Effective development goals for managers strengthen leadership skills, benefitting managers and also their teams. If you are a manager, these goals can improve your skills in leading team members and creating a better work environment. They also help with communication skills and support continuous improvement.
What’s Coming Up
- Key Skills That Effective Managers Need
- Transitioning from Individual Contributor to Manager
- 5 Key Areas for a Manager Development Plan
- High-Impact Development Goals for Different Management Levels
- 5 Development Goals for Managers Who Are New to Leadership
- 5 Development Goals for Managers Who Are Mid-Level
- 5 Development Goals for Managers Who Are Senior Leaders
- 5 Development Goals for Managers at the Executive Level
- Boosting Team Performance
- Taking Your Growth to the Next Level
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Further Reading
Key Skills That Effective Managers Need
Career development is different for managers than for other job paths. Most employees focus on getting better at their tasks. But managers need to learn how to lead others while still getting results.
To be successful as a manager, you need several important skills, including:
- Strategic thinking: A good manager understands company goals and creates detailed plans for their team.
- People leadership: This involves motivating team members and helping them grow.
- Business acumen: Managers must make smart decisions based on financial and operational needs.
- Communication skills: It’s important to clearly share information with your team and other departments.
- Change management: Guiding teams through changes in the workplace is a key part of good management.
These skills matter more now than ever before. With more people working from home, managers must foster a culture where teamwork happens even when people aren’t together. Managers now lead through relationships, not just by giving orders.
Is your team operating at its best? Find out with our free Team Dynamics Quiz. Get quick, insightful, and actionable results in just 2 minutes.
Transitioning from Individual Contributor to Manager
One of the most common struggles for new managers is to accept the change in work and focus. Instead of doing all the work yourself, you need to help others succeed. These struggles can show up in a variety of ways:
- You might have difficulty delegating tasks because you find it hard to assign work to others.
- You might micromanage your team – watching them too closely as they do work in their own way.
- You might avoid difficult conversations.
- You might go for short-term wins, instead of focusing on long-term success.
- You might find it hard to communicate effectively across various organizational levels, even though you are expected to be able to speak to senior directors about strategy and also to your team about daily tasks.
The biggest challenge for new managers is learning that their success depends on their team’s achievements, not just on their own work.
5 Key Areas for a Manager Development Plan
Growing as a manager means more than just learning a new mindset or new job skills. While your technical skills still matter, you also need people skills, big-picture thinking, and emotional awareness.
Development goals for managers are most effective when they are focused on five key areas. Each area helps with different parts of leadership.
1. People Management Skills
Managing people is at the heart of leadership. Great managers coach their team members, build a strong team, and understand conflict resolution. They excel at finding and keeping talented people, and they give feedback that helps others grow.
2. Strategic Thinking Goals
Managers must connect their team’s work to broader company objectives by balancing day-to-day responsibilities with a long-term strategic perspective. A solid understanding of financial fundamentals lays the groundwork for this, enabling more effective decision-making. Strategic thinking also requires anticipating future trends, understanding market dynamics, identifying risks and opportunities, and aligning resources accordingly.
3. Communication and Influencing Skills
The ability to effectively communicate is important for any manager. Successful managers give clear presentations, practice active listening, and write messages that don’t cause confusion.
The best managers negotiate well to find solutions that everyone can accept, and they also build partnerships across different teams. That means that they are able to influence people to support ideas, adopt new strategies, and take action toward shared goals.
4. Change Management
Today’s managers must lead effectively through change. This means guiding teams through workplace shifts clearly, building resilience, and staying flexible when needs change. Good change leaders spot problems early and keep people committed to the best interests of the team and company, even during difficult transitions.
5. Personal Effectiveness
Personal growth supports leadership development. Effective managers use time management to focus on what matters most. They understand emotions, make good decisions under pressure, handle stress well, and maintain work-life balance to prevent burnout that could harm both themselves and their teams.
To address these five key areas, professional development plans for managers can utilize SMART goals.
High-Impact Development Goals for Different Management Levels
What development goals for managers should be included in growth plans depends on the managers’ experience and career growth. Here are 20 examples of SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound) goals, categorized by what management level they apply to.
