and make every mistake a learning moment, not a blame game. 
• Go to bat for your employees. Become your team's fiercest advocate, clearing paths, championing voices, and sponsoring talent. Ensure your people are fairly compensated, treated with respect by organizational leadership, and getting the promotions and opportunities they deserve.

2. Develop your confidence. 

It takes incredible courage to be an effective leader, and confidence is the starting point. 

“The confident leader does not feel challenged by others; they welcome the contributions of teammates and create an atmosphere of safety,” said Christine Matzen, founder of Oak Street Strategies, a leadership development and strategy consultancy, and author of Leader: The Journey to Become the Force Your Business Needs to Win. 

“This safety allows employees to develop a strong sense of autonomy while also contributing to the team in a culture of camaraderie.”

Tips to Bolster Your Confidence:

• Regularly reflect on how you lead. Self-awareness can make you a better leader. Build it by journaling after significant projects, meetings, and conflicts or taking assessments like the CliftonStrengths assessment.
• Put in the work to improve your management skills. Feeling equipped to do your job will increase your confidence. Find a mentor, and dedicate time to developing new skills (for example, by reading management guides or attending webinars).
• Take an improvisational theater workshop. In improv theater, performers create everything on the spot — plot, characters, and dialogue — in a safe, non-judgmental space. This art helps you master key leadership skills in a judgment-free zone: active listening, the “yes, and” principle, and pure spontaneity.

3. Keep the door open.

Lattice’s 2025 State of People Strategy Report found that 97% of managers who have daily or weekly check-ins with direct reports feel somewhat or very connected to direct reports.

The most revealing chats happen behind closed doors in one-on-ones — provided you make them a safe space. This is key to building a feedback-friendly culture. 

In her book Radical Candor, ex-CEO coach Kim Scott states, “One-on-ones are your must-do meetings, your single best opportunity to listen, really listen, to the people on your team.” She provides the following tips.

How to Run Great One-on-One Meetings:

• Keep up with your one-on-one meetings: Scott recommends meeting for 25 minutes every other week with each direct report, minimum. Make time creatively by scheduling these conversations over walks or lunches.
• Get to know your employees. Ask what they’re passionate about, how their day is going, what inspires them to do their best work, and what career development goals they have. 
• Manage your energy. Active listening and important conversations can be draining, so pick a time when you are most present and energetic. If your energy picks up after 10 AM, schedule your meetings after 10 AM. Managing is emotionally demanding, so make sure you factor in breaks to decompress between meetings.

4. Give meaningful feedback that supports growth.

You want to be nice, but you don’t want to be pushed around. You want to be honest, but you don’t want to come across as harsh. As a manager, you’ll need to walk this line everywhere: in the meeting room, by the watercooler, and during the oft-dreaded performance review cycle. 

Getting comfortable with giving regular feedback will allow you to create a culture of continuous improvement, which is central to building a high-performing team. Learn and follow frameworks until you develop your own style.

Handy Models for Giving Feedback:

STAR (Situation-Task-Action-Result) Model

The STAR feedback model focuses on specific instances and their outcomes. Positive or constructive, your feedback becomes clearer, more actionable, and less subjective when you follow this model. Here’s how it works:

• Situation: Describe the specific context or scenario where the behavior occurred. This sets the stage and provides necessary background.
• Task: Explain the specific task or goal the person was trying to achieve within that situation. This clarifies the objective.
• Action: Detail the specific actions the person took in that situation. This is the core of the feedback, focusing on observable behaviors.
• Result: Share the outcome or impact of those actions. This connects the behavior to its consequences, whether positive or negative.

What you could say: “During last week’s client presentation (situation), your goal was to explain our new product features clearly (task). You used clear visuals and answered questions confidently (action), which helped the client understand the value of our product (result)."

GROW (Goal-Reality-Options-Way Forward) Model

The GROW model is a coaching and problem-solving framework that guides people toward achieving their goals through a structured conversation. It consists of four stages:

• Goal: Define the specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) goal the person wants to achieve.
• Reality: Explore the current situation, including obstacles, resources, and relevant past experiences. 
• Options: Brainstorm possible strategies, solutions, or actions that could help the person reach their goal. 
• Way Forward: Determine the specific action items, set timelines, and identify any support needed to ensure accountability.

