How to Showcase Management Skills on Your Resume

Why management skills matter 

Great management skills are vital for organizational health and employee satisfaction. A good manager can make or break a team, and employers know that. Hiring managers are always on the lookout for leaders who can:

• Meet deadlines and manage time
• Organize and delegate reasonable workloads
• Coach and support teams
• Handle sudden pressure and crises
• Bond with employees and increase team trust

Management skills help drive a company forward, increasing productivity and trust, enhancing company culture, and aiding organizational growth. 

These abilities show up in many different roles, including project managers, HR professionals, analysts, sales team leaders, and Scrum Masters. Check out our resume samples for realistic examples of how these positions use management skills.

Other types of positions use these competencies, too. It’s beneficial to display these skills even if you’re entry-level—it shows employers you have career potential and have a firm future at their company.

Key management skills to highlight 

While there are dozens of relevant capabilities, we recommend you consider the top 10 best management skills for resumes we discuss below. These key abilities are highly valued by employers and help your application stand out from the crowd.

Managers primarily work with people—guiding them, directing them, supporting them—so most leadership abilities are interpersonal and soft skills.

Here are our top 10 management skills for your resume:

• Prioritization: Discerning what’s more important than something else helps managers assign tasks and handle unprecedented events while maintaining productivity.
• Scheduling: Leaders must plan meetings, appointments, and events, keeping in mind every participants’ calendars. Scheduling also helps managers assign tasks logically.
• Delegation: Assigning the right tasks to the right people brings projects forward, increases productivity, and boosts performance. Delegation also requires agility, reassigning responsibilities when certain employees are unavailable.
• Communication: Communication is essential in leadership, such as relaying information between stakeholders or discussing goals in employee one-on-ones.
• Empathy: Understanding the thoughts and motivations of staff helps managers build better working relationships and enhance employee satisfaction.
• Negotiation: This skill helps managers make decisions, build relationships, and work out better deals for their people.
• Conflict resolution: The ability to mediate discussions not only helps leaders strengthen working relationships it also increases performance as people can work past their differences and align into a better team.
• Gaining acceptance for new ideas: Leaders must be able to make a strong argument for their ideas, positioning them as attractive to stakeholders and securing support and buy-in.
• Supporting and developing others: Managers need to recognize the strengths and areas of improvement in their people to build targeted development plans for them.
• Giving feedback: Giving both constructive and reinforcing feedback is essential for leaders. Further, it’s also a skill to deliver feedback in an understandable, digestible way.

Incorporating management skills in resumes (with examples) 

Skills for manager resumes can be placed throughout your application. We recommend you weave them throughout your resume to reinforce your skills and make your argument strong but subtle.

The most obvious spot is the Skills section. We recommend you list five to 10 skills in this section, prioritizing hard skills but still providing several strong soft skills.

Two other suggestions are placing your management skills in a separate Projects header or in your cover letter.

The best place to list management skills is in the work experience section. Here, you can describe your work history and the top achievements that showcase your leadership abilities. The key to discussing your accomplishments is show, don’t tell. 

Here are a few examples of showing skills through work entries:

Delegation

Developing others

Negotiation 

Notice that these entries also use action verbs and quantified, measurable achievements. This format catches the recruiter’s eye and helps demonstrate your organizational impact.

These accomplishments also help you subtly showcase your hard skills, like building employee development plans.

Tailor management skills for different applications 

Different job descriptions require unique skills. A project manager needs expert communication skills, whereas a retail manager only needs moderately strong communication.

It also depends on the specific company and its organizational culture. If a business emphasizes adaptability and speed, it will need leaders who embody those values.

Tailor management skills for resumes to the job you’re applying for to ensure your application is relevant to the company. Here are a few tips to help you target jobs specifically:

• Read the job description thoroughly to absorb the qualities the company wants in a manager.
• Showcase the desired skills, achievements, and competencies in your resume and cover letter.
• Pay attention to specific keywords to make an ATS resume. For example, if the job description requires a Master of Business Administration, use that exact terminology and don’t shorten it to MBA.

The number one thing hiring managers need to see is relevance. It doesn’t matter if you’re an experienced master in your field—if you aren’t highly relevant to their open role, they’ll keep looking. Tailoring your application shows employers you have the exact qualifications they need.

How to showcase projects and achievements related to  management 

Remember what we said above: Show, don’t tell. The best way to showcase manager skills for resumes is by discussing your work accomplishments and their organizational impact. Here are our tips on the best ways to do that.

Use quantified achievements

Quantified achievements are accomplishments that display measurable metrics. These achievements show tangible outcomes, rather than simply listing responsibilities like “Managed a team of 20. Delegated tasks.”

Quantifying achievements showcases your impact. Hiring managers get a firm idea of your abilities when you describe experience with numbers and percentages. Here are a couple of examples:

Discuss projects in depth

Don’t be afraid to delve into your projects. Hiring managers need details in order to make their decision and discussing your work in-depth gives them relevant, helpful insights.

Create a “Projects” header using a flexible resume template to give yourself enough space. This element will resemble a work experience section—start with the name of the project, add your role, and finish with a bullet list of organizational outcomes.

Here’s an example projects section:

Use the STAR method

The STAR method is the perfect method for displaying your management skills. The STAR methodology stands for Situation, Task, Action, Result, and is a technique used for both resumes and interviews. 

This technique focuses on specific scenarios and the abilities you used to solve a problem and achieve success. Start by describing an event and the responsibility you had in it, and then discuss the actions you took and the measurable impact it had.

For more information, read our full guide on building a STAR method resume.

“Managers primarily work with people—guiding them, directing them, supporting them—so most leadership abilities are interpersonal and soft skills.”

Identify the best management skills for resumes and stand out

Impressive management skills are useful for every role, whether you’re an executive or an entry-level sales representative. Delegation, empathy, teamwork, and strategy show you’re a capable professional and a valuable new hire.

Be sure to remember our top tips:

• Show your skills through meaningful achievements—don’t just list them out
• Quantify accomplishments to showcase your outcomes
• Tailor each resume to the job you’re targeting
• Use the STAR method in your resumes, cover letters, and job interviews

Ready to build a top-notch manager resume? Head over to CVwizard’s resume builder to put these tips to use and create an impressive resume in minutes.