70 Skills Challenges

Receiving feedback which identifies an area where you have fallen short of expectations isn’t always easy to take. If you don’t agree with what’s being said, a common and instinctive reaction is to defend rather than to enquire. But enquiry is helpful – asking questions helps you fully understand the impact of your behaviour and actions. It’s also useful because if the feedback provider cannot answer your questions, it’s possible that their feedback isn’t as accurate or objective as it should be. Keeping calm and asking questions highlights opportunities for improvement in both yourself and potentially the feedback provider too.

As a manager, you influence how your people are feeling. You have the power to increase, or alleviate, the stresses they experience in their everyday work. The build-up of frequent, repetitive micro stresses often leads to exhaustion and frustration, and it damages morale and productivity too. Asking people to switch tasks and regularly interrupting them when they are already busy on something else is known as ‘boss bombing’. It saps energy and confuses people about their priorities.

Do you think of yourself as an introvert or an extrovert?

People who lean towards more introverted behaviour can easily be overlooked in the workplace. But introverts make excellent team players, offering complementary qualities to their extroverted peers. Their capacity for focus and attention to detail is invaluable and because they’re not big talkers, they’re often excellent listeners and work very well one-on-one. A positive and inclusive culture means valuing the contributions from your more introverted colleagues as well as the extroverted ones.

Being accountable means taking ownership of your actions and behaviour. It means being open to learning from mistakes and focusing on resolving problems rather than blaming someone else for what’s happened. Even when you’re not directly responsible, you can still be accountable if the issue occurred on your watch. By not shying away from this and feeling confident to speak up and take ownership of outcomes, you demonstrate leadership, integrity and accountability.

Presenteeism (working while unwell or disengaged) and burnout (physical and emotional exhaustion) feed off each other in today’s always-on work culture, with remote working and constant connectivity often making both worse. The consequences can be serious for organisations, leading to lower productivity and higher turnover. For individuals, the negative impact on wellbeing and relationships is a problem. The solution begins by recognising warning signs early and establishing healthier work boundaries.

It’s great that you want to be a manager. But being good at your current job is not enough. You need to show that you demonstrate the skills and behaviours required of someone at the next level. That means understanding what’s required and showing that you meet the stated criteria.

Do you know what it takes to implement change successfully?

Implementing successful change is a leadership issue. People need to believe in the reasons for change and must want to work differently if they are to embrace it.

Sometimes we know something to be true. At other times we only believe something to be true. Understanding the difference is important. We need to be aware of how and when we are presenting information as fact (which we can substantiate independently) and when we are presenting an opinion (which we may use to influence others). We also need to be able to identify when others are sharing facts or opinions with us. It’s illuminating to ask questions, to engage positively with other viewpoints and to test our own beliefs.