I am quite new to management, and never trained in it as such. Many people enter management from the position of being a skilled employee, but with little to no management experience. It is one of the biggest issues in the corporate world – many managers do not understand how to manage, and may not even have the basic skills and qualities of a leader.
I entered management from a similar position. I didn’t study for an MBA, and I skipped out on a module about organisation management during my master’s degree that I should have attended.
A lot of management boils down to people skills. Are you able to communicate with confidence? Are you inspire your team to work their best? Are you able to show them that you care about them and about the company?
There is also a fair share of leading from example. Do you embody the values of the company that you are leading? Do you work with the effort and commitment that your team expects of you? Do you show them that you are positive about the work you are doing?
All of these are about you as a person and are not teachable in the traditional sense. There are however some concepts that any manager can learn to increase his or her team’s effectiveness.
One of these is how to set SMART goals with individual team members.
SMART Goals
Probably everyone reading this is familiar with the term, SMART, but perhaps if it is your first foray into management, you haven’t worked on setting SMART goals with your team members.
It is also a new experience for me. There are some important differences between setting goals for yourself and helping your team members set goals in the role of the manager.
The first key difference is that the goals you set with your team members must be mutually agreed upon, not dictated.
As a manager, it’s important to strike a balance between your aspirations for the team and what is genuinely achievable given the resources, workload, and individual capabilities. While it’s natural to have high expectations, you must also create space for open dialogue, ensuring that goals are co-created through collaboration and not imposed.
Pressuring or coercing team members into accepting objectives they believe are unrealistic can lead to disengagement, burnout, and a breakdown of trust. Instead, aim for alignment by encouraging honest input, discussing challenges, and arriving at commitments that everyone genuinely supports. This approach builds ownership, motivation, and accountability across the team.
Observing Your Staff
A key focus of your time as manager is observing your team. Your job is to spot when someone is struggling or doing well.
If they are struggling you should consider whether the goal required:
- A set of expertise or skills the person does not have
- More support from other team members or yourself
- Were unrealistic in the first place
If they do not reach the goal it is your responsibility to own your subordinate’s failure. As a manager, the buck stops with you as you need to know your team’s strengths and weaknesses.
You will make mistakes with this in your management journey, but a way to mitigate this is to ensure that you check in with your staff regularly.
Incentivise Your Staff
If your staff hit ambitious goals, incentives can be really important. Rewards can come in monetary form, but don’t underestimate words of appreciation and kindness.
It is imperative that your staff feel valued for the job that they do. The tricky thing about incentives is that they need to be enough to satisfy your staff, and yet reasonable for your company to afford.
For instance, if someone closes a million pound deal then a £20 Amazon voucher isn’t going to cut it, but giving them a million pound bonus is not proportional to the value they’ve added.
For this reason, sometimes monetary prizes are not the best incentive for staff.
Setting Goals That Benefit Your Organisation
Perhaps the most important job of the manager is to set goals that align with the betterment of the organisation.
You probably will have to hit targets as a manager that are set by higher management. You have the difficult job of aligning your goals with the organisation’s vision and mission, whilst ensuring that every member of your team has goals that further pull the organisation forward. Everyone needs to pulling in the same direction.
Getting this balance right is a real challenge, but aligning your team with the company is one of the manager’s key responsibilities. Any goal that you set with a team member, needs to align with the future benefit of the company.
Summary
I came into management with zero formal training—no MBA, no org-management module—and quickly learned that leadership is more about people skills than textbooks. You need to communicate clearly, inspire your team by living your company’s values, and genuinely care about each person.
Beyond modeling the right behaviours, though, there are practical techniques anyone can pick up: start by co-creating SMART goals so everyone owns their targets; spend time observing your people to spot where they need support (and be ready to take responsibility if they struggle); offer incentives that really matter—from sincere praise to proportionate rewards—and always tie every individual’s objectives back to the bigger company mission.
Do this, and even first-time managers can build trust, motivation and real results.
