How to show management skills on your résumé

By: James M. Tobin, Edited by: Marie Custodio Collazo

Published: June 20, 2025

Employers tend to value people with leadership potential, even when filling positions that do not immediately involve managerial duties. To that end, showcasing management skills can strengthen your résumé.

You don't need a history of managerial roles to position yourself as leadership material. Explore résumé-boosting strategies you can pair with just about any professional background.

What are management skills — and why do they matter?

Management skills show that you can:

• Achieve goals
• Delegate tasks
• Overcome challenges
• Inspire peers

Virtually every employer values these characteristics in their employees.

People can display management and leadership potential at any stage of their career, from entry level to upper management. For example, consider these management skills and how they can manifest in non-managerial roles:

• Problem solving: You implemented an effective solution to a minor but persistent problem.
• Strategic thinking: You identified and acted on a tangible way to improve customer service at a time when retention was a pressing organizational challenge.
• Decisiveness: You took prompt action to deploy resources during a moment of crisis.

Tailor your résumé for management positions

A few simple but specific strategies can help you highlight management skills on your résumé. Consider these four examples:

Use powerful language to highlight management skills

Choose your words wisely — they can have a major impact. Try these tips:

• Replace weak verbs with strong ones: Choose active verbs that invoke both leadership and achievement. Consider choices like "coordinated," "developed," "drove," "initiated," "led," "managed," "oversaw," and "pioneered."
• Show the skill through the action and result: The classic action-and-result structure illustrates impact. "Led a six-person marketing team in a campaign that increased web traffic by 35%" says much more than "led a marketing campaign designed to increase web traffic."
• Avoid generic descriptions of duties: Hiring managers usually scan résumés, leaving you with little time to make an impression. Be succinct and provide specific examples of how your work generated positive outcomes or achievements.

Back up your management skills with numbers

Whenever possible, quantify the positive impacts you've had in your previous roles. This helps hiring managers connect the dots while previewing the benefits you might generate in your next role.

Integrate these approaches:

• Emphasize outcomes: Highlight results, and use data to back it up. Think in terms of metrics like time or cost savings, sales or revenue increases, and improved customer retention rates.
• Add numbers to résumé bullets whenever possible: Hiring managers like quantitative data arranged in bullet points. It's scannable and efficiently illustrates impact. Think along the lines of "exceeded sales quota by 125%" or "saved $100,000 in operating costs."
• Use the STAR method: Explain your work using the "situation, task, action, result" (STAR) model. Briefly set up the context and the task it involved, then explain the action you took and the results that followed. When discussing results, use data and numbers to show that you met or exceeded what the task demanded.

Tailor your résumé to highlight relevant management skills

The more closely your résumé matches an employer's needs, the more likely you are to land an interview. These approaches can help:

• Scan job postings for relevant keywords: Look closely at job postings for positions you'd like to have. Take note of managerial phrases like "budget management," "change management," "strategic planning," and "leadership." Then, customize your résumé to showcase relevant skills and experiences that match what they're looking for.
• Align your résumé with job descriptions using exact phrasing naturally: If a post indicates the employer wants someone who can "coordinate cross-functional teams," use that exact wording when describing a relevant aspect of your employment history. This sets you up as a perfect match.
• Use tools like jobscan.co or LinkedIn's job posting analysis: These and other online tools can help you identify and address weaknesses or gaps in your résumé and create a document precisely attuned to an individual employer's needs.

List your management skills clearly in a skills section

You can also draw attention to management skills by creating a dedicated section for them in your résumé. Position the section for high visibility, and follow these best practices:

• Use a mix of soft and hard management skills: "Hard" skills are specific, measurable abilities. Examples include Python and C++ in computer programming, and project charter preparation and work breakdown structuring in project management. Combine them with psychosocial or "soft" skills, such as communication or time management.
• Group them into categories: If you have many skills to highlight, arrange them under headings. Use short, descriptive terms like "team leadership," "strategic planning," and "conflict resolution" to identify key skill sets.
• Mention any relevant certifications or online courses: If you hold relevant certifications from professional organizations, academic certificates, or other microcredentials, consider grouping these in a dedicated section or including them in your categorized skills lists.

Boost your management skills with online courses

Online education can be a flexible and convenient way to develop managerial skills and add qualifications that can help you advance. Examples include courses or certificates in organizational leadership and project management, and executive education programs in leadership development.

When combined with existing degrees and relevant professional experience, microcredentials and academic certificates can have a positive influence on your candidate profile and signal your suitability for leadership consideration.

Start owning your management skills today

By developing your managerial and leadership skills, you can become a more effective professional no matter where you currently are in your career. Explore edX for Executive Education, certificate programs, and online degrees that support your career growth.