How to Be an Effective and Inspiring Line Manager

Effective Line Management

Have you ever wanted to play the role of a colleague, boss, counsellor, and psychologist all in one job? Welcome to the role of the line manager!

Line managers play a pivotal and crucial role within businesses, especially in increasing productivity and engagement.

Managers will not only ensure organisational targets are met but they also need to meet the individual needs of their team members.

Managing people requires a unique set of skills and, fortunately, these can be learned and developed. In this post, we take a look at the key role that any line manager plays within a business and examine ways they can become more effective and inspiring leaders.

Listen to Our Line Management Podcast

What is a Line Manager?

A line manager is an individual within an organisation who oversees a team of people, resources, and operations in a business.

They report to a more senior manager and liaise between their team and higher management. Line managers have the responsibility for aligning the performance of their team with overall organisational goals.

Responsibilities can include jobs revolving around organisation, motivation, development, and performance measurement of their team.

Different Line Management Tasks May Include

Recruiting and hiring new team members
Training new team members and developing their skills
Setting objectives with clear outcomes
Communicating decisions and creating a team ethos
Monitoring individual and team goals against targets
Offering performance-related feedback to all team members
Coordinating with other line managers across the organisation
Cross-training employees to ensure assignments are covered at all times
Ensuring the health and safety and well-being of team members
Providing reports regarding productivity and other performance indicators to more senior management
Ensuring quality standards during all processes
Responding to issues that may affect the team and resolving them efficiently

It is important to note that there are likely to be different levels of line management within any organisation.

Team leaders and supervisors oversee the work of other employees. What is the difference between supervisors and team leaders? The main difference between team leaders and supervisors is their level of authority.

Team Leaders

Team leaders are normally workers who have a high degree of technical proficiency in their jobs and are experienced and well-respected within their teams. This means they can effectively motivate their peers and give guidance where necessary. Team leaders tend to act as intermediaries between staff members and supervisors.

Supervisors

Supervisors are more likely to take a role in strategic decision-making and will help deploy top management strategies. They tend to carry out administrative and technical tasks and ensure day-to-day tasks are completed on time.

Supervisors are often the first line of management and their main priority will be managing people, by monitoring performance and targets. They will then report back to upper management, while also feeding down decisions made by the senior management team, thus bridging the gap between the employer and employee.

Sometimes the distinction within these roles is less clear and areas of work and management will overlap. It is most likely that supervisors will take on all line management responsibilities, but team leaders may also, on occasion carry out certain tasks, such as helping to train other employees or responding to issues, so it is really important that everyone is equipped with the skills to effectively manage others.

How Important is Effective Line Management?

Given the connected nature of any line manager’s duties, these individuals are critical to the success of any organisation.

Whilst any senior management team will be responsible for the overall strategy and direction of a business, it is the more junior line managers and supervisors who need to implement this strategy in an effective and efficient manner.

Effective Leadership

Managers have an array of line management skills and are actively engaged and involved with their team members. They provide direction, support, and encouragement and deliver regular feedback. Effective leadership promotes a culture of success.

Research by Gallup has shown that the first level of management, including team managers or line managers, has the greatest impact on staff performance and engagement.

Managers Account for 70% of Variance in Employee Engagement

Problems With Strategy

Line managers are also in a position to identify and address problems with strategy, so are key to organisational learning and growth.

In addition to this, line managers are responsible for identifying and promoting individuals within their team to develop the new generation of line managers.

Effective line management is crucial to a company’s success, and we’ve seen, first-hand, the effect that line management training can have on a company.

Johnson & Johnson

For example, Johnson & Johnson - one of the companies we’ve worked with for many years has seen an improvement in performance and efficiency after going through our soft skills training.

During the training, they were able to identify actionable areas for improvement such as facilitation and efficiency, and quickly learned skills that they were able to implement right away.

What Are the Challenges of Line Management?

The life of a line manager and managing people comes with its own unique set of challenges. This is a complex role and can put an individual under a lot of pressure.

Many people are promoted to line managers because of their technical competence in the job, rather than their people skills, or soft skills. They will be selected on the basis of being good at their current job and left to their own devices.

One moment they are simply part of a team and excellent at their jobs; and the next, they are expected to be an informed and educated manager.

Often individuals lack the tools they need to be effective people managers and they struggle with this aspect of the role.

They often learn how to manage from another manager and are learning their leadership skills ‘by chance’, rather than attending a professional line management development course.

Stepping Into Line Management

For those people stepping into line management roles for the first time, it is important that the transition is a smooth one.

This CMI study showed that 70 percent of company directors, HR officers, and chief executives have put “upskilling line managers” in their top three challenges facing their organisation.

Businesses and organisations need to find better ways to equip their line managers, so they can manage their teams more effectively.

Challenges for line managers can include:

Going From Peer to Boss

Many people are promoted to line managers above their peers, some of whom may also have applied for the same role. It can be hard to transition into their more senior role and establish authority and credibility, whilst still maintaining positive working relationships. This requires an important shift in mindset.

