The question of “what makes a good manager?” is no longer being answered by recruiters writing job specs. Today, the qualities of good management are being dictated by employees who are voting with their feet.  

(Yes, there’s a reason global staff turnover rose to 20% in 2024!) 

If you’re an HR leader, then you already know that the bar has shifted. Gone are the days when employees quietly tolerated outdated management styles. These days, it’s what employees want from their managers that matters. 

So today we’re exploring some of the biggest “pull” factors for employees – skills and traits that they really want to see in their managers, and why these qualities are so important if you’re trying to build a loyal, happy, and high-performing team.  

The shift from command to connect 

But first, let’s just look at how the “ideal” management style has shifted. 
 
Once upon a time, managers were selected based on their technical skills. High performers were generally seen as good candidates to take charge of a team, because they knew how best to do the job. 
 
But as you well know, this does not always bring the best results. And in years gone by, this approach has usually led to management styles that were not very people-focused. 

In the 80’s, for example, managers were expected to lead with authority – top-down, hierarchical, and often fear-based. In the 90’s, management did seem to at least incorporate employee recognition into their styles, but it was very much a reward-for-output type of system, and highly transactional. Even in the 00’s, despite the rise in popularity of “transformational leadership styles”, ideas like coaching, emotional intelligence, and cultural awareness were still considered meaningless buzzwords by many direct managers. 

However, for a while now, it’s been recognized that managers account for up to 70% of variance in team engagement. And with the employee voice being more influential than ever – think pulse surveys, platforms like Glassdoor, etc – those “soft” skills have now become a hard requirement for any thriving management team. 

8 key skills employees want from their manager – and why they matter 

We’ve identified the top 8 skills employees are looking for today. Newsflash: none of these skills are new, revolutionary ideas. They’re all skills you’ll be familiar with – but they’re not necessarily skills that have always been associated with strong management. 

So we thought we’d take a few minutes to show you why these skills are so desirable in the modern workplace, and the improvements you’re likely to see if you incorporate these into your criteria when selecting candidates for management roles. 

1. Adaptability and openness to ideas 

Thanks to hybrid working models, huge generational diversity, and rapid disruption from the invasion in AI, employees now expect managers who can pivot, listen, and incorporate new ideas – especially those from front-line voices.  

And although a lack of adaptability isn’t necessarily going to result in mass-walkouts by staff, it may well impact your teams’ performance metrics – a post by McKinsey in January 2025 revealed that companies reporting a high level of adaptability, also churned out engagement and innovation scores that were up to 6 times higher!  

So if you have managers who insist on doing things “the way they’ve always been done”, then you may be stifling your workforce. Why not consider embedding some of this thinking into your 360° reviews, or maybe even running a couple of hackathons that encourage innovation, and then rewarding the managers who act on ideas from team members? 

2. Commitment to continuous learning 

Stagnation at work is no longer an option, and your employees now expect managers who are actively involved in their personal development. This is especially true in fast-changing industries, where personal development is vital to professional survival – but we have found it to be true across traditional industries, too.  

When managers don’t show team members a clear development path, those team members leave. If you want anecdotal evidence of this, just head over to Glassdoor or even Reddit, and read the thousands of stories from disgruntled workers complaining about quitting due to a lack of training, or because management are blocking progression routes.  

Or, if you prefer more academic evidence, then LinkedIn’s 2025 Workplace Learning Report cites “providing learning opportunities” as the number one retention strategy for companies.  

So ask yourself – are your managers actively involved in their team members’ ongoing development? Because if they’re not, you’re likely going to feel it in your staff turnover calculations. 

3. Emotional intelligence (EQ) 

Empathy, awareness, and regulation of behaviour are crucial to wellbeing. And with burnout, stress, and mental health now very real strategic HR concerns, a management team with high EQ scores is one of the best remedies to a struggling workforce. 

Today, employees absolutely expect this from their bosses. They expect their managers to understand their concerns, and be sympathetic to their troubles. And they actively avoid teams where EQ is absent.  

Countless reports support this. And when researchers surveyed 190 hospitality employees in Kashmir, they found that the organizations with emotionally intelligent teams, were the organizations managing significantly improve job satisfaction and reduce voluntary exits, proving that emotional regulation from your management can help to stabilise even the most hectic and high-stress teams. 

4. Advanced communication skills 

Similar to how employees now expect high levels of EQ, they expect their managers to be good communicators. These skills matter massively, seeing as how managers are the primary translators of strategy into team experience!  

But communication is more complicated (and essential) than ever before – and that’s because employees expect management to not only understand physical body language and in-person interactions, but they also expect them to understand the nuances of non-verbal digital signals or cues. 

It can be isolating having no face-to-face contact for extended periods of time – which is why managers who cannot communicate digitally tend to accidentally upset team members. Even if what they said was meant with good intentions. 

Good digital communication from your managers is also vital for getting a competitive advantage in the hunt for top talent. This study by Prof Neha Agarwal and Dr Vijay Nimbalkar goes as far as saying it is one of the most important factors in drawing in qualified candidates! 

Get your managers communicating right, especially online and you’ll improve trust, performance, recruitment and retention. But let your managers spout off poorly-thought-out tirades into your Microsoft Teams channels? You’ll breed disengagement, confusion and mistrust.  

