Level 2 Management Skills: Team Building

Level 2 Management Skills consists of the team management and team building skills any developing manager must master. They are the next level of skills found on the Management Skills Pyramid. which shows the skills a manager must master for a successful career. The Management Skills Pyramid shows how these management skills build on each other to create success.

Team Management Skills

Management Skills for Motivation

The most fundamental team management skill managers need to master is the motivation of your team and of the individual members of the team. You can't accomplish your goals as a manager unless your team is motivated to perform, to produce, to deliver the results you need.

Motivating each of the individuals on your team requires recognition on your part that each team member's motivation needs are different and that the primary source of their motivation comes from within the individual. And motivating the team requires a different approach from motivating the team members.

Motivation Skills Needed for Effective Employee and Team Motivation

These are the skills managers need to bring forth employee motivation.

• Recognize that all employees are motivated so the manager's job is to draw out that intrinsic motivation that every employee experiences.
• Provide a strategic framework with vision, strategies, and goals so employees can have clear expectations about what they are expected to accomplish.
• Remove the barriers and obstacles that are impeding employees from experiencing motivation.
• Provide frequent positive and constructive feedback so employees know how they're doing.
• Reward, thank, and recognize employees to reinforce their motivation.
• Hold regular one-on-one meetings with employees so they feel supported and informed.
• Practice servant leadership to foster employee involvement and employee engagement.

Management Skills for Training and Coaching

It is unlikely that you will ever manage a team where everyone is adequately trained. It is even more unlikely that you will have a team that never needs coaching. You need to have the level of training skills necessary to identify the training needs of your team members. You also need to provide the training they need for them to succeed.

Training Skills Needed for Effective Employee Development

These are the skills managers need to provide important training and development for employees.

• Understand the importance of and design an effective new employee orientation that helps employees assimilate and quickly contribute.
• Provide effective on-the-job training for employees.
• Provide cross training for employees to produce maximum flexibility for accomplishing work which saves money in labor costs.
• Enable employees to learn new skills which make them more valuable and can combat worker boredom.
• Provide training by job rotation to allow employees to further develop skills and ability to contribute.
• Design a successful mentoring and sponsoring program to help employees learn from other knowledgeable employees.
• Implement successful learn at work programs that may include the opportunity to learn at lunch (or attend a brown bag lunch) so that both the company and the employees benefit from them.

Coaching Skills Needed for Effective Employee Development

These are the skills managers need to provide coaching and mentoring for their employees' training and development.

• The ability to enable people to make mistakes so they learn but know when to step in and when to hang back and let them try on their own.
• The ability to coach employees so that they can improve their performance, grow their skills, and increase their ability to contribute at work.
• Knowing to set up one-on-one meetings to provide coaching that is specific to each employees' needs.
• Assist the employees to find appropriate mentors and sponsors in the workplace for additional coaching.
• The ability to actively listen so employees feel heard out and listened to.
• Understand and respond to nonverbal communication.
• Understand and use basic communication skills when coaching and interacting with employees.

Management Skills for Employee Involvement

All of a manager's efforts to train and develop employees, create an environment in which employees choose motivation, and provide positive feedback and morale building activities are aimed at one goal: increasing employee involvement.

Management Skills Needed for Effective Employee Involvement

These are the skills managers need to promote employee satisfaction and involvement for a happy, engaging, productive workplace.

• Provide inspiration to employees and pay as much attention to their satisfaction and happiness as you do to their work assignments and production.
• Create a work environment that provides employees the sense that they are important parts of a bigger picture.
• Create a work environment that fulfills the employees' need to be a part of a great team.
• Give your employees the freedom to think for themselves and don't be an autocratic boss or a micro-manager.
• Know how to give the employees the room they need to become more innovative and more committed to your goals.
• Do the same things that reduce turnover and increase employee retention to increase employee involvement.
• Provide clear goals and honest, constructive feedback.
• Provide positive feedback because it is critical to keeping employees engaged. It has to be deserved and honest, but don't omit it.
• When you actively delegate a task to an employee they have an opportunity to grow and tackle new challenges.
• Make certain that you actually delegate growth work properly and don't just dump more work on the employees.
• Knowing how to be a participative manager is key in employee involvement.