11 Best Manager Skills for Your Resume (with Examples)

Show off your manager skills on your resume to progress your career

Is it time to start climbing the career ladder? If you're looking at stepping up into a management role, you'll need to showcase your manager skills on your resume. As a leader, there are plenty of skills that you can highlight to prove your suitability for the role – and the good news is that you probably already have plenty of them!

What are manager skills?

Manager skills encompass a broad mix of skills and abilities that enable a person to thrive in a management role and fulfil the tasks required of them. With the right skills, a manager can deliver positive results and business improvements, whilst overseeing a productive, motivated team. Of course, they also need to show off those skills on their resume, so that they can get hired into a management role in the first place!

In this article, we'll look at some of the top manager skills that you should consider including on your resume to support your career progression.

Examples of the best manager skills for your resume

Let's take a look at some examples of top manager skills for your resume that will make hiring managers sit up and take notice.

1. Team leadership

When you reach a management position, you'll have a team working for you. That could be a team of one or two people, or a team of hundreds. Either way, you'll need to have the leadership skills necessary to motivate them to produce excellent work, the delegation skills to allocate work fairly, the interpersonal skills to build trusting relationships with each and every person, and the confidence to manage their performance. Team leadership skills encompass many other skills, but you can't be a successful manager without the whole package.

2. Empathy

Gone are the days of the authoritarian leader. These days, empathy is a key management trait. To build a positive work environment, where workers are productive, happy, and motivated, managers need to take the time to understand individual personalities, drivers, and concerns. Empathy with the needs of the team enables a manager to make better decisions, to support their staff, and to build trusting relationships. All of this comes together to create an environment where everyone operates at their best and fulfils their potential – ignore this management skill at your peril!

3. Project management

Life as a manager isn't just about managing people and operations. At some point, you'll have a project to manage, too. A great manager doesn't just accept the status quo, they identify areas for improvement and implement the necessary changes to enable the business to thrive. Projects range in size, from the small, such as arranging an on-site team-building activity, to the large, such as implementing a multi-million-dollar computer system across several global locations. Successful projects are delivered within deadlines and budgets and in line with the agreed scope and quality expectations. Project management is an important executive manager skill for your resume, and encompasses planning, cost control, stakeholder management, risk control, and delegation, among many other skills.

4. Communication

Everyone can communicate to some degree, but do you have the high-level communication skills needed on a senior manager resume? Wrapped up in this seemingly simple skill are negotiation, influencing, public speaking, digital communication and, sometimes, foreign language proficiency. You can't simply add “communication skills” to your manager resume – that may be fine for a recent graduate, but by the time you reach the heady heights of management you'll need to prove you have the advanced communication skills necessary to lead.

5. Conflict resolution

In an ideal world, there would be no conflict. Unfortunately, we don't live in an ideal world and, at some point, you'll find yourself needing to manage conflict. The conflict may be between team members, with suppliers, or even across departments. Showing conflict management skills on your managerial resume will reassure recruiters that you can handle difficult situations with empathy, discretion, and decisiveness.

6. Team building

Teams don't manage themselves! Even the most cohesive teams need to be supported through change or difficulties – it's how you manage those situations that will set you apart as a manager. A well-oiled team can positively impact productivity, morale, and results. Your manager skills on your resume need to include skill in team building and position you as a supportive, collaborative, empathetic leader.

7. Results delivery

Of course, there's no point having a happy team if they simply aren't delivering the results the business demands. A successful manager always has one eye on the results, whether that's in terms of KPIs, sales figures, service level agreements, profitability, cost savings… or any one of a hundred other metrics that are used to measure business performance. Don't forget to add positive results to your manager resume, so that the hiring manager can appreciate your contributions and your ability to keep performance on track.

8. Delivering presentations

The majority of people don't enjoy public speaking – and indeed some people live in fear of it! But if you're going to be a successful manager, you'll need to be confident in delivering presentations. This is a great skill to highlight on your manager resume, as there will almost certainly be some element of presentation involved in your role. From small team meetings to large conferences with hundreds of attendees, your ability to speak confidently, articulately, and concisely will be valued.

9. Planning

Are you the type to leave things to the last minute and then drag your team into a blind panic in order to hit a long-forgotten deadline? Planning is a key management skill, whether you plan day-to-day schedules and activities for your team or you create long-term project plans. Don't forget to include planning skills on your resume.

10. Problem solving

The more senior the role, the bigger the problems you'll be called on to solve. Luckily, with your clear thinking and logical approach, you're more than up to the job – but does your resume show that? Rather than pretending that everything always runs like clockwork, your resume could benefit from a dose of reality in the form of a business problem or challenge that you've swept in to resolve.

11. Commercial acumen

A good manager understands how their role, their team and their department fits into the bigger picture. Sound commercial acumen is a vital skill for managers and one which needs to be demonstrated on your resume.

How to convey manager skills on your resume

Now you know what to include, you need to consider how to write manager skills into your resume. The best way to add manager skills is to show, rather than tell. What do we mean by that? Well, take a look at these two statements.

I have strong communication skills
I successfully negotiated improved terms with a supplier, saving $10,000 per annum

Which do you think sounds more persuasive? The second? That's because the first statement is just your opinion. The second statement provides a real-life example and a quantifiable result, which proves your opinion to be true.

By providing quantifiable examples, you'll immediately level up your resume. Rather than settling for a basic, generic document, you'll transform it into a convincing, management-level resume that showcases your relevant skills and expertise.

The job posting can be used as a cheat-sheet to help you identify which skills to focus on when you're writing your resume. If a skill is mentioned in the advert, you can be sure the hiring manager will be looking for it when they review your resume. Ensuring you've included the skills as keywords will help your resume to find its way to the top of the YES! pile.

Soft skills vs hard skills

Manager skills on your resume should include a mix of hard and soft skills. As a reminder, hard skills are the job-specific skills that you've learned over the years you've honed your craft, such as computer programming or accounting. Soft skills are those that are transferable between roles, such as problem solving and teamwork. A great resume includes both, to position you as a well-rounded professional.

Leverage your manager skills to secure your next role!

With your management skills clearly coming through on your resume, you'll soon have interview offers flying into your inbox. Remember these key points to ensure you're presenting a strong resume:

Use real-life examples
Quantify results wherever possible
Add a mix of hard and soft skills
Reflect the skills specified in the job advert

If you'd like some feedback from an expert before you send off your manager resume, why not submit your resume for a free, no obligation resume review? With an independent pair of eyes on the document, you'll soon learn whether your resume shows you have the skills of a manager in business or whether further work is needed before you hit the send button.