These goals can be used exactly as they are written here or as inspiration. As every manager is on their own career path, we recommend adjusting them to better reflect your individual journey.
5 Development Goals for Managers Who Are New to Leadership
As a first-time manager, you need to master the basics of leading others while establishing your leadership identity. These goals can help you do exactly that:
- Run effective team meetings: Hold weekly 30-minute team meetings with clear agendas and action items for the next 3 months. Success will look like 90% of team members rating the meetings as productive.
- Improve delegation skills: Delegate at least 3 tasks per week to team members over the next quarter, with a goal of zero missed deadlines.
- Develop feedback skills: Give constructive feedback to each of your team members at least once per month for 6 months. Ask for their feedback on your approach to measure improvement.
- Build relationships: Schedule a one-on-one coffee chat with each of your team members in your first 45 days as manager to establish new working relationships.
- Create a personal leadership plan: Write down your leadership values and planned approach to leadership by the end of the month. Create professional development goals and document them in a professional development plan. Share your leadership plan with your manager for feedback.
5 Development Goals for Managers Who Are Mid-Level
When you become a mid-level manager, your focus shifts to cross-functional leadership and developing systems that scale beyond your immediate team. These goals reflect that shift:
- Build cross-departmental relationships: Meet with the leaders of three other departments monthly for the next quarter to create at least two joint projects.
- Align team goals with company objectives: Within 30 days, revise your team’s goals so that each one connects directly to a company priority. Review your progress weekly.
- Improve resource management: Reduce team budget overages by 10% within six months while maintaining or improving team performance metrics.
- Mentor a new manager: Meet twice monthly with a first-time manager for the next six months. Success will mean that they achieve at least three of their development goals.
- Lead a change initiative: Successfully guide your team through one major process change in the next quarter that reaches an adoption rate of at least 80%.
5 Development Goals for Managers Who Are Senior Leaders
As a senior leader, you have an impact that extends throughout the organization. This means that you need to develop broad influence and strategic insight. These goals can aid that development process:
- Develop a company-wide perspective: Spend one day per month for the next six months working alongside teams in different departments. Create a report of insights and connections.
- Improve executive presence: Present at three company-wide meetings in the next quarter, aiming for an average feedback score of 4 out of 5 from the attendees.
- Enhance decision-making: Document your decision-making processes for five major decisions over the next six months, then review them with a mentor to identify patterns and potential improvements.
- Optimize team structure: Redesign your department’s structure within three months to reduce bottlenecks and improve response times by at least 20%.
- Strengthen stakeholder relationships: First, identify five key stakeholders and rate the strength of the relationship that you have with each of them. Then, for each one, write a plan for how often you want to meet with them, why, what topics need to be discussed, and what you want to achieve with these meetings. Aim to improve relationship scores by at least 20%.
5 Development Goals for Managers at the Executive Level
The goals of executives should generally be centered on organizational vision, culture, and ensuring the company’s long-term success through others. These goals will set you up to excel in those areas:
- Refine company vision: Update and clearly document the company’s three-year vision in the next 60 days. Successfully communicate it to all employees, and use follow-up surveys to ensure at least an 85% understanding rate.
- Expand your professional network: Establish relationships with three new board members, investors, or industry partners within six months, resulting in at least one strategic opportunity.
- Improve company culture: Identify three culture metrics that need improvement and implement specific changes that lift those scores by 15% within one year.
- Develop crisis management skills: Create and run two crisis simulations in the next quarter to test and improve your team’s emergency response capabilities.
- Implement succession planning: Within six months, identify and begin developing at least two potential successors for each key leadership position. Create detailed growth plans with monthly checkpoints.
Boosting Team Performance
While personal growth matters, the best managers know that real success comes from team results. Understanding how teams work, how team members work together, and how to use each person’s strengths for the greater benefit creates better business results. Therefore, a better comprehension of team dynamics is another great development goal for a manager.
Why Great Managers Focus on Team Dynamics
Teams have their own mix of personalities, strengths, and challenges. By understanding these factors, you can:
- Assign work that aligns with each person’s strengths
- Address conflicts before they become unmanageable
- Understand the balance of your team
- Create a culture where different ideas are welcome
The best managers know that team success isn’t just about having talented people but also how well those people work together. Researchers at Google found that feeling that it’s safe to take risks and make mistakes was the most important factor in team success – even more important than individual talent.
