The 5 core competencies today’s managers need most

Today’s managers need five core competencies most: trust, alignment, motivation, efficiency and adaptivity. These capabilities help managers create psychological safety, keep teams focused, sustain energy, reduce wasted effort and respond to change. For People and L&D leaders, they also provide a practical framework for prioritizing manager development.

In a 2024 webinar, Monica Noll, Director of Learner Experience at Electives, presented the five must-have manager competencies. Below is a summarized version of her presentation. You can watch the full webinar recording here.

Many People leaders lack confidence in their manager training. 

During the webinar, 70% of respondents said they were “unsure” or “not confident” in their manager training. The need is still urgent in 2026: Gartner’s CHRO priorities include mobilizing leaders for growth in an uncertain world and helping leaders build change reflexes through moments of practice in daily work.

It’s hard to know what training managers need.

Finding or creating a highly relevant manager training experience is tricky. For starters, managers have varying onboarding schedules and limited time. You may have brand new managers onboarding in April, and then you have other managers onboarding in October. They're staggered. They may be coming in with different levels of experience with management in general, and you end up with this weird patchwork of skills.

That is why manager development works best when it goes beyond a one-time content push. People teams need opportunities for managers to practice, receive feedback and change how work gets done with their teams.

Why is manager skill assessment complex?

You can’t be everywhere all the time. That means People leaders must measure manager skills in second-hand and third-hand ways, including through self-reporting.

Unfortunately, the Dunning-Kruger effect makes it difficult to self-assess skills. If you ask somebody, “How good are you at delivering feedback?” or “How good are you at inclusive leadership?” they're unlikely to measure their current abilities accurately. All of us have that challenge.

People leaders often use employee engagement surveys or other aggregate measurements to overcome this challenge. But, typically, the information is incomplete.

These are the 5 must-have manager competencies.

We've been gathering data from interviews, surveys and Electives platform engagement to uncover the competencies most needed for today’s managers to accomplish their goals.

If you imagine a boat going out to sea, these are the competencies that will help a manager lead their team to accomplish their shared goal:

1. Trust: The people rowing the boat need to trust in their team.
2. Alignment: Everyone needs to row in the same direction. That's critical for getting from point A to Point B. 
3. Motivation: The team needs to want to row, even when they're tired.
4. Efficiency: They need to be efficient so there is no wasted effort in the process.
5. Adaptivity: They need to be willing and able to adapt to changes in their environment and switch directions if they need to go somewhere else.

Let’s dive deeper into each of these manager competencies:

Trust

For every individual to do their best work, they really need to be able to trust in leadership, trust in each other and trust that their contributions are valued.

The choices managers make have a huge impact on psychological safety for individuals and the team as a whole. Managers can model respect and inclusion for direct reports on their teams. This is a huge component of team culture and is foundational to high-performing teams.

There's a lot of research to back this up, so most people are not surprised to discover that trust matters. A Gallup analysis found employees who trust their leaders are 61% more likely to stay with their company and not look for another job. Gallup also found that when followers strongly agree they trust their leaders, one in two are engaged, compared with one in 12 when followers do not find leaders trustworthy.

Alignment

Alignment is about that question of “Are we actually all rowing in the same direction?” Managers play a really crucial role in ensuring that this alignment exists.

Managers give a sense of direction of where the organization is headed and how the team's work fits into that larger goal. The ability of managers to do things like give clear feedback to employees and being able to say, “Hey, you're headed in the right direction. Keep doing that!” or “You're not headed in the right direction. Please try something else now.” is pretty critical to keeping individuals on the team all working together and on the right path.

Supporting clear objectives and goals is another component of alignment and creating a sense of direction. Managers are crucial in creating structures of accountability, which they can use to help keep everybody on track.

Because accountability and feedback are critical components of alignment, it is essential that managers consistently practice them.

‍Motivation

Referring back to the boat analogy, if people aren't willing to row hard, the team will not go anywhere.

Managers help people find meaning in what they do at work and ensure that they feel a sense of connection that empowers them to give their all every day, even when things are stressful or challenging.

Motivation is most noticeable in its impact on employee retention. Motivation also impacts morale, productivity, mental health and wellbeing. 

The manager’s role in motivation is even more important when employee energy is strained. Mercer’s 2026 Global Talent Trends report found that only 44% of employees were thriving at work, down from 66% in 2024.

Managers are critical in motivating team members, supporting long-term and short-term skill development, and supporting career progression and advancement toward career goals.

Efficiency

Managers play a massive role in efficiency through their choices about meetings, team communication norms, processes, task delegation and matching talent to tasks. In fact, managers make many daily choices that impact the productivity and efficiency of their teams.

Efficiency is potent for achieving team goals, reducing burnout and supporting employee mental health and wellbeing, especially in today’s climate.

In a Gallup report, 64% of managers said their teams were recently given additional job responsibilities, while 42% reported budget cuts to their departments. Having to do more with less is in the water right now. Ensuring managers are equipped with the skills to find sources of efficiency will help them succeed and help their teams succeed.

Adaptivity

Change is constant in today's world, which means the teams that thrive and achieve their goals are the ones that can adapt quickly to new conditions.

Managers who model change positivity can have a big impact on team activity. Managers can also nurture a growth mindset and establish norms that support agile processes and approaches. 

Adaptivity now also includes helping teams work through AI-driven change. Managers do not need to have every answer, but they do need to make change feel understandable, actionable and connected to day-to-day work.

Can managers learn the 5 competencies in any order?

The competencies were presented roughly in order of foundational skills. When we think about social and emotional learning, we start with foundational skills and work our way up to more technical or specific skills. However, we believe these competencies can be taught in any order.

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