Managers: 10 Resolutions to Make in 2025

In 2025, the manager's role is more demanding than ever. Faced with the spread of hybrid work, the rise of AI and growing employee expectations, managers have to keep evolving their practices. The good news is that there are plenty of resolutions managers can make to meet these challenges. Among them: developing their skills, aligning their practices with new management trends, or empowering their teams.

In this article, we present 10 resolutions to adopt at the start of the year to become inspiring, agile and high-performing managers. So, ready to reinvent your role and that of your teams?

1. Train yourself (properly) in AI

Artificial intelligence (AI) is an essential lever for optimising your management in 2025. According to a McKinsey study, generative AI could automate up to 70% of business activities by 2030, adding trillions of dollars to the world economy. Managers: if you have not yet taken any training on the subject, it is time to add it to your 2025 resolutions!

With AI, you will be able to:

• Automate time-consuming tasks such as content creation, sorting applications, managing emails and analysing data.
• Make knowledge easier to access and to document.
• Grow your productivity and that of your teams.

So remember to train your employees on AI tools, so that they can benefit from them too.

2. Personalise your management style

Did you know that 70% of a team's engagement level is influenced by the manager? To improve that engagement, personalising your management is essential. Just like your personas, your employees are unique. Adapting your management style to each person's needs will therefore boost engagement, and by extension your team's performance.

So how do you go about it in practice? Here are a few tips:

• Survey your team members on their preferences in terms of communication, collaboration, and management. If needed, you can also have them take personality tests (for example, with the Process Communication Model).
• Take these needs into account to adapt how you communicate and give feedback to each team member.
• Continuously adjust your practices based on feedback from your team.

3. Empower your teams

Almost half of middle managers' working time goes on non-managerial tasks (administrative ones in particular). Empowering your teams can cut the time spent on those tasks. Managers can then devote themselves fully to their role, while unlocking their teams' potential: well worth adding to your 2025 resolutions!

Here are some ways to develop this autonomy:

• Experiment with empowering models: for example, our customer Great Place To Work Netherlands has introduced self-governance (or self-management), an approach that lets employees make decisions autonomously about their role. To find out more about this use case and explore the existing models, head to our "Ultimate Guide to Organisational Models" 👇

• Give work meaning : connect employees' missions to the strategic objectives and to the company's purpose.
• Delegate intelligently: assign responsibilities matched to each person's skills and aspirations, while remaining available to support them.

4. Clarify roles and objectives

Organisational bureaucracy (in other words, an excess of meetings, emails and approval processes) is a major problem for managers. Very often it comes from a lack of clarity about roles and objectives. To put an end to it, managers have to make one resolution they cannot skip in 2025: being transparent! In concrete terms, that means:

• Defining explicit roles: clearly documenting the responsibilities and decision-making power of each team member. You can, for example, use the Talkspirit org chart to define and clearly visualise everyone's roles across the organisation.

• Set SMART objectives (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time-bound).
• Connecting team objectives to those of the company, using the OKR method (Objectives and Key Results). On Talkspirit, you can set your company and team objectives with this method, and see how each sub-objective contributes to reaching the company's overall goal. That means no more working in silos!

5. Invest in the right tools

Since 2020, hybrid work has become the norm for many organisations. For your teams to stay productive remotely, you therefore have to invest in the right tools. But be careful not to pile them up. Some companies use as many as 10 different tools for teamwork alone!

Here is a resolution for managers who want to keep things simple: opt for an all-in-one tool! For example, on Talkspirit, you can:

• share your internal communications through a news feed and a welcome portal,
• talk in real time through chat and video conferencing,
• manage projects, individual and team ones,
• document roles, processes and objectives,
• store and co-edit documents,
• and much more!

6. Take care of your team's health

In 2025, employee well-being is a key priority for organisations. Burnout, bore-out, and other psychosocial risks continue to threaten team performance. As a manager, taking care of your team's physical and mental health should be one of your resolutions, as should looking after your own well-being.

On average, managers are 36% more at risk of burnout than their non-manager colleagues. So watch for early warning signs, both in yourself and in your team!

Here are some ways to take concrete action:

• Encourage work-life balance: offer flexible hours, encourage the right to disconnect and make sure the workload is well spread across your team members.
• Implement well-being initiatives: organise stress management workshops, yoga sessions, or dedicated mental health days.
• Be attentive: take time to talk with your team to identify signs of fatigue or distress.

7. Create a climate of psychological safety

For your teams to innovate and collaborate effectively, they have to feel free to speak up without fear. Google's Project Aristotle showed that this psychological safety is one of the main levers of a team's performance.

How do you get there?

• Value the right to make mistakes: present it as an opportunity for continuous improvement rather than as an insurmountable failure.
• Foster inclusive management: listen to all voices and involve your team members in decisions.
• Show empathy: pay attention to their needs and their emotions.

8. Align your practices with your company's CSR commitments

Several studies show that companies genuinely committed to a corporate social responsibility (CSR) approach attract and retain talent better¹. However, for that approach to work, it also has to be carried on the ground by managers: a resolution we advise you to put in place from 2025 onwards!

As a manager, you can in particular:

• Adopt responsible practices: encourage waste reduction, support for local suppliers or the introduction of a volunteering programme.
• Measure and communicate your impact: set up key indicators to track your CSR progress and regularly share these results with your team.
• Encourage diversity and inclusion: create an environment where everyone feels valued and respected, whatever their background, gender or abilities.

Read also: 23 Examples of CSR Initiatives to Launch in Your Company

9. Lead by example

Being a manager in 2025 also means being a role model for your teams. Your actions, your behaviour and your decisions reflect the culture and values of the organisation. Being consistent between what you preach and what you practise is essential if you want to inspire trust.

Here are a few ways to lead by example:

• Be transparent: openly share your thinking and decisions, explaining the "why" behind each choice.
• Hold yourself to the same standards: whether in terms of punctuality, meeting deadlines or adopting new practices, show that you follow what you ask of others.
• Encourage feedback: ask your employees for their opinion on your practices. It shows you are open to dialogue and willing to improve.

One inspiring example: at Netflix, the feedback culture is embedded in management practice. Managers are trained to give and receive constructive, transparent feedback, anywhere and at any time. The result: employees are more empowered and feel more confident.

10. Stay agile

In the VUCA world (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous) we live in, agility has become an essential skill for managers; developing it therefore has to be part of your 2025 resolutions! Being agile means knowing how to adapt quickly to change, encouraging innovation and guiding your teams through periods of uncertainty.

Here is how to bring agility into your management practices:

• Develop a growth mindset: encourage your teams to learn from every project, whether it is a success or a failure, and to see challenges as chances to go further.
• Encourage initiative: give your employees the autonomy they need to try out new ideas and solutions.
• Be flexible: review your priorities and processes regularly to make sure they meet the company's current needs.

Adopting agile management is not only an essential resolution for managers, it is also a key lever for improving the resilience of your teams in 2025.

Conclusion

The resolutions you adopt today as managers can have a real impact on your teams' engagement and performance. Whether it is bringing AI into your practices, personalising your approach, creating a climate of trust or promoting agility, each of these resolutions will help you meet the management challenges and trends of 2025.

Need tools to support these transformations? Schedule a Talkspirit demo with our team, and take a look at our white paper on the management styles of next-generation companies 👇

Access the White Paper

In our white paper "Next-Generation Leadership", you will find:

• 12 management styles used in next-generation companies and the situations in which they are most appropriate.
• Advice and methods for implementing these management approaches in your organisation.
• The characteristics that define a good leader, and best practices for developing your management skills.