How to be a Good Manager

In this post I talk about how to be a good manager that employees love and want to work for.  Inspirational managers aren’t necessarily the ones performing grandiose actions or trailblazing a new path across the business world. They aren’t necessarily the rich CEOs, motivational speakers or the brilliant strategists who have turned their businesses around.

A good manager is much simpler than that: it is someone in a position of authority who engenders a personal and authentic connection with their employees. Someone any individual member of staff can turn to without fear, whose door is (almost) always open, who listens and who wants to create a one-on-one connection with his or her employees. It’s as simple, and as complicated, as that.

Dale Carnegie Training has told us that nearly three-quarters of employees are unhappy at work, the majority due to their relationships with their immediate supervisor.

The one thing I always try to keep in mind when leading a team is that I am responsible for setting the tone of the workplace, and that I can make my employee’s work lives enjoyable or unhappy, by my actions. It’s a sobering and humbling thought; my actions matter. They can mean the difference between an employee going home satisfied or miserable, and the latter can affect your entire life, can’t it? Do you want to be responsible for making someone so unhappy?

So when you’re next rushing from one place to another, or shouting for that piece of work because you need to push it up the line, remember that you have other people’s happiness in your hands. Don’t get so consumed by your own insecurities, worries or pressures that you take it out on your staff. They won’t do their best for you if you do.

You want your employees to be happy, motivated and confident of the leadership of the company. Ideally, you also want them to be proud of it too. That doesn’t mean you have to mollycoddle them, but you do have to be forthright, strong and confident so they know where they stand. Let’s look at how that translates into day-to-day real world actions.

How to be a Good Manager

Maturity
Too many managers gripe in public about management issues or, God forbid, even about other employees or higher management. It’s especially tempting if you’re a newbie manager and want to show the team that you’re ‘still one of them’.
The fact, however, is that you’re not. As a manager, you are now a representative of the company and need to act like it.
Don’t commiserate with your workers over unpopular higher management decisions; they will only lose faith in you. Believe and credibly represent the corporate position. Don’t become a toxic manager, because your negativity will infect the team and prevent your own future promotion.

Being honest and straightforward
Being a manager does sometimes mean making unpopular decisions, or having difficult conversations. You can do all of this without losing your employees’ respect IF they know that they can trust you. So be honest with them. Don’t hide bad news or spin information; be authentic and open. Respect your employees enough to tell them the truth.
This engenders trust and encourages an open relationship. Now employees can ask you questions and know you will give them a true answer, as opposed to descending to rumours and innuendo.

Prioritising Regular One-to-Ones
The one thing that often falls by the wayside when you’re a busy manager is one-to-ones with staff. Don’t think of them as time suckers but as productive meetings where you get to know your employee better, and they get to know you. Make them productive times (not just a chin-wag) where the two of you design an employee’s workload together, and get an early warning about anything that isn’t working. It might mean time now, but it should mean increased productivity later. It’s also a great way to develop the authentic relationship you want with your team.

Using Your Employees’ Strengths
There’s nothing worse than hiring good enthusiastic people but putting them in the wrong jobs. Over time, you’ll watch the enthusiasm leach out of them and trying to change the person to fit the job just won’t work in the long term. So make a point of learning your employees’ strengths and make sure they are in the right positions to take advantage of them. They will be much happier and more committed as a result.
This does mean, however, that you might have to move people around or even let some people go if they aren’t meant to be in your team (always consult HR first). Don’t shy away from the difficult decisions. The entire team will thank you eventually when everyone feels they are in positions to win, rather than lose.

Facing Conflict
The worst thing a manager can do is to ignore conflict. The workplace can be tough, projects can fail, team members can fall out, and turf wars can take over. If you’re a weak manager and hide away from such conflict, you will lose the respect of your team and the workplace will descend into toxic cliques and deeply unhappy employees.

If you want to know how to be a good manager, face conflict head one. Stand up for employees where necessary, remove obstacles for them if needed and smooth over upsets where you can. Sometimes all an employee wants is to be listened to. If two members of staff are infighting, sit them down together and ask them to calmly talk about the issues. Act as the lead and make sure it doesn’t descend into anarchy or recriminations, and you might find that they work out their differences in a positive way.

If you can do all of the above, you’ll become a good manager. But you don’t have to stop there… why settle for just being a good manager when you could learn how to be a great manager?

Bad Managers versus Good Managers versus Great Managers

What’s the difference between a good and great manager? A simple premise…

There’s a common saying:

Bad managers tell employees what to do
Good managers explain why they need them to do it
But GREAT managers involve people in decision making in the first place.

We’ve all seen bad managers and if you were unlucky enough, you worked for them too. They direct employees, usually by barking orders, expecting complete control. It’s no surprise that bad managers micro-manage because they don’t trust anyone but themselves. Employees aren’t allowed to use their own initiatives or brains (though a really bad manager will also blame them for that as well, even though he doesn’t give them any opportunity to do so). You end up with a deeply unpleasant dysfunctional workplace as a result.

A good manager, on the other hand, will explain why something needs to be done, so employees understand the need for it, and can get behind whatever request or instruction is issued. So instead of being the adult equivalent of ‘Because I told you so’, it becomes more of a conversation.

If this means they must ensure a store doesn’t go over maximum occupancy during an incredibly popular sale, for instance, the employees responsible now know the request was made because of health and safety concerns (and law). The good manager has demonstrated his faith in his employees, given them responsibility and ensured they know how important the instruction is. It also means they can explain to potentially frustrated customers why they must wait at the door temporarily, preventing tempers from fraying.

Employees are much happier under this sort of regime. BUT you don’t have to stop there. With a bit more effort, you could surpass being a good manager and become a GREAT one.

If your company is facing a potential safety risk, for instance, why not engage employees to come up with ideas on how to reduce that safety risk? Allow your staff to be involved in minor and major decisions and involve them in relevant decision making; you might be surprised at the great ideas that come back.

This is wonderful for morale, and can really benefit you as a leader as well. No one is infallible, and you can’t be expected to have all the answers for all situations. So expand the number of minds on a problem, and be prepared to accept an idea gracefully and appreciatively if it’s genuinely the best one, no matter where it comes from. Yes, you’ll need to put your ego to one side.

Of course, there will be times when you need to issue instructions, but I’d estimate that about 85-90% of the time, that’s just not necessary. Work with employees on designing their workload and keep an open debate on potential improvements and everyone gains.

So remember:

Bad Managers Tell
Good Managers Explain
Great Managers Ask