Learn why leadership skills are important for managers. Discover how these capabilities affect engagement, retention, team performance, and managerial success.
Written by Laura Bouttell • Wed 31st December 2025
Leadership skills are important for managers because management authority alone cannot produce the results managers need. Research demonstrates that managers account for 70% of the variance in employee engagement—a statistic that reflects leadership skill, not managerial position. When almost 60% of first-time managers receive no training, organisations create "accidental managers" who possess authority without the leadership skills to use it effectively.
The distinction matters: management involves authority to direct; leadership involves capability to influence, develop, and inspire. Managers with leadership skills create engaged teams that perform; managers without them create disengaged teams that underperform regardless of their formal authority. Understanding why leadership skills matter specifically for managers reveals what separates effective managers from struggling ones.
Managers need leadership skills because their role fundamentally requires leading, not merely managing:
The engagement imperative: Managers directly determine team engagement. Gallup's 70% variance statistic means your leadership skills—how you communicate, develop, recognise, and support—matter more than any other factor in your team's engagement.
The influence reality: Authority grants permission to direct; leadership skills provide capability to influence. Teams comply with authority; they commit to leadership. The difference between compliance and commitment dramatically affects performance.
The talent retention challenge: "People leave managers, not companies" reflects reality. Employees trusting their leadership are 58% less likely to seek other employment. Your leadership skills directly determine whether your best people stay or go.
The performance multiplier: Leadership skills multiply managerial effectiveness. The same team produces different results depending on how well their manager leads them. Strong leadership skills extract maximum value from available talent.
The development responsibility: Managers bear primary responsibility for developing their people. Without leadership skills—coaching, feedback, development planning—this responsibility goes unmet, creating capability gaps and succession weakness.
Managers face unique leadership challenges:
| Challenge | Leadership Skill Requirement |
|---|---|
| Direct responsibility | Personal accountability for team results |
| Daily interaction | Continuous relationship management |
| Performance pressure | Balancing results with development |
| Translation role | Connecting strategy to operations |
| Resource constraints | Delivering results with limited resources |
| Competing demands | Managing upward, downward, and laterally |
The proximity factor: Managers interact with teams daily, creating continuous opportunity for leadership impact—positive or negative. Each interaction shapes engagement, trust, and performance. Leadership skill quality determines whether these interactions build or erode team effectiveness.
Managers require specific leadership skills to excel:
1. Communication
Managers communicate constantly—setting expectations, providing feedback, sharing information, recognising achievement. Communication skill determines whether these interactions clarify or confuse, motivate or demoralise.
Key capabilities:
2. Coaching and development
Managers develop people through daily interaction. Coaching skill enables development conversations that build capability rather than just correct performance.
Key capabilities:
3. Delegation
Managers must accomplish through others. Delegation skill enables appropriate work distribution that develops team members while ensuring results.
Key capabilities:
4. Motivation and recognition
Managers sustain team motivation. Recognition and motivation skills maintain engagement through challenges and routine alike.
Key capabilities:
5. Performance management
Managers drive performance through clear expectations, feedback, and accountability. Performance management skill ensures teams achieve required results.
Key capabilities:
Leadership skills for managers work together:
The communication foundation: Communication skill underpins all other skills. Coaching requires communication; delegation requires communication; recognition requires communication. Weak communication undermines everything else.
The trust enabler: Skills like active listening, consistent follow-through, and genuine recognition build trust. Trust enables other skills to be effective; without trust, even skilled approaches fail.
The development multiplier: Coaching and delegation skills multiply capability over time. Managers who develop their people create ever-increasing team capacity that compounds with tenure.
Leadership skills directly determine team engagement:
The engagement equation: Engagement = (Clear expectations) + (Resources and support) + (Recognition) + (Development opportunity) + (Voice and input) + (Purpose connection) + (Trust in leadership)
Each element in this equation depends on manager leadership skill. Managers skilled at all elements produce engaged teams; those unskilled at any produce engagement gaps.
Current engagement reality:
Most managers have teams with significant engagement opportunities. Leadership skill development offers the primary lever for improvement.