Pressure

Many people simply lack confidence in themselves and can feel under huge pressure to perform. Line managers will have the same amount of time, but even more work to do.

So they will need to manage their time effectively and balance doing their job, with being available to their team. They may also need to deal with limited resources to solve problems that may arise.

Personal and Managerial Effectiveness

Line managers will need to balance their own role with overseeing their team. Alongside the technical skills of the job, they will need to utilise many more soft skills, such as communication, relationship management, and conflict resolution in order to maximise the effectiveness of the overall team.

Effective Communication

Line managers will need to effectively communicate with individuals across all levels, not only their own team but senior management and other line managers.

The way we speak - and listen - plays a key role in collaboration and teamwork, and is essential to innovation, problem-solving, and creativity. Line managers need to ensure that there are open lines of communication at all times.

Managing Performance and Accountability

Giving feedback and managing performance can be one of the hardest parts of managing people. This is often not just about measuring objectives and pay scales.

Performance management can be used to address company-wide issues, including facilitating change. Line managers will need the tools, skills, and understanding to do this effectively.

Motivating, Coaching, and Developing Team Members

Managers will need to motivate and inspire their staff and encourage them to meet their goals. They will also need to develop their skills and abilities, to help staff with their own career development.

Delegation

Team leaders will need to learn when to delegate and resist the urge to micro-manage.

There is a fine line between being an involved manager and a micro-manager and effective line managers know how to navigate this with success. Having trust in your team members’ abilities is central to this.

Managing Conflict

One of the most important parts of being in charge of a team is the ability to tackle workplace ‘issues’, to ensure the mental wellbeing (as well as the commercial success) of your team.

Managers will need to deal with conflicts, and personality clashes and address problems head-on as they emerge. Having difficult conversations can be a nerve-inducing experience, so line managers need the confidence and skills to do this.

Addressing the Challenges of Line Management

How to Become an Effective Leader

Take a moment to think of the best line manager you have ever had; one who inspired you to do your best, motivated you, helped you tackle problems, and had a genuine and lasting impact on your working life.

Once you understand how impactful great line management can be, this can be an exciting challenge to not only advance your own career but to empower and advance the careers of others.

Shift of Identity

Stepping into the role of a line manager is a shift of identity and it requires a new level of awareness and an additional set of skills to manage the role effectively.

Any success is both personal and team success and line managers need to examine the performance of the team as a whole. They need to look at collaboration and teamwork, performance against goals, employee engagement, and much more.

Shift of Thinking

One of the main shifts in thinking for line managers is to be around the way others work and that this may not be in the same way that they do.

Successful teams leverage the skills and talents of all team members in different ways to achieve success.

Clarify the Challenges

Many line managers struggle with the change, so it is essential for organisations to offer them the support they need, in order that they do not feel isolated and out of their depth.

This organisational “scaffolding” should include access to the right development programmes, resources, and time with their own managers, to develop essential skills and to continue learning.

Developing Soft Skills

Team leaders need to be consistently focused on and developing their people skills, including communication, teamwork, decision-making, flexibility, mental agility, and motivation.

Great managers bring the best out of people and help their employees shine’; they ask the right questions, listen carefully, lead by example, and are selfless in their work.

Managing Relationships

Former peers will view their new managers differently. Line managers need to understand and embrace this change. Successful line managers will need to be able to set clear expectations and boundaries, build high-quality relationships and improve team cohesion.

Delegation

Most line managers are excellent team contributors but should avoid being subconscious micro-managers, thinking their way is the only way to achieve the desired goal. Productive teams are led by managers who can delegate effectively. This shows trust and will improve motivation and engagement.

The Bigger Picture

Line managers will now need to oversee not only the work and happiness of their own teams but will need to be plugged into the ‘bigger picture’ of the organisation and its strategy and politics.

They will need to gather information on the needs and productivity of co-workers and build support for their team’s goals. They will also need to communicate company goals to their team effectively, so they can prioritise and be informed.

Managing Time

Great line managers will need to ensure they allow enough time for achieving both their own tasks and managing their team. Quality time makes people feel more engaged.

One study by Leadership IQ found that the optimal amount of time people should spend with their managers every week is six hours.

A rise from one hour to six hours led to employees feeling 29 percent more inspired by their work.

How We Can Help With Line Management Skills

It is essential that organisations help by providing line managers training, preferably before they start their new role.

We offer Open Courses, for the public and run regular Line Management Courses suitable for newly appointed line managers and those who want to improve their skills.

We also run Tailored Training Programmes, designed in partnership with the organisations we work with to respond to their specific people-driven challenges to help them meet their business objectives.

Our Line Management Courses address all the challenges mentioned above and will help individuals feel confident in their ability to manage, encourage and inspire others.

We demonstrate and help participants practice the techniques and tools they need to be effective leaders.