Leadership Skills for Managers ? 14 Questions That Highlight What Leaders Do

Managers who use only management skills, spend their time making assignments and monitoring employee performance.  Whereas, managers who use both management and leadership skills spend their time making assignments and encouraging employee performance. 

And while the difference between monitoring and encouraging may seem slight, in reality, the difference is huge.  That huge difference involves the leadership skill of influencing employees to make positive contributions continuously and willingly.  Leaders demonstrate this skill by how they make assignments, give feedback, and engage employees. 

Use these 14 questions to assess whether you are using both management skills and leadership skills:

1.  When I talk to individual employees about tasks, do I explain how their specific task is linked to the broader tasks of the team, staff, or organization?

2.  During casual conversations about workloads, do I find ways to highlight the positive skills, actions, or behaviors that lead to the successful completion of tasks?

3.  During formal conversations about workloads, do I highlight the Big Picture aspect of doing a great job by emphasizing our mission, vision, and strategic goals?

4.  When I assign tasks, do I allow employees to work on assignments (or with other employees) that expand their knowledge, skills, and abilities?

5.  When talking about our workloads, do I project a positive and can-do image regarding our abilities to succeed; using words such as we, our, and us?

6.  When talking about our workloads, do I emphasize common goals, common objectives, mutual interests, common vision, or common purpose?

7.  When talking to individual employees or to my entire staff, do I link the achievement of individual goals to the achievement of team goals or organizational goals?

8.  Do I take the time each day to do something small to let employees know that I value their contributions?

9.  Do I have a way to collect suggestions from employees and a way to ensure that useful suggestions are implemented?

10. Do I find ways to celebrate small accomplishments, small milestones, or small achievements?

11. Do I balance the types of feedback I give to employees; giving positive feedback when things go right as well as negative feedback when things go wrong?

12. Do I balance the types of employees I give feedback to; devoting as much time encouraging my best performers as I do reprimanding my worst performers?

13. When things go wrong, do I emphasize our ability to overcome obstacles as well as emphasize the skills we possess that will allow us to overcome those obstacles?

14. Am I positively consistent in my actions and behaviors; helping employees to feel reassured about how I will act in the workplace as well as about how I will react to things that occur in the workplace?

Be A Manager And A Leader

Any manager can distribute tasks and monitor employee performance.  But these actions do not inspire employees to do their best willingly and continuously.  The way to inspire employees is to be a manager as well as a leader.  To be a successful leader, you have to know what leaders do.  Start with these 14 leadership questions.