Engagement outcomes: Engaged teams outperform disengaged teams by 21% in productivity. They also show lower turnover, better quality, improved safety, and higher customer satisfaction. Your leadership skills directly produce these outcomes through their engagement impact.
Research quantifies what skilled manager-leaders achieve:
Performance improvements:
Retention improvements:
Development improvements:
Wellbeing improvements:
The untrained manager problem creates widespread leadership skill deficits:
The promotion pattern: Organisations promote based on technical performance. Strong individual contributors become managers without leadership skill development. The assumption that technical competence implies leadership capability proves frequently false.
The training gap: Almost 60% of first-time managers receive no training when transitioning to leadership. Less than 44% of managers report receiving any management training. This gap means most managers learn leadership through trial and error—often at their teams' expense.
The support deficit: New managers often lack mentors, coaches, or communities of practice. Without support systems, managers struggle to develop skills their roles require.
The time pressure: Operational demands crowd out development time. Managers responsible for immediate results struggle to invest in skill development that produces longer-term payoffs.
Manager leadership skill deficits produce predictable problems:
Engagement damage: Managers lacking leadership skills cannot build engagement. Their 70% influence on engagement becomes 70% negative influence.
Talent loss: Skilled employees leave managers who create poor experiences. The best people—with options—leave first, creating negative selection.
Performance shortfall: Teams led by unskilled managers underperform their potential. Capability exists but cannot be realised without skilled leadership.
Culture erosion: Managers shape culture through daily behaviour. Unskilled managers create unintentional—often dysfunctional—cultures within their teams.
Personal struggle: Managers lacking skills struggle personally. Management becomes stressful when you lack tools to succeed. Burnout rates among managers reflect this struggle.
Managers can develop leadership skills through deliberate effort:
1. Self-awareness development
Understand your current skill levels and impact. Seek 360-degree feedback; request input from your team; reflect on results. Without awareness, improvement lacks direction.
2. Priority focus
Focus development on highest-impact skill gaps. Attempting to develop everything simultaneously produces no progress anywhere. Identify one or two priority skills and concentrate effort.
3. Daily practice
Use daily interactions as practice opportunities. Each one-on-one is communication practice; each delegation decision is delegation practice; each feedback conversation is coaching practice.
4. Feedback seeking
Actively seek feedback on your leadership effectiveness. Ask your team how you could better support them; ask your manager how you could improve; request specific behavioural feedback.
5. Learning investment
Invest in structured learning: leadership courses, management books, podcasts, articles. Create conceptual frameworks that guide practice.
6. Coaching utilisation
If available, utilise coaching support. Coaching provides individualised feedback and accountability that accelerates development.
7. Community connection
Connect with other managers facing similar challenges. Peer learning, shared experience, and mutual support accelerate development.
Organisations should support manager leadership skill development:
Transition support: Provide training and support when people become managers. Don't assume technical performers automatically become effective leaders.
Ongoing development: Continue developing managers throughout their careers. Leadership skill requirements evolve; development must continue.
Time protection: Protect time for development from operational pressures. Without protected time, development doesn't happen.
Coaching access: Provide coaching support, particularly during transitions and challenges. Coaching produces 580% average ROI.
Feedback systems: Establish mechanisms for feedback to managers. Without feedback, managers cannot calibrate their effectiveness.
Accountability: Hold managers accountable for engagement and development outcomes, not just operational results. What gets measured gets attention.
Leadership skill requirements evolve across management levels:
First-line managers:
Priority skills:
Focus: Individual team member engagement and development
Middle managers:
Priority skills:
Focus: Cross-functional effectiveness and next-level development
Senior managers:
Priority skills:
Focus: Organisational impact and leadership legacy
Key transitions demand new leadership skills:
Individual contributor to first-line manager: The most challenging transition. Requires shifting from personal contribution to team enablement. Many technical skills become less relevant; new leadership skills become essential.
First-line to middle manager: Requires shifting from leading individuals to leading through other leaders. Coordination, influence, and translation skills become critical.
