Becoming an excellent manager is not just about delegating tasks to your direct reports and telling them what to do, it is more than that. It is a series of actions which you perform and not just the years of experience. The actions may not have an instantaneous effect, but over a period, it affects the team.
Here are five qualities that will help you manage your team better.
The Ability To Make Decisions
Managers don’t work alone, they manage a team and are people leaders in the making. So, as a people’s leader, one of the most important tasks of an effective manager is to make independent decisions. If you showcase yourself as someone who cannot decide or refuses to decide, or, even worse, is ambivalent about everything, you will come across as an indecisive person to your team. This will lead your team members to lose faith in you as a manager and it affects the entire team.
Share Feedback
Employee feedback when given on time not only helps your employees feel appreciated, but also improves employee engagement. Lack of feedback makes your employees feel disengaged and underappreciated, and they ultimately end up leaving the organization. Additionally, timely feedback helps them know when they are doing right or wrong. Feedback helps your team work effectively and efficiently. Frequent feedback sessions like these help improve your bond with your reports.
Train Them, But Don’t Spoon-feed
One of the most common mistakes which many newbie managers make is they end up spoon-feeding their direct reports. Don’t end up doing their task, or do not offer to do it for them because you don’t like it. As a manager, you are not only supposed to manage your team, but also understand and teach them when they are not able to perform. Doing their work once or twice is okay, but if you do it every time you don’t like their work, they won’t be able to learn. Moreover, you end up having no time to complete your own work.
Employees feel discouraged as they feel their work is undervalued and unimportant, and they would not get a chance to improve. They might also become overdependent on you as they know you will fix the work and they need not worry about the issues.
Share Credit When Due
According to research by O.C. Tanner, 79% of employees quit their jobs when they don’t feel appreciated.
We all like getting recognition, but it should not be at the cost of others’ light. It’s a very common mistake that alienates team members instantly, as if you have the plague or something contagious. When your employees do something for you, make sure you acknowledge their contribution or their work. Similarly, when mistakes happen, step up and accept the blame instead of pointing fingers at specific people. As a manager, you are a leader in training. If you do not allow yourself to develop wholly, you will never be able to reach the higher ranks.
Don’t Avoid Difficult Conversations
We all know that difficult conversations put us in an uneasy spot. But avoiding them only makes the problem worse. As a manager, you need to understand that sometimes, certain conversations must be had, no matter how averse you are to being confrontational. And here’s the thing. A difficult conversation need not be confrontational. All you need is some tact and empathy and of course, the willingness to listen.
Want to know how Engagedly can help you become a better manager? Request a demo today from our experts.
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Author
Srikant Chellappa
CEO & Co-Founder of Engagedly
Srikant Chellappa is the Co-Founder and CEO at Engagedly and is a passionate entrepreneur and people leader. He is an author, producer/director of 6 feature films, a music album with his band Manchester Underground, and is the host of The People Strategy Leaders Podcast. He is currently working on his next book, Ikigai at the Workplace, which is slated for release in the fall of 2024.