Nobody is going to be able to master every skill they require as a manager. As a company grows, your team and tasks will evolve too, so it's likely you'll need to learn some new skills or re-evaluate how you use your existing skills.

Knowing which skill you may lack is more beneficial than knowing if you need to further your education. Do you need to learn how to delegate better? Speak to your team more effectively? Make harder decisions with more confidence? Or are you expanding your knowledge into other areas of the business, such as strategy or finance, by completing a management master's degree?

There are many ways to learn these skills. You could look at business coaching or completing a course. These aren't the goal in themselves but can help you gain experience in learning and applying skills.

So let’s compare these two options to help you identify what might be the better choice for you.

Start With the Skill Gap

The first step is to identify what you want to improve. A general goal like "become a better manager" is difficult to act on because it doesn't tell you what needs to change.

Instead, consider where you are currently finding challenges. Your development needs might be behavioural, interpersonal, cognitive, technical or related to broader business knowledge.

For example, you might need to develop:

• Behavioural skills, such as delegation, confidence, self-management and adaptability
• Interpersonal skills, such as communication, conflict management and relationship-building
• Cognitive skills, including decision-making, problem-solving and critical thinking
• Strategic and commercial skills, such as financial awareness, strategic thinking and understanding business performance
• Technical knowledge, depending on your role, industry or responsibilities

It can also help to ask yourself whether the skill gap is something you've noticed yourself or something others have pointed out. Feedback from colleagues, direct reports or your own manager can reveal habits or blind spots that are difficult to identify on your own.

Try asking yourself:

• What management situations do I currently find difficult?
• Which skills would make those situations easier to handle?
• What feedback have I received about my management style?
• What do I need to be able to do that I can't do confidently yet?
• Which skills will become more important as my responsibilities change?
• What skills do I need to help the business succeed?
• Am I solving a current problem or preparing for future responsibilities?

Once you can name the skill, it becomes much easier to decide how you want to develop it.

Developing Delegation, Communication and Leadership Skills

Some management skills are best developed through practice because knowing what to do is not necessarily the same as being able to do it well. Delegation is a good example. A manager might understand that they should give their team more responsibility but still take work back when something isn't completed exactly as they would have done it.

Improving delegation can involve recognising that behaviour, becoming more comfortable with different approaches and learning how to set clear expectations without unnecessarily taking over.

Communication works in a similar way. A manager might know that clear communication matters but struggle to adjust their approach when giving difficult feedback, managing disagreement or explaining a decision to a team.

Leadership also involves a range of behaviours that develop through experience. Building trust, handling difficult conversations, setting expectations and responding to mistakes all give managers opportunities to practise how they lead.

Business coaching can support this kind of development by giving managers a space to examine their own behaviour, work through specific situations and receive feedback. A coach may help someone identify why they keep avoiding difficult conversations, for example, then work with them on approaches they can try in the workplace.

The value isn't simply in discussing the skill. The manager still needs to apply what they've worked on, see how it plays out and reflect on what happens next.

Building Decision-Making and Strategic Thinking

Other skills depend on having a stronger understanding of the business environment around you. Decision-making is one example. Managers make decisions with incomplete information, competing priorities and different potential consequences.

Developing this skill isn't just about becoming more confident. It can also involve learning how to assess information, identify risks, understand trade-offs and consider how a decision affects different parts of the organisation.

Strategic thinking requires a similar shift in perspective. Rather than focusing only on the immediate needs of a team, managers may need to consider customers, competitors, financial performance, organisational priorities and longer-term opportunities.

Further study can help develop the knowledge that supports these skills. Depending on the course, managers may explore subjects such as finance, strategy, marketing, leadership, operations and organisational behaviour.

A manager who has spent years developing expertise in one function may know their own area extremely well. But taking responsibility for wider business decisions can require knowledge of areas they haven't previously had to consider in depth.