Middle to senior manager: Requires shifting from execution focus to strategic focus. Direction-setting, stakeholder management, and enterprise thinking become essential.
Each transition: Skills enabling success at the previous level may not ensure success at the next. Continuous skill evolution accompanies career progression.
Managers can assess leadership skill impact through:
Engagement data: Track team engagement through surveys, pulse checks, and informal feedback. Engagement reflects leadership skill effectiveness.
Retention patterns: Monitor team retention, particularly for high performers. Retention reflects whether your leadership creates environments people want to remain in.
Performance trends: Track team performance over time. Improving performance suggests skill development; declining performance suggests skill deficits.
Development progress: Monitor team member development. Growing capabilities suggest coaching and development skills; stagnation suggests deficits.
Feedback themes: Identify patterns in feedback received. Recurring themes indicate consistent skill strengths or development needs.
Warning signs suggest leadership skill deficits need attention:
Engagement indicators:
Communication indicators:
Development indicators:
Relationship indicators:
Leadership skills are important for managers because management authority cannot produce the engagement and performance results managers need. Research shows managers account for 70% of engagement variance—through leadership skills like communication, coaching, and recognition—not through position authority. Managers with leadership skills create committed, high-performing teams; those without create compliant at best, disengaged at worst.
Managers need communication skills (setting expectations, giving feedback, active listening), coaching and development skills (asking questions, facilitating growth), delegation skills (appropriate work distribution), motivation and recognition skills (understanding motivators, acknowledging contribution), and performance management skills (setting standards, addressing issues). These skills directly determine team engagement and performance.
Leadership skills affect manager effectiveness by determining team engagement (70% variance), talent retention (58% lower turnover intention from trusted leadership), team performance (21% higher productivity from engaged teams), and capability development. Managers with strong leadership skills consistently outperform those relying solely on position authority.
Managers can absolutely learn leadership skills. Unlike fixed traits, skills develop through practice, feedback, and deliberate effort. Research demonstrates significant improvement from structured development. However, skill development requires sustained commitment—expecting months of practice, not days of training, to produce meaningful change. Organisations should provide training, coaching, and time for development.
Many managers lack leadership skills because almost 60% receive no training when transitioning to management. Organisations promote based on technical performance, assuming competence in one area implies capability in another. New managers often lack mentors, coaches, or support systems. Operational demands crowd out development time. This creates "accidental managers" without skills their roles require.
Leadership skills affect team engagement directly—managers account for 70% of engagement variance. Skills in setting clear expectations, providing resources and support, delivering recognition, enabling development, creating voice, connecting to purpose, and building trust collectively determine engagement levels. Each skill contributes to the engagement equation; deficits in any area create engagement gaps.
When managers lack leadership skills, teams experience confusion (unclear expectations), frustration (inadequate support), invisibility (no recognition), stagnation (no development), voicelessness (input ignored), and distrust (inconsistent behaviour). These experiences drive disengagement, turnover of best performers, underperformance, and culture erosion. The manager struggles personally while the team struggles collectively.
Leadership skills are important for managers because management requires leadership to succeed. The title "manager" grants authority; leadership skills enable effective use of that authority. Without leadership skills, managers have responsibility without capability—a recipe for struggle and underperformance.
The statistics confirm this reality: 70% engagement variance from managers, 60% receiving no training, 77% of organisations lacking leadership depth. These numbers reflect an enormous capability gap with enormous consequences—for teams, organisations, and managers themselves.
For managers, the implication is clear: leadership skill development deserves priority investment. Your career advancement depends on it; your team's engagement depends on it; your personal effectiveness and satisfaction depend on it. The good news: skills can be developed. The requirement: sustained commitment to growth.
For organisations, the implication is equally clear: manager leadership skill development represents perhaps the highest-leverage investment available. Every manager leads a team whose engagement and performance depends on that manager's skills. Investing in manager development improves outcomes for every employee those managers lead.
The choice facing managers isn't whether to develop leadership skills—the role requires them. The choice is whether to develop deliberately or struggle without them.
Management gives you a team. Leadership skills enable you to lead them. The difference determines everything that matters—for them and for you.