What you could say: "Let’s create more persuasive presentations for stakeholders (goal). Right now, you tend to read directly from your slides and stutter (reality). What are some ways you could make your delivery more engaging (options)? Let’s agree to practice together and rehearse your responses to objections before your next presentation (way forward)."

Curiosity-Based Conversations

A curiosity-based conversation is a feedback approach that fosters open, two-way dialogue through thoughtful, non-judgmental questions instead of delivering feedback as a one-way critique. This approach encourages mutual understanding, stronger relationships, and continuous learning. 

For example, if you have a team member who consistently struggles to meet deadlines, consciously set aside your assumptions around their competency or willingness to be punctual, and ask questions like:

• “I noticed the last few deadlines have been tough to meet. What’s been the biggest challenge for you?”
• “What strategies have worked for you in the past when managing tight deadlines?”
• “How can we adjust things to set you up for success next time?”

5. Master the art of receiving feedback.

Receiving unreserved feedback from your direct reports can be incredibly discomfiting. But, accept it gracefully, and you’ve laid a brick in the foundation of a strong feedback culture. 

The crux is to listen actively and, more importantly, act on the feedback. Active listening is a core communication skill. It’s the art of processing, reflecting on, and remembering what the other says. It helps the speaker feel heard and puts them at ease.

3 Ways to Master Active Listening:

• Stay engaged. After your employee is done speaking, mirror their message back. Start with something like, “So what I hear you saying is…” This proves active listening (and genuine interest!) and catches any misunderstandings.
• Listen with the intent to understand, not respond. Rather than retorting defensively, manage your emotions and investigate rather than judge the feedback. Ask questions like:
  
  • “Why?”
  • “How can I help?”
  • “What can I do or stop doing that would make this easier?”
• Follow up thoughtfully. Real acceptance requires more than just listening — you must demonstrate visible change, ask for help when stuck, and keep your team updated on progress. Also, keep an eye on your employee engagement survey results and respond to the insights proactively.

6. Communicate clearly.

Communicate with your team about what you expect of them and what they can expect from you. Be sure to ask them for feedback on the clarity of your communication, and ideas for improvement. 

How to Be a Good Communicator:

• Double-check. Before you send that email or outline your team’s new project, take a beat and ensure the message reads exactly how you mean it to. Highlight action items prominently in bold or color.
• Avoid communicating while angry. Good leaders communicate respectfully, clearly, kindly, and reassuringly. They avoid sarcasm, yelling, or being overly harsh or terse. Unmanaged anger can bring out the worst in people. If you’re dealing with a frustrating situation, wait until you cool off to resume communicating.
• Be specific. Nobody likes to be micromanaged. Avoid this management mistake by providing as much detail as possible. For every task, ensure you clearly outline:
  
  • Individual responsibilities 
  • Deadlines and submission guidelines 
  • Resources for troubleshooting

7. Get in tune with your team’s strengths.

Great managers learn about, value, and capitalize on their reports' unique talents and abilities (and even eccentricities). Playing to each person's strengths heightens teamwork and company performance while developing the individual professionally.

How to Build Strengths:

• Pay attention to how team members naturally perform in different situations to understand their innate potential. Use structured assessment tools or gather external perspectives from 360-degree reviews to identify:
  
  • What their strengths are
  • The triggers that activate those strengths
  • Their preferred learning style
• Create individual development plans with strengths in mind. Hone your team's natural talents instead of fixating on weaknesses. Match each role to their strongest abilities, empowering them to reshape their work around these strengths — without compromising on business objectives.
• Foster strength awareness. Build strength-spotting into your team's rhythms. Highlight specific talents in team meetings, and celebrate the concrete wins that come from people maximizing their natural strengths.

8. Learn to delegate.

Who’d have thought taking tasks off your plate would be so hard? But it is! Perfectionism, low trust, and guilt about overburdening your team can all contribute to time management struggles and burnout. Overcome them, and you'll get out of the weeds and to where you belong: looking at the big picture, developing talent, and, you know, managing.

