Effective managers can motivate their employees and improve an organization’s overall performance. A manager oversees a particular project, team, or department within an organization and often serves as a liaison between employees and senior leadership. Since managers typically perform supervisory and leadership functions, becoming a manager usually takes planning and preparation.
This article shares six clear, actionable steps for becoming a manager and additional tips for pursuing this position.
How to become a manager in 6 steps
Here are six steps you can take to become a manager:
1. Research manager responsibilities
Before applying for a manager position, spend time researching what to expect in a managerial role to determine if it’s right for you. This involves learning critical information such as standard job functions, essential skills, and typical salary ranges. Your research ensures you approach becoming a manager informed about what to expect and what employers look for in a manager. Some of the typical responsibilities you might find include:
- Managing teams of people
- Setting objectives for yourself and your team
- Determining action plans to achieve goals
- Training team members
- Ensuring staff is safe and happy
Related: FAQ: Am I Ready To Be a Manager?
2. Assess your qualifications
Next, you can perform a self-assessment to determine your strengths and areas for growth relative to the expected skills of a manager. This helps you set realistic expectations about your timeline for pursuing a managerial position and a baseline to start your preparation.
To complete a self-assessment, you can review past performance evaluations or ask a trusted colleague for honest, constructive feedback. A leadership mentality is critical to your success as a manager, so include this in your self-assessment. Managers must work well under pressure and give precise feedback to their subordinates. Some other standard manager qualifications to evaluate are: to evaluate are:
- Relationship-building skills
- Problem-solving skills
- Decision-making skills
- Time-management skills
- Coaching and mentoring skills
- Communication skills
- Strategic planning skills
Read more: Management Skills: Definition and Examples
3. Set goals for improving skills
Using the information from your self-assessment, set a goal to strengthen one or more of your growth areas before applying for a manager position. Then, self-assess periodically or ask for feedback from your manager to determine if you’re making progress. This will help gauge your readiness and help you support future employees with their growth and development.
In some cases, you can begin setting skills-improvement goals via your company’s framework for goal setting to follow a commonly referenced structure and support. For instance, your organization might use a tiered goals framework that organizes objectives by week, month and year.
Related: How To Develop Leadership Skills and Become a Great Manager
4. Share your aspirations with your manager
Expressing your managerial aspirations to your supervisor can be valuable, depending on their leadership style. This person may be able to provide honest feedback about your readiness and suggest ways to develop your skills before applying. They might even assign you new projects or offer insight into their own experience as a manager.
Related: 7 Management Styles for Effective Leadership (With Examples)
5. Show your worth
To show your worth, you can do so directly and indirectly. For example, adding specific, measurable accomplishments and outcomes to your resume proves you’re ready for a manager role. Indirectly, you can model excellent communication and problem-solving skills managers need by speaking up more in meetings, sending clear notes for follow-up after team meetings, or offering creative solutions to challenges.
Related: 15 Types of Manager Jobs
6. Explore mentorship opportunities
One way to develop leadership skills and work towards becoming a manager is to mentor your colleagues. Consider asking your manager if there are ways you can train or lead employees in areas where you excel. This can give you practice teaching others and other managerial duties like arranging regular meetings.
Related: How To Delegate Tasks in the Workplace: 7 Tips
Additional tips for becoming a manager
Here are some more tips for becoming a manager:
Focus on solutions
Focusing on solutions means presenting ideas that can make workflows or processes more efficient. Consider evaluating what ways you can improve the tools and resources you and your team use to show your manager that you have practical problem-solving and critical-thinking skills. For example, if coworkers complain about a long process, you might brainstorm and present ideas that can shorten the timeline.
Volunteer for additional tasks
Volunteering for additional tasks can show your initiative when pursuing a management position. You might notice that your manager has many tedious tasks that take a long time. Consider contacting them and seeing if you can assist them so they can focus more on high-priority tasks. This can give you experience with some of the necessary responsibilities to serve in that role and show that you want to learn more about leadership and the department.
Be open with your manager.
Being open with your manager means sharing what you think could be improved about the workplace, processes, and teams. You can share insights into how you and other team members perform specific tasks, identifying areas for improvement. With these problems, consider proposing solutions to show that you proactively hope to change components of the job.
Learn from experts
Learning from experts means observing and noting the way effective managers work. You might see if you can meet with leaders other than your direct manager to get tips on how they effectively manage their teams and responsibilities. You can also read literature about successful management practices to help you prepare if you get a managerial role in the future.
3. Set goals for improving skills
Using the information from your self-assessment, set a goal to strengthen one or more of your growth areas before applying for a manager position. Then, self-assess periodically or ask for feedback from your manager to determine if you’re making progress. This will help gauge your readiness and help you support future employees with their growth and development.
In some cases, you can begin setting skills-improvement goals via your company’s framework for goal setting to follow a commonly referenced structure and support. For instance, your organization might use a tiered goals framework that organizes objectives by week, month and year.
Related: How To Develop Leadership Skills and Become a Great Manager
4. Share your aspirations with your manager
Expressing your managerial aspirations to your supervisor can be valuable, depending on their leadership style. This person may be able to provide honest feedback about your readiness and suggest ways to develop your skills before applying. They might even assign you new projects or offer insight into their own experience as a manager.
Related: 7 Management Styles for Effective Leadership (With Examples)
5. Show your worth
To show your worth, you can do so directly and indirectly. For example, adding specific, measurable accomplishments and outcomes to your resume proves you’re ready for a manager role. Indirectly, you can model excellent communication and problem-solving skills managers need by speaking up more in meetings, sending clear notes for follow-up after team meetings, or offering creative solutions to challenges.
Related: 15 Types of Manager Jobs
6. Explore mentorship opportunities
One way to develop leadership skills and work towards becoming a manager is to mentor your colleagues. Consider asking your manager if there are ways you can train or lead employees in areas where you excel. This can give you practice teaching others and other managerial duties like arranging regular meetings.
Related: How To Delegate Tasks in the Workplace: Tips
Additional tips for becoming a manager
Here are some more tips for becoming a manager:
Focus on solutions
Focusing on solutions means presenting ideas that can make workflows or processes more efficient. Consider evaluating what ways you can improve the tools and resources you and your team use to show your manager that you have practical problem-solving and critical-thinking skills. For example, if coworkers complain about a long process, you might brainstorm and present ideas that can shorten the timeline.
Volunteer for additional tasks
Volunteering for additional tasks can show your initiative when pursuing a management position. You might notice that your manager has many tedious tasks that take a long time. Consider contacting them and seeing if you can assist them so they can focus more on high-priority tasks. This can give you experience with some of the necessary responsibilities to serve in that role and show that you want to learn more about leadership and the department.
Be open with your manager.
Being open with your manager means sharing what you think could be improved about the workplace, processes, and teams. You can share insights into how you and other team members perform specific tasks, identifying areas for improvement. With these problems, consider proposing solutions to show that you proactively hope to change components of the job.
Learn from experts
Learning from experts means observing and noting the way effective managers work. You might see if you can meet with leaders other than your direct manager to get tips on how they effectively manage their teams and responsibilities. You can also read literature about successful management practices to help you prepare if you get a managerial role in the future.