Being an effective manager in today’s dynamic and diverse workplace requires more than just technical skills and experience. Interpersonal skills play a crucial role in establishing positive relationships, promoting collaboration, and driving team performance.
In Canada’s multicultural, inclusive work environments, managers must possess a specific set of interpersonal skills to navigate the various cultural differences, build trust, and inspire their teams.
Despite being valued by employers across the world, interpersonal skills remain scarce among management professionals, resulting in plenty of friction, productivity losses, and attrition in the workplace.
In this article, we take a deep dive into 8 skills that are crucial in this regard, and management professionals can go about acquiring and applying them, in order to be better placed in the increasingly competitive Canadian professional landscape.
1. Effective Communication
Communication lies at the heart of successful management, and as such, managers must be adept at conveying information clearly, precisely, and concisely, in order to ensure the desired effect.
This proves to be a challenge in Canada, not just because it has two major languages, English and French, but because this skill goes beyond just linguistic abilities. Managers in the country are expected to understand various cultural nuances, while adapting their style of communication accordingly.
Young managers and professionals are often suggested to focus on active listening in order to make effective communication their strong suit. It is only through listening that they get a feel of the workplace, its culture, and their teammates.
2. Cultural Sensitivity & Diversity Training
Canada is renowned for its cultural diversity, with people from various backgrounds working side by side, across all industries and professions. As a result, managers are expected to exhibit cultural sensitivity, while respecting and valuing different perspectives.
Developing a deep understanding of diverse cultures and traditions helps create an inclusive environment where everyone feels heard and appreciated. In some ways, this is one of the most important soft skills to survive in the modern workplace.
By fostering diversity awareness, managers can harness the strengths of their team members and encourage collaboration across differences.
3. Emotional Intelligence
Emotional intelligence (EQ) is a critical skill for managers in any setting, and this holds true whether you’re in Canada, or any other place in the world.
Managers with high EQ can understand and manage their emotions effectively, as well as empathize with their team members’ feelings. By recognizing and addressing emotions in the workplace, managers can enhance employee engagement, resolve conflicts, and provide support when needed. Emotional intelligence also allows managers to make more informed decisions by considering the impact on team members’ well-being.
4. Conflict Resolution & Mediation
Conflict is inevitable in any workplace, and managers must be skilled in resolving conflicts constructively, in an unbiased manner. A manager’s ability to mediate disputes, facilitate dialogue, and find mutually beneficial solutions contributes to a harmonious work environment in the long run.
In Canada, where multicultural teams may have varying communication styles and conflict resolution approaches, managers need to adapt their strategies and promote open dialogue to bridge gaps and reach resolution.
There is a lot that managers need to stay on top of when dealing with friction and conflicts in multicultural teams. Starting with cultural histories, stereotypes, along with the differences between cultures, among a host of other things.
Most Canadian companies go through great lengths to train their managers, and make them fit for this purpose. There are plenty of training programs particularly aimed at this, and despite their significant upfront cost, the investment is well worth it, given the vibrant culture it stands to build in the workplace.
5. Team Building
Successful managers understand the value of building cohesive teams that thrive on collaboration. By fostering an environment of trust and mutual respect, managers can encourage open communication, idea sharing, and joint problem-solving.
They should empower team members, leverage individual strengths, and promote a sense of belonging and inclusivity. Effective team building ensures that employees work towards a common goal while appreciating the diverse contributions of each team member.
Building rapport between team members is hard enough in homogenous setups, but grows exponentially harder when you add in diversity. Managers here will often have their wits tested, forcing them to adopt extensive team-building activities to get the required level of engagement.
6. Coaching & Mentorship
A manager’s role goes beyond assigning tasks, and includes everything from nurturing employee growth and development, to inspiring and motivating action. Effective managers embrace a coaching and mentorship approach, providing guidance, support, and constructive feedback to their team members.
By investing in their employees’ professional development, managers help cultivate a skilled and motivated workforce. They should also strive to create a culture that encourages knowledge sharing and continuous learning.
7. Change Management
Change is the only constant in a modern business environment, and the true test of any manager is how they drive change across their teams and organizations, with minimal friction.
Getting a diverse group of people onboard, and in favor of drastic changes requires substantial emotional intelligence, in addition to tried-and-tested frameworks such as the William Bridges’ Transition Model, The Lewin Model and the likes.
Beyond the systems, frameworks, and processes, the management of change is an interpersonal skill. It is about getting people on-board, addressing their concerns, and ensuring a smooth transition, and while frameworks can help, execution ultimately falls to the manager and their skills in this regard.
8. Selflessness
A key interpersonal trait that separates good managers from the great ones, is the ability to put the team, and its goals and objectives, above their own individual ego.
As discussed before, one of the core functions of a manager is to inspire and motivate, and the only true way to accomplish this is by making the whole thing less about them, and more about the team members, their contributions, challenges, and requirements.
There are great many things that can be done to recognize, incentivize, and motivate team members. You can shop for elegant glass awards for special recognition on sites such as Able Recognition when it is truly deserved, but in most cases, selflessness, trustworthiness, and a positive attitude go a long way.
Final Words
It’s not easy being a manager in some of Canada’s leading organizations, working with a diverse set of people from across the world, and understanding their cultures, habits, and customs. This will definitely take its toll on managers, but in the long-run there can be few things as rewarding as leading such teams towards success, and hitting all objectives and milestones along the way.
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