Following on from “10 Things a Good Manager will Do” are the 10 Things a Good Manager will Be. You will find that some of these items are a “do” as well but the focus in this article is to look at how a manager “is”, not just what they do. Big difference. Enjoy
1. Be Enthusiastic
The best way to succeed as a manager is to be upbeat and enthusiastic. You may not have everyone on board and agree with you, you may not know the answer to everything they ask but if you are highly positive and let them know together you will find a solution to any problem that arises you will be fine. The best thing about being upbeat and enthusiastic is that is infectious, no one wants to have a negative person leading them. Motivation is the key to a successful business, not in the old fashioned “punish if you don’t do well” way but with praise and challenging the team to greater efforts positively.
Most staff will rise to the challenge and perform well for you.
2. Be Trustworthy – Earn the Trust of the Team
Employees work well for people they can trust. They like managers to show competence and be concerned for them. Your employees will work well when they feel their opinions are heard, if they know what is required from them and that they know that decisions are made with them in mind.
3. Be a Good Listener
Employees are motivated when their managers listen to them. Good listening skills need to be learnt and do not come naturally. To create good listeners out of your employees, you should lead by example and be a great listener yourself. You will find people have some great knowledge and that if you take the time to listen you will find out some great ideas that will directly improve the business.
4. Be understanding (don’t judge to quickly)
The key to making good decisions is to weigh up the pros and cons and take balanced risks. Good managers make the best decisions with the information they have at the time. This applies to dealing with employees as well. Never make rash decisions with your team. Never criticise someone’s idea publicly as this may lead to resentment and limit any further ideas from the individual. You should learn to accept and work with other people’s ideas and learn to work as a team together.
5. Be Empathetic
Warmth is a factor a lot of managers overlook and is a great leadership quality to have, most people confuse it with being soft but it really just means being considerate to your employees and showing empathy when it is needed. Empathy is understanding how the other person may feel if you were in the same situation. The American Indian term is “walking in someone else’s shoes.”
6. Be a Delegator
A lot of your team’s potential will be wasted unless you recognise talents and skills and delegate specific tasks to your team. Trusting your employees with various roles and tasks will lead to you having fewer things for you to worry about and show that you trust your team with important jobs.
7. Be a Learner
No one is perfect, so a key tip is to learn new things that will help you improve. Great leaders will research, talk to others and listen and find out new ideas they can incorporate into their business and team. No management technique and style will be perfect, and if your team or situation changes, you need to adapt and learn how to best deal with this new challenge.
8. Be a Goal Setter
Great managers set goals not only for their team but also themselves. To be a good manager you need to invest time in personal development. Set you and your team financial and personal goals and keep track of them and review them as necessary.
9. Be a Leader by Example
This is a common point that a lot of people will have heard before but is very important. Don’t ask your employees to do something you wouldn’t be prepared to do yourself. If they believe you would do what you are asking them to do, they are much more likely to respect you a do a good job.
10. Be Tough but Fair
A lot of these points cover being nice and respecting your employees, but you can’t be popular all the time. You will occasionally have to make some tough decisions that will not be popular with your team. Hopefully they will understand why you have made certain decisions and at critical points take the time to explain your reasoning.
