How to Be a More Effective and Confident Manager

There’s a lot that goes into being an effective manager. KPIs provide perhaps the most tangible indicators of a manager’s performance. As a result, there is a tendency to place too heavy an emphasis on optimizing metrics, often at the expense of other equally important elements of great management. Effective leadership is also about providing clarity, empathy, and purpose while aligning people around a shared vision, building trust, and helping them thrive. 

Unfortunately, a lot of managers lack the formal training necessary to develop these leadership qualities. They are often promoted for their individual job performance and accomplishments which doesn’t necessarily provide the tools needed to navigate the complex dynamics they’re stepping into. Being able to communicate clearly, motivate people, resolve conflicts, foster a cohesive team culture, and confidently step in and out of these roles are all essential elements of effective management.  

Without support, coaching and opportunities to grow, it can be difficult to acquire these vital skills. But when you provide managers with the development tools they need, the downstream effects can be downright transformative: teams start to flourish and thrive—and KPIs practically take care of themselves. 

Start with Self-Awareness

The outward direction of leadership begins…within. In order to lead others well and build a high-performing team, managers must understand themselves first. This means knowing your leadership style, recognizing your biases, and identifying your blind spots. Self-aware leadership allows managers to lean into their strengths and adapt when needed. It means having the emotional intelligence to communicate clearly, make fair decisions, and foster psychological safety across the team. It also means working to uncover and address unexamined biases and blind spots in order to build equity and trust.

There are a few exercises and tools that you can utilize in your quest to understand your leadership style and biases, and discover areas for growth. Getting 360° feedback from those you lead and work with can give you honest insights into what’s working and what’s not. Journaling can provide a form of leadership reflection where you look back on your decisions, reactions and patterns. There are also standardized assessments like DiSC, StrengthsFinder, or EQ evaluations that offer a framework for understanding your leadership style and tendencies. These tools don’t just help you understand yourself, they help you become more intentional, empathetic and effective as a leader.

One of the most important goals and benefits of self-aware leadership is that it creates environments where people feel safe to show up fully. By communicating clearly, listening openly, and responding instead of reacting, you create psychological safety in your team. This frees everyone to speak up, ask questions, admit mistakes, or share bold ideas without fear of judgment or backlash. When this happens, you unlock creativity and innovation and elevate performance and productivity.

Communicate Clearly and Consistently

Clear communication is one of the most overlooked skills in an effective manager. It’s the ability to communicate goals, updates, and expectations in a way that’s direct, transparent, and actionable. This creates team alignment and momentum, reduces friction and unnecessary stress, and helps teams move with purpose and confidence. 

An important part of effective communication is consistency. It prevents goals and expectations—even the best articulated ones—from fading into the abyss of the everyday work shuffle. Weekly check-ins, open office hours and structured updates (in meetings, emails, or dashboards) are all excellent ways to accomplish consistency. Use them to reduce ambiguity, prevent misunderstandings and create a culture where people know what’s going on, where to go for answers, and how their work connects to the bigger picture.

Incorporate consistency with versatility and adaptability and you’ve just supercharged your “manager communication skills.” That’s because how you communicate is just as important as what and how often. People absorb information in different ways and what works for one team member might not work for another. Some might prefer emails, others might like verbal recaps. Multitaskers might thrive with quick chat messages, while visual thinkers may benefit from charts, slide decks, or workflows. Adapting your communication style to accommodate the diverse personalities on your team makes sure that your message actually lands. This helps build stronger relationships, reduce miscommunication, and increase team alignment.

Lead with Empathy, Not Just Authority

Creating an environment that feels psychologically safe and fosters trust depends on a manager’s ability to empathize with their team members. Often, a manager’s role is seen as someone who makes decisions, doles out assignments, keeps track of progress and provides guidance and leadership. But that’s just the skeletal framework upon which the organs and tissue of great management is constructed. Empathetic leadership is one of the constituents of a well constructed body of leadership. 

Leading with empathy means listening attentively, asking thoughtful questions and showing real concern—not just about output, but about the humans behind the work. It begins with showing that you care about things like a person’s family, health or personal goals…and following that up with action. Like offering resources, encouraging PTO and normalizing mental health conversations if a team member seems overwhelmed. Or adjusting workloads during tough seasons. And being flexible with schedules when life gets in the way of normal work rhythms. 

Keep in mind that empathetic leadership doesn’t mean avoiding tough conversations—it means handling them with care, respect, and clarity. You can give feedback, set boundaries and hold people accountable while also supporting growth without assigning blame. This people-first management style builds trust and fuels engagement and loyalty. Because when people feel seen, heard and respected, they show up with more energy, creativity, and commitment—not just for the work, but for the team.

Give Feedback That Actually Helps

If you want your team to grow and improve, it’s important to give constructive feedback that is clear and specific. People need to know what went wrong and how they can improve. Vague or reactive feedback that lacks proper context and doesn’t provide details on what’s necessary to improve can make team members feel confused, defensive or discouraged. Giving effective feedback that is timely, actionable, and tied to observable behaviors or outcomes can build confidence and accountability. By using constructive feedback as a tool for development, you can empower your team to own their progress and create a culture of trust and improvement.

