401 — What makes a great manager

The Mind Tools L&D Podcast

What does good management look like? What skills and capabilities does a manager need? Are you a good manager?

In this week’s episode of The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Ross Garner and Owen Ferguson are joined by Dr Anna Barnett, from our own in-house Insights team, to discuss the findings of our latest report: ‘Building Better Managers’.

In the first of three episodes exploring how we can improve management capability for our people and organizations, we discuss:

· How we define a ‘good’ manager

· The capabilities all managers need to perform, no matter their industry

· How to measure manager capability.

We’ve used the results of Anna’s research to develop our own manager skills assessment. It can help your managers identify skill gaps, while also giving L&D leaders an insight into critical development areas that exist across their organisations.

To speak to us about running our management skills assessment with your people, get in touch! Email [e-mail] or visit mindtools.com/business/poducts/mind-tools-insights to book a meeting.

During the discussion, Anna referenced the following papers:

Baron-Cohen, S., Wheelwright, S., Hill, J., Raste, Y., & Plumb, I. (2001). The “Reading the Mind in the Eyes” Test revised version: a study with normal adults, and adults with Asperger syndrome or high-functioning autism. The Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry and Allied Disciplines, 42(2), 241-251.

Carmeli, A., Reiter-Palmon, R., & Ziv, E. (2010). Inclusive leadership and employee involvement in creative tasks in the workplace: The mediating role of psychological safety. Creativity Research Journal, 22(3), 250-260.

Our report, ‘Building Better Managers’, will be released on July 9.

In ‘What I Learned This Week’, Owen shared how disagreement is often mistaken for bad listening.

Ross discussed the app Finch, for motivating behavior change.

For more from us, including access to our back catalogue of podcasts, visit mindtools.com/business. There, you'll also find details of our award-winning performance support toolkit, our off-the-shelf e-learning, and our custom work. 

Or become a member to support our show! Visit mindtools.com and use the offer code PODCAST15 for 15% off an individual subscription. This offer is for new subscribers only and can’t be used with any other offer.

Connect with our speakers 

If you'd like to share your thoughts on this episode, connect with us on LinkedIn:

· Ross Garner

· Owen Ferguson

· Dr Anna Barnett