Measuring Team Success
As you grow as a manager, track these team measures:
- How engaged your team members feel
- How well people work together
- How many new ideas are generated
- How quickly conflicts get fixed
- How team members are developing professionally
- What other teams say about working with yours
These measures show how your leadership growth is creating real team results.
Using Team Member Strengths for Business Success
Effective managers rely on their understanding of different personalities and strengths. With this understanding, they are able to accomplish five important aims:
- They match tasks to talents.
- They pair people whose skills complement each other.
- They communicate with each person in ways that work for that person.
- They create employee growth plans that fit individual needs.
- They leverage the balance of the team with diverse views and approaches.
Understanding how different personality types create your team dynamic helps you lead better and improve employee satisfaction.
For example, Analyst (Intuitive, Thinking) personality types often prefer detailed explanations and logical reasoning when new projects are assigned. They want to understand the “why” behind decisions, and they appreciate having time to think through complex problems.
In contrast, Explorer (Observant, Prospecting) personalities typically learn better through hands-on experience and flexible approaches. They might get restless with too much detailed planning. They prefer to jump in and figure things out as they go.
A smart manager might pair an Analyst team member who excels at detailed planning with an Explorer team member who’s great at quick problem-solving. Together, they can create thorough plans while staying adaptable when unexpected challenges arise. This kind of pairing leverages each employee’s natural strengths while covering potential blind spots.
Using Team Assessments
Team assessments also give helpful information for improving team performance. When used well, these assessments can:
- Enhance communication across your team
- Identify possible conflict areas
- Suggest better work setups
- Guide team growth activities
The best managers use the insights of team assessments to adapt how they lead to each team member’s personality while staying fair to everyone. This personal approach creates more engagement and better results.
Want to understand your team better? See how your team’s personality makeup shapes your work in adaptive (or maladaptive) ways with our Team Assessments.
Taking Your Growth to the Next Level
Creating and following through on development goals for managers takes effort and commitment. Here’s how to ensure that your manager development plan leads to real growth:
- Practice during your daily work: Use everyday tasks to build new skills.
- Ask for feedback: Get input from team members, peers, and leaders.
- Find partners: Connect with other managers who are working on similar goals.
- Track progress: Set clear ways to measure improvement.
- Celebrate wins: Notice and enjoy your progress.
- Stay flexible: Change your goals as you grow and situations change.
By working on your growth as a manager, you’re not just helping your career – you’re making things better for your whole team and company. Continuous improvement in your leadership leads to a more engaged team, better business results, and a more satisfying work experience for everyone.
The most effective managers create a culture of learning and growth, starting with themselves. By setting thoughtful development goals and working hard on them, you’re taking important steps toward leadership excellence.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a good development goal for a manager?
A good development goal for a manager is SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound) and addresses a skill that will help both the manager and their team succeed. An example would be “Improve my active listening skills by practicing three specific techniques during team meetings for the next 30 days and then getting feedback from team members on my progress.”
How do I balance boosting my own development with helping my team develop?
Make development a shared activity. Schedule learning time on your calendar just like any other important meeting. Look for ways to learn alongside your team members. Perhaps you can take a course together or practice new skills during team activities. When you model continuous improvement, your team is more likely to embrace their own growth.
How often should I update my development goals?
Review your development goals quarterly and adjust them based on your progress, as well as changing business needs. Major career moves or role changes are also good times to revisit your goals. Having goals for both the short term (one to three months) and the longer term (six months to a year) helps you stay focused while building important skills.
Can personality insights really help with manager development?
Yes. Understanding your natural tendencies and preferences helps you create more targeted development goals as a manager. For example, if you tend to make quick decisions, you might set a goal to pause and gather more input before deciding on important matters. Personality insights also help you adapt your communication style to better connect with different team members.
How do I know if my development goals are working?
When you have set your development goals as a manager, look for concrete evidence of improvement in three areas:
- Feedback from others
- Your comfort level with the relevant skills
- Business results
For example, if you’re working on delegation skills, you might track how many tasks you successfully delegate, the feedback from team members about your approach, and whether your team completes more work overall with fewer bottlenecks.