5. Accountability and ownership 

Employees demand integrity from management. Blame culture is a fast-track to attrition, whereas managers who are willing to take responsibility for their mistakes, are way more likely to earn the trust, loyalty, and support of their team members. 

We’ve talked about this before, in the context of companies being “democracies” – which is how most workers prefer to see their organizations, generally speaking. And in any democracy, one of the essential elements is the visibility and accountability of its leaders. 

Oh, and it’s worth noting that employees are more likely to take accountability for their own actions when they see that example being played out in management roles. And isn’t a culture of transparency something we all want in our workplace? 

6. Consistency and fairness 

This matters because a person’s perception of fairness impacts their motivation and engagement levels. People want to be treated fairly, and most of the time, they want the same rules to apply to everyone.  

We’re not surprised to see employees demanding this of their management in today’s world of work – it goes right back to Adams’ Equity Theory, 1965… which effectively states that a person is willing to work only as hard as they deem fair, based on how they are treated in comparison with others around them. And if they feel unfairly treated? They may not necessarily leave… but they’ll certainly try to settle the score. And this can range from simple acts of protest like “quiet quitting”, to full-on acts of theft against the employer. 
 
So, if your managers treat certain people more favourably than others, and it shows? That’s not going to go down well with the rest of your team. Take a look at your policies, do a cross-team performance calibration, and send your managers into an effective bias training program! 

7. Cultural competence and diversity awareness 

Today, you can’t just have a DEI policy on paper and expect employees to nod and smile. They expect their managers to live and breathe inclusivity in how they lead. Which means being culturally aware, actively supporting diverse team dynamics, and challenging biases (including their own). 
 
Employees notice when this isn’t happening. And according to a report published by Harvard Business Review, inclusive leaders directly improve team performance, commitment, and decision-making – particularly in multicultural and cross-functional teams. So yes, this stuff has real impact. 

Managers who don’t demonstrate cultural awareness risk isolating employees, missing out on valuable perspectives, and undermining belonging. But those who do? They build stronger teams, create safer work environments, and increase retention. So if you’re not already tying DEI metrics into your manager evaluations, then now’s the time. 

8. Awareness of one’s impact 

Today’s workforce is hyper-aware of how their managers’ moods, stress levels, and behaviour affect the team environment. And why shouldn’t they be? After all, it’s been proven time and time again that a single stressed-out or reactive leader can tank morale across an entire department. 

This is especially true for Gen Z and younger millennials, who have no patience for what they see as “emotional leakage” from management. And a 2023 Gallup article notes that declining manager engagement directly correlates with team disengagement and that meaningful one-on-one conversations and emotional connection from managers boost overall employee wellbeing. 

This means that managers can no longer afford to storm through their day unchecked. Emotional self-awareness is a baseline requirement, and managers need to know how their tone, behaviour, or even a single message in Slack can derail someone’s focus – or make them feel unheard or devalued. 

How organizations are responding: Manager selection is changing 

If the last decade has taught us anything, it’s that promoting someone just because they’re good at their job is no longer a viable management strategy. These days, the smartest organizations aren’t asking, “Who’s the highest performer?” when filling management roles. They’re asking, “Who’s the most trusted? Who builds culture? Who actually knows how to lead people?” 

And that change is showing up in real, structural ways. 

Promotion decisions are now driven by people-first metrics that are embedded into management pipelines. HR recognizes that hiring a manager who people want to work for is usually more valuable than hiring a manager who knows how to do that team’s job. And as a result, we’re seeing more and more companies include upward feedback, employee engagement scores, wellbeing indicators, and team sentiment data when evaluating potential managers. In some cases, these soft-skill indicators are weighted more heavily than traditional performance reviews. 

Manager assessments are shifting, too. Forward-thinking companies are now using behavioural interviews, emotional intelligence testing, and even team simulation exercises to help determine whether someone’s fit to run a team.  

Take Zappos, for example. In 2019, they redesigned their hiring process to prioritise interpersonal capabilities and cultural fit over purely technical ability. The knock-on effect led to a 25% reduction in turnover! 

But on the flip side, if you appoint the wrong manager, it becomes a reputational risk. Not only do you risk people leaving, but word soon gets round and you prevent good people from joining. And those who are left are likely to take a nose-dive in performance!  

Supporting existing managers who aren’t quite there yet 

So, what about your existing management team? Maybe you’ve transformed your recent hiring practices for the new folk coming in, but what about those who have been sitting in their roles for 5, 10, maybe even 20 years, and who don’t quite align with the management practices modern employees expect? 

Many of today’s managers were promoted under entirely different criteria. But the truth is, most still want to be better managers. They just haven’t been trained for the version of leadership that suits the modern workforce. 

And that’s why smart organizations are not only changing their selection criteria, but they’re investing in re-skilling existing managers, too. And if you stick at it, it does work! One study of 5,000 leaders, found that when using the right up-skilling methods, 97% were able to translate what they learned into organizational impact – especially when it came to cross-boundary collaboration, and openness to diverse perspectives. 

Developing managers for the people

Good managers are no longer defined by technical excellence or years of service. So if your organization is serious about building a loyal, engaged, high-performing workforce, make sure your managers reflect what your people value.

Because today, leadership isn’t about being the loudest voice in the room.