How to Get Started With Delegation:

• Start small. Begin by delegating routine tasks with precise, repeatable steps, such as compiling weekly reports or scheduling meetings. As your confidence grows, you’ll feel better about delegating project management and critical decision-making.
• Identify the right people. Seek out the most dependable people on your team. Who has the enthusiasm and capacity for the task? Can this task help them develop professionally?
• Avoid micromanaging. Accept that delegating is a learning process for you and your team, so be patient and trust your choice of delegatee. Set clear expectations, provide necessary resources, and then step back. Schedule check-ins rather than hovering over every detail.

9. Balance trust and accountability.

Since the pandemic, some employers have had a hard time acclimating to the rise of remote work and have ramped up surveillance. Employees have reacted with crafty workarounds, including mouse shuffling, quiet quitting, coffee badging, and quiet vacationing. 

And, according to a 2023 study by people analytics firm Visier, employees are up to three times more likely to engage in performative work that makes them look busy when their employers use surveillance tools.

Over the long term, this erosion of trust wounds company culture and employee wellbeing.

Rather than penalizing undesirable behavior, create an accountability system that encourages your team to voluntarily raise the standards of their performance.

How to Create a System of Accountability:

• Lead by example. As a new manager, model the accountability you expect from others. When leaders are transparent, consistent, and fair, they build trust and set the tone for the rest of the organization.
• Co-create your accountability systems. Include your team while implementing OKRs and performance objectives. When people have a say in how they are held accountable, they are more likely to trust and feel invested in the system. 
• Be objective and transparent about how you measure performance. Use Lattice OKRs & Goals to align individual and team objectives with company priorities. This ensures everyone understands their responsibilities and that progress is tracked transparently.

10. Invest in professional development.

Borrowing from Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella’s aphorism, this is the age of the ‘learn-it-alls.’ Workers are aware that their job security and career longevity depend on continuous learning, and they place a premium on employers who support their professional development.

There’s plenty you can do as a manager even if you don’t have a say over the budget or your company’s learning and development (L&D) policies.

How to Nurture Continuous Learning:

• Incorporate ‘just-in-time’ learning: Knowledge and skills are better retained in the long term when theory is followed immediately with practice. Pinpoint a skill gap or growth area that matches your team’s current projects. Then, offer quick, targeted resources — like micro-courses or short workshops — to spark immediate progress.
• Think outside the classroom: You don’t need expensive courses or leadership coaching programs to acquire knowledge. Conferences, book stipends, and peer coaching can expand minds, too.
• Mentor, sponsor, and coach: Never underestimate your influence over your teammates’ career trajectory. Offer to mentor bright reports, help them expand their networks, and nominate them for the opportunities they deserve.

11. Recognize your team’s accomplishments.

Studies show that workplace recognition supports job satisfaction and employee retention. Conversely, the lack of recognition can make employees feel less committed to the job, team, and organization, ultimately affecting their performance.

“Employees who are happy and respected in their work environment pass on that same feeling to the customers and individuals they interact with daily,” Matzen added.

Tips for Meaningful Recognition:

• Recognize your employees’ accomplishments. Praise employees for a job well done, privately and publicly. Thank your team regularly for their hard work and celebrate their wins. Something as simple as a thank-you note can be meaningful, as long as it’s not overdone.
• Ensure top performers are suitably rewarded for good work. Do what it takes to help them get that raise or promotion by coordinating with HR, helping them make use of pay-for-performance programs, or petitioning organization leadership.
• Tie your praise to the company’s values, vision, and organizational culture. For example, if ‘customer care’ is a core value and your teammate went above and beyond to help a customer, make sure you highlight that link. Lattice Praise allows you to do that easily.

12. Find your authentic management style.

If you want to be a better manager for your employees, you have to lead in your own way. This means holding yourself to high standards of integrity and guiding your decisions with the inner compass of your own personal values. 

Tips for Being More Authentic at Work:

• Manage in ways that come naturally to you. For example, if you’re an introvert and feel uncomfortable addressing large groups, prioritize thoughtful one-on-one interactions over larger team-wide meetings.
• Show your team who you are. Maybe you're obsessed with sci-fi novels, love barefoot running, or can't stop talking about your sourdough starter. Share what lights you up, and help your team feel safe sharing tidbits from their personal lives. 
• Own your mistakes. If you mess up, don’t hide it. Instead, talk it through with your team and let them know how you plan to improve in the future. This transparency builds the trust that powers high-performing teams.

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