A great way to enhance your “feedback for growth” strategy is to tie feedback to employee strengths and future potential. That means helping people understand not just how they’re doing but how they’re developing. Feedback in this context drives employee engagement and growth because it gives them a clear picture of where they’re going and what to aim for. 

Positive recognition is a great tool for developing delegation skills and encouraging an openness to new challenges. It gives team members the confidence and clarity to see their value beyond day-to-day tasks and encourages them to envision a larger role for themselves. Team members who feel recognized and capable are more likely to take initiative, share responsibility, and support others in doing the same. And they’re more likely to take on new challenges.

Remember that giving feedback that drives growth means using it as a coaching tool, not a control mechanism. It’s not just a way to correct mistakes or enforce standards, which can feel punitive and discouraging. When you deliver feedback with a growth mindset that draws a connection between today’s challenges and tomorrow’s opportunities, you’ll find that people won’t just tolerate feedback, they’ll welcome it. And what’s more, you’ll be clearing the runway to building trust, developing skills, and unlocking leadership potential.

Delegate and Trust Your Team

There is perhaps nothing more self-defeating in leadership than micromanagement. When you make all the decisions, hover over every detail and double-check every move, it tells people that you don’t trust them to do their job without you. It kills motivation, shrinks confidence and stifles growth. Delegation, on the other hand, sends the opposite message and, naturally, has the opposite effect. In fact, it’s one of the most powerful tools a leader has because it gives team members the chance to stretch, learn and lead in their own right. That doesn’t mean being completely hands-off. You still need to outline clear expectations, provide upfront coaching, and sometimes show a little patience. But the payoff means stronger teams, more innovation, and more time for leaders to focus on the big picture.

The key to empowering employees is developing good delegation skills. After all, delegation isn’t just about getting things off your plate—it’s about purposefully helping your team grow. Taking an intentional approach means looking beyond a person’s availability. A good leader delegates based on a person’s strengths while also recognizing when someone is ready to grow into something new, even if they’re not 100% there yet. There’s no better way to build team trust while boosting confidence and capability.

But team growth doesn’t just mean trusting people with the space they need to expand their capabilities. It also means allowing them to make mistakes. Effective managers recognize that mistakes aren’t just a normal part of the growth process, they’re also great learning opportunities. They treat them as such by offering guidance, reflecting on what happened, and helping team members improve. Reacting to mistakes as a sign of failure halts the learning process in its tracks—empowered leadership, on the other hand, embraces learning as progress, even if it’s a little messy at first.

Virtual team activities like escape rooms, murder mystery games and trivia are a great way to test and hone your delegation skills. They put you in situations where your team has to complete complex tasks in order to reach an objective in a competitive, time constrained environment. Putting everything on one person’s shoulders—such as your own—is a recipe for failure. But there’s no better way to practice trust and reliance in your team in a low stakes situation while also identifying areas for growth in your own delegation skills.

Invest in Your Own Development

Great managers know that their own learning process hasn’t stopped just because they’ve attained a leadership position. They know that there will always be new challenges and moments of uncertainty—and that the best way to meet them is to stay curious, humble, and committed to growth. 

Growth can come from a variety of sources. There are books and articles that can challenge one’s thinking. Mentorship and peer conversations can offer perspective. Courses and workshops can build skills and spark ideas. And self-reflection can turn experience into insight. 

And by modeling growth, the best leaders encourage others to do the same. They show their team that learning and growth are expected and supported, and they make it safe for others to take their own path of self-development. What better way to foster an inclusive team culture and create a sense of workplace belonging than to demonstrate that a leader is on the same journey as everyone else. And there’s no better way to foster team engagement—because when team members see their leader embracing personal development, they’re more likely to take ownership of their own growth, be open to feedback and try new things. 

Team members invariably look to their leader to set the tone, direction and example. Good leaders know that in order to shape their team and bring the best out of them, they first have to look inward. And when they do, what follows is a team that’s engaged, self-aware, and constantly getting better.

The Manager’s Journey: Lead People, Not Just Performance

At its core, management isn’t just about hitting KPIs—it’s about helping people thrive. The best leaders understand that high performance is the result of clarity, empathy, trust, and growth—not just control or metrics. And while many managers step into their roles without formal training, leadership is a skill that can be learned, practiced, and continuously refined.

It starts with self-awareness and a commitment to personal development. From there, great managers build trust through clear, consistent communication, empathetic leadership, and intentional delegation. They create spaces where people feel safe, valued, and empowered to grow—mistakes and all. And perhaps most importantly, they never stop learning. Because when managers invest in their own growth, they create teams that are engaged, motivated, and ready to rise. Leadership is a journey, not a destination—and it’s one that starts from within.

BreakoutIQ can help you on your leadership journey—whether it’s practicing delegation and trust through our escape room, murder mystery or trivia games, or learning to empathize with your team through our virtual icebreaker games. Our team of team building experts is ready to work with you. Click here to learn more.