The costs of poor management
are severe and manifest themselves in countless negative ways including
demotivated, demoralized staff, high staff turnover, reduced employee
productivity, increased employee uncertainty, a client/company disconnect and
increased customer complaints. While a plethora of literature exists on the
myriad ways managers can up their performance and positively impact and
influence their companies and their teams, below the career experts outline ten
basic management tips from the pros.
1. Lead don't manage
Leaders who 'inspire' their teams to perform by example and by communicating and
eliciting excitement for a common vision, mission and set of values and goals
are far more effective over the long run than their more subdued counterparts
who 'manage' rather than 'lead'. While managers control, meddle, limit and
demoralize, the leaders excite, enthuse and infuse the organisation with their
own contagious positive energy, motivation and dedication to professional
principles and ideals as well as their solid, passionate and unwavering
commitment to the company and the clients. Leaders manage less rather than more
and while guiding and overseeing broad strategic issues and communicating
closely with their teams, refrain from regularly interfering in the day-to-day
tasks and workloads or micromanaging. As people take their cues from the boss,
the boss's principles, tone, work ethic, values, workstyle, energy and
motivation will largely influence and determine the corporate culture.
2. Hire the best
A manager's performance is a direct function of the performance of his team - by
definition his role is to achieve a specific output or desired result through
his employees and as such there is no substitute for surrounding yourself with
the best possible players in the field and grooming them to excel. Confident
managers are not afraid to hire Grade A players, they do not fear such employees
will downplay their own track record or undermine their profile and abilities.
To the contrary, good managers recognize that top performers will lift the whole
division and will reflect directly in purely positive terms on their boss. Grade
A players are motivated, driven, energetic, innovative, have the right attitude,
aptitude, experience, abilities and their enthusiasm and quest for excellence
usually sifts through the entire organization infusing it with renewed vigor and
competitiveness. Just as excellence is contagious, so is mediocrity and
incompetency - good managers are vigilant to never permit mediocrity in the
front door and to excise it immediately should it rear its uncompetitive head
before it manifests itself further across the organisation to everyone's
detriment.
3. Set clear goals
Setting goals is the first step towards achieving peak performance. These goals
must be clear, specific, reasonable and attainable. The team must be able to
articulate these goals in no uncertain terms and commit to them. Once the
expectations are set, training programs and resource allocation can be tailored
around these milestones and performance measured accordingly. A team that cannot
articulate the company's mission and goals and their own is a team destined for
failure. A team set unreasonable, unrealistic goals is also set for failure.
Good managers understand what is reasonable and attainable and ensure that the
teams have the tools, training, infrastructure, resources and know-how necessary
to achieve these goals. A good rule is to tell your team "what" needs to be done
and "why" and leaving them to determine the "how" based on their best
professional judgement and all the resources and know-how made available to
them.
4. Listen to your team
A good manager listens to his team, closely monitors the issues they are facing
and acts as a sounding board for their concerns, problems and ideas. Good
listening starts with being open minded and approachable and involves paying
close attention and making an effort to truly understand the issues raised while
respecting the different viewpoints, communicating your understanding and
offering nuggets of wisdom, direction, guidance or advice where sought for or
appropriate. Ask questions where you are unclear about something. Probe.
Reiterate key points to make sure you understand correctly. A manager divorced
from the unique needs of his team cannot begin to motivate or inspire them
toward a common goal. A manager who listens with objectivity, respect and
discipline translates into a team that listens, both to each other and to the
client and this is often the first step towards a winning, client-oriented
service and product line. Good listening need not stop with the team - ideas,
feedback and advice can come from anywhere, often from unlikely sources, and a
good manager is always receptive to them.
5. Communicate effectively
Effective communication means clear, concise and timely communication and open
lines of communication between the manager and his team. This goes beyond
effective listening to communicating the mission, goals, standards, values and
job expectations, giving ongoing and regular feedback to employees, seeking and
acknowledging feedback from the team on decisions that affect them, relaying
both positive and negative news in a timely manner, motivating and coaching the
team and positively reinforcing employees in both public and private for jobs
well done.
6. Respect your team
A good manager is consistently and unwaveringly respectful towards his team in
attitude, words and actions. They do not look down on their teams nor do they
consider themselves above maintaining a healthy, robust and direct line of
communication with them. Good managers never belittle, humiliate, embarrass,
threaten or otherwise undermine the integrity of their employees. When they need
to criticize they do so professionally, constructively and in private; in public
they laud, commend and motivate. Good managers never single out an employee to
publicly flog or scream at nor do they create a culture where anger, ranting,
raving, blaming, accusing or screaming are acceptable. Autocrats and dictators
fail as managers over the long run; respectful leaders win the loyalty and
commitment of their teams and succeed.
7. Create a learning culture
Teaching is a high leverage activity - the amount of time you spend training and
coaching an employee or group of employees will generate a high return on
investment that should with positive ramifications infiltrate many levels of the
organisation. While you teach, your own learning and understanding of the
subject matter will be enhanced. Make sure your own training and self-education
remains uninterrupted as you progress up the career ladder even as you teach and
provide training programs for subordinates. In this knowledge-economy age we
live in, education, skills, knowledge rapidly become obsolete and it is
essential to stay ahead of the productivity and innovation curve through
constant training and education. Competitiveness necessitates a highly trained
workforce - make sure you allocate key resources including some of your own
precious time to the regular and ongoing training and development of employees.
Groom them for success and cultivate great future leaders by providing the best
training feasible while continuously updating, refining and enhancing your own
skills.
8. Delegate Don't Abdicate
Good managers don't hire a team then do the job themselves - they delegate then
supervise, monitor, inspect and provide feedback. Delegating does not mean a
handover then washing your hands clean of the project - delegation without
supervision is abdicating! Make sure you set a clear schedule for follow-up and
regularly track progress towards agreed goals. Managers who delegate without
ensuring their teams receive the proper resources, tools and training are
setting their teams up for failure. Similarly, managers who assign
responsibilities then rob their subordinates of all decision-making ability and
authority while maintaining complex bureaucracy and rigid, archaic
policies/procedures are dooming their teams to failure. Finally, managers who
meddle, control, micro-manage and routinely take over tasks that veer off-course
rather than leaving their subordinates to take charge and see the project
through to completion are also inefficiently allocating valuable resources and
undermining their subordinates. Employees who are routinely divorced of their
responsibilities in such a manager cease to feel accountable and eventually lose
motivation.
9. Remove barriers to success
Make sure the policies and procedures in place in your company help rather than
hinder peak performance and success. Workplace rules and regulations should be
minimized and facilitated to be easy to comprehend and follow rather than a
barrier to success. Any rules/procedures, bureaucracies or other boundaries that
paralyze, delay and frustrate rather than catalyze the efficient production
process should be rethought and wherever possible removed or alternatives found.
Workers should be encouraged to constantly innovate and optimize on their work
processes and output and work processes should consequently be flexible enough
to allow for this constant redefining and innovation. Strive to give employees
freedom - the unfettered freedom to create, innovate, improve and exceed all
expectations and performance targets.
10. Focus on the Customer
Effective managers realize that the customer is the real boss. Customers through
their purchasing decisions hire and fire employees every day and their actions,
attitudes and habits ultimately determine the shape, focus and size of the
organisation. A boss's focus on the customer will permeate the organization and
create a customer-driven organization where everyone realizes that they work for
and are ultimately paid by the customer. All positions in an effective
organisation should be geared towards either getting or keeping a customer. The
successful manager will take responsibility for training the employees in the
fine art and science of getting and keeping customers while removing all
corporate and procedural barriers that fetter these activities.