How To Become A Great Manager

Photo by cottonbro studio on Pexels.com

Managing other people is not about control. It is not about telling them what to do. Managing other people is about love. If you do not love people, you can’t work with them.

Love means you care. Love says, ‘I see you. I am with you.’ The question is, ‘Are you a great change manager? Do you care about your people? Are you in the game for yourself? Or are you in it for others?

According to Scott Miller, ‘One of your key assignments is to help change feel participatory for your team.’

‘As effective as your first communication might have been, your team will need time to process and understand the change.’

‘Information and action are the antidotes to fear.’

‘… Communicate comprehensively and constantly.

‘Communicating change simply, clearly, and with respect