10 years ago, when my manager asked me if I wanted to move from project management to people management, I replied, “I would be terrible at people management because I am not a people person.” His response to me was baffling. He said, “People management is not about being a people person.” At the time, I honestly didn’t know what on earth he meant, but I decided to take his word for it, and I moved into a people management role.

After 10 years as a people manager, I think I now understand what he meant. I believe you do have to be a “people person” to be a good manager, not in the sense of being extroverted or gregarious — as I once assumed — but in the sense of being genuinely attuned to other people and able to observe and instinctively gauge, more often than not, what someone needs.

People managers are tasked with managing the most important resource at any company — its people. This includes functions such as hiring, firing, training, development, performance review, motivation, building morale, skills development, conflict resolution and boosting business performance. The key challenge for people managers is finding the middle ground between doing what’s best for your team members and what’s best for business objectives.

Without getting into technical responsibilities, let’s consider some key behaviors, traits and characteristics that people managers should embody to truly make a difference. L&D teams can support the development of these behaviors by providing leadership training that focuses on each of the six areas mentioned below, offering opportunities to practice these behaviors in low-stakes settings and setting up systems to support new leaders through challenges and growth.

Key Characteristics of a People Manager

1. Objectivity

In my years managing people, I have built relationships along the way. It’s easy to form strong connections with some people and harder with others. Although this is natural, one of the biggest challenges as a people manager is to stay objective in the face of frequent and sometimes very personal interactions with your team members.

Maintaining neutrality can be a struggle, especially as you’ll naturally resonate better with some team members than others, so I taught myself to always keep the bigger picture in mind. The bigger picture takes into account the individual employee as well as the company and its needs. The goal for people managers is not to make people happy — it’s to enable people to achieve their greatest potential while also working toward the organization’s goals. Organizations can help their managers follow this approach by fostering a bias-absent culture and keeping the focus of teams on the overall growth of the organization.

2. Thinking Ahead

Although it’s impossible to accurately predict human behavior, to be an effective people manager, one must be able to foresee certain situations and be prepared for them. At the very least, people managers should be able to predict whether they have enough team members to do the required work. In addition, they should have the foresight and information to know which skill sets need to be developed so they can hire and train people accordingly. Regular planning sessions and proactive conversations about forecasting and skill expansion help managers better think ahead.

3. Transparency

Effective people managers practice open and honest communication. This doesn’t mean disclosing every detail about the company or team — in fact, sharing too much can be inappropriate. Instead, it means knowing how to share information thoughtfully and fostering dialogue around topics that may be sensitive or open to differing perspectives.

When a company faces financial challenges and leadership is considering layoffs, people managers must be thoughtful about what information they share with their teams. Sharing sensitive details prematurely can cause unnecessary panic and negatively affect performance. However, if layoffs do occur, effective managers provide the remaining team members with opportunities to ask questions and express concerns.

L&D can support managers in developing the skills to handle these conversations with care, ensuring that their teams feel they can trust the manager to act appropriately and responsibly.

4. Feedback

People managers should be able to both give and receive feedback. Their teams need to feel that managers are open to suggestions and concerns. Managers are not infallible, and they improve most when they create a safe space for their teams to voice feedback. When giving feedback, the rule of thumb is to keep it factual and behavior-focused, rather than personal.

For example, telling someone they are “arrogant” is unhelpful, but pointing out that “they have been resistant to feedback in the past” with specific examples is constructive, even if it doesn’t feel that way in the moment. Similarly, saying “You nailed it!” when someone solves a problem is far more effective than “You are brilliant!” Focus on specific behaviors and not the entire persona.

5. Emotional Intelligence

To be able to understand and effectively manage different personalities, a certain level of experience is necessary. Until people managers have been through certain experiences and gained awareness of the challenges that people go through, it will be difficult to react to new, unusual or tricky situations. For instance, I once had a team member who had over 12 years of experience as an editor and was a very warm and caring person but could not successfully manage a team of editors with far less experience than her. This was simply because she did not have the experience required to appreciate different behaviors, personalities, limitations and intentions.

Although it’s challenging to know the emotional quotient of a potential manager at the time of hiring, providing scenarios to candidates and asking how they would handle them can help gauge maturity.

6. Understanding the Business

People managers can work in any industry or field, but those who succeed tend to have a strong understanding of their business and the work their teams do. For example, a people manager overseeing a group of editors should have solid editing skills, while a manager of software developers should understand software development. They may not need deep technical expertise, but they should grasp what the work entails, the skills required, and the latest trends in their field. This quality is often easier to assess by asking the right questions to determine whether a manager truly understands the broader context of their business and team’s work.

Conclusion

To close, I’ll share what I believe to be the key facet of being a good people manager, though it is perhaps the most challenging to train for: authenticity. What does this mean? If I am a serious person but I keep trying to make jokes and be jovial with my team to make them comfortable, while it might be kind of me to try, it’s not going to work.

Similarly, if someone is not interested in sports but keeps pretending that he loves sports to make his teammates feel he can relate to them, it’s going to come across as inauthentic. I think the biggest disappointment a person can have is to see someone they look up to pretending to be someone they are not. Encourage your leaders to be who they are, let their unique gifts and perspectives shine through, and lead with confidence and honesty.