Learning Is Not the Same as Skill Development

One of the easiest mistakes to make when upskilling is assuming that learning about a skill automatically means you've developed it. A manager can read about effective delegation without becoming a better delegator. They can study communication techniques without necessarily becoming more comfortable having difficult conversations. They can learn about strategic frameworks without automatically becoming more strategic in their day-to-day decision-making.

Management skills develop through application. That might mean deliberately practising a new approach during team meetings, asking for feedback after a difficult conversation or using a new decision-making framework on an upcoming project. The important thing is to create opportunities to put the learning into practice rather than treating the completion of a course or coaching session as the finish line.

Reflection matters too. After trying something new, consider what worked, what didn't and what you would change next time. This creates a cycle of learning, practice, feedback, reflection and adjustment. Over time, that process can help turn knowledge into something you can actually use.

Consider Your Current Role and Future Responsibilities

Skills that you will need to learn will vary depending on what level of management you are at. If you manage a small team, you may want to focus on your communication skills. Delegating and creating good working relationships could also be beneficial. When you start to take on more roles, you may need to learn about finances. Managing change, business planning or multiple teams are all areas that you may need to learn about.

You don't always have to be looking to move up to a higher position. It can also be about improving your current role. You may find that your team would benefit from you learning how to deal with conflict. Or you may need to have a better understanding of the commercial aspect of your role.

Maybe you need to learn how to manage your time before adding more on top of that. Thinking about your current role and the roles you may come across in the future can allow you to pick what skills you should learn.

Combine Different Approaches

There isn't any reason why you need to pick one method and develop only using that. Whether it's coaching, studying, mentoring, experience or self-directed learning, they can all have their place in your development as a manager.

Maybe you want to learn more about business strategy and how businesses make decisions. You can then take this knowledge into your work environment and apply those lessons. You could work with a coach to hone your communication skills, and then later, ask your manager or colleagues for feedback on how your approach has evolved.

Experience can also allow you to grow as a manager. By dealing with difficult conversations, unsuccessful projects, unhappy customers and employees who aren't reaching their full potential, you will learn from your experience.

Sometimes experience can teach you bad habits. If you know that you tend to do something one way you may never know that there's another way. This is where you can develop yourself.

You can use coaching to help you break out of your old habits. Study will help you gain knowledge about topics that you may not know about. Mentoring can show you others' perspectives. And experience can allow you to try everything you've learned.

Build a Deliberate Development Plan

Once you've identified a skill you want to develop, you don't necessarily need to overhaul your entire professional development strategy.

Start with one area and create a simple plan:

1. Identify the skill. Pick a specific skill you would like to improve on. For example, if you wanted to improve on leadership, maybe pick delegation or providing feedback to others or dealing with conflicts.

2. Define what improvement looks like. What actions would you take differently if you knew how to do this? With delegation, you could allow your team members to take ownership and not step in when they don't need to.

3. Choose a development method. Will you want to be coached on this? Maybe you want to further your education. There are many ways you can gain opportunities to learn this skill, this is where you make the best choice for you depending on what you’re developing.

4. Put it into practice. Find ways to implement what you've learned in your day-to-day. Having a management skill that you can use in your current job will only be beneficial to you.

5. Get feedback. Ask someone you know what they noticed about you. They may see changes you haven't noticed yourself.

6. Reflect and adjust. What did you learn from this experience? What could you do better next time? Then start the process over.

This approach also makes professional development more manageable. Rather than trying to become better at everything at once, you can focus your time and energy on the skills that will make the most practical difference to your role.

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Conclusion: Find the Right Approach for Your Development

Learning new skills as a manager doesn't always have to mean learning more or adding more qualifications to your CV. But it can be beneficial if those skills can be applied to your job. What skill do you feel you lack? Do you need to learn how to delegate? Speak with more confidence, improve decision-making, or gain a broader view of the commercial aspects of your business.

Coaching could allow you to gain insight into your behaviour and allow time to reflect. More in-depth study will allow you to learn about various aspects of management and business. There are many options such as mentoring, experience and practising yourself. All can play a role at different points in your career.

It's all about learning what skills you need to learn. Then allowing yourself to develop those skills by practising and reflecting.

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