5 Management Challenges and How to Overcome Them

Whether you’re in management, working towards being in management or are contemplating management it’s good to know what challenges you may come across so you can prepare yourself on how to overcome them.

Managers have the ability to lead their teams to greatness and mentor their team members to help them achieve great personal achievements, but it’s not all plain sailing.

Like with any position, there are always challenges. Here are some examples of the challenges managers are currently facing and some tips on how to overcome them.

1. Effective communication with the team

2. Evaluating and confronting performance problems

3. Hiring the right people

4. Managing conflicts within your team

5. Retaining star employees

1. Effective communication with the team

It’s not only managers who struggle with effectively communicating with a group of people, and with the rise in remote or hybrid working and an increased reliance on digital methods of communication, we’re all getting worse at it.

Good managers especially, need to develop advanced listening and speaking skills as they play a huge role in a team’s success and ability to grow. Lack of interdepartmental communications is the second largest cause of work-related stress in the UK (2020), which stresses the importance of communication to not only improve your teams’ processes but also protect your team’s mental health.

Tip: Everyone communicates differently. The key to great communication with your team is establishing how everyone likes to work. Some methods of communication may work with some team members and not so well with others.

Conduct some personality tests with your team and ask them how they prefer to work so you can work collaboratively in the most effective way.

2. Evaluating and confronting performance problems

As a manager, you need to confront any performance problems quickly. Not only is this important to address the issues but it is also important to help your employees improve on things that they may need assistance on.

Managers need to have the right balance of getting results and not damaging any internal relationships.

Tip: If your team doesn’t have clear targets and goals, it can be easy to fall short of expectations.

Make sure your teams know their targets and goals so they can stay motivated and keep up with what is expected of them. As a manager, knowing what your team needs to do makes it easier for you to monitor their performance and address any issues that may arise.

3. Hiring the right people

As an executive search company, we understand the challenges of finding and hiring the right people. Not only are you looking for the right skills and experience, but great managers should also be looking for the right cultural fit. If you make the wrong hire it can quickly disrupt your team’s performance.

Tip: Organise and plan your recruitment and interview process so you are fairly evaluating each candidate for the position. Also, try getting some of your team involved in the hiring process so you can see how well they get along with them.

4. Managing conflicts within your team

Dream teams get along, work collaboratively and are extremely productive; however, not everyone always works brilliantly together. When a conflict arises between two colleagues, it can often affect the whole team. 

When conflicts arise, it’s important to deal with them swiftly and effectively. As a manager, it’s your responsibility to help resolve the issues.

Tip: If a conflict arises within your team, make sure you understand what is really going on. Get both sides of the story and fully understand the issue before you take any action. Try to spin the issue to make it positive—conflict can often spark innovative thinking.

Conduct fair and frank discussions and be the voice of reason. The better you handle conflicting situations, the quicker and more seamlessly they will be resolved.

5. Retaining star employees

Talented people are hard to come by, which is why people and companies work so hard to retain them. If you’re not offering employees what they’re worth, someone else will.

The challenge today is that there are thousands of opportunities but not enough great people, so you need to do everything you can as a manager to keep these people with you.

A further challenge when it comes to retaining great people is that remote working is opening people up to even more opportunities as they are no longer limited by location.

Tip: Ask what your employees want. Do they want flexibility, more competitive salaries, or some unusual perks? You can’t give employees what they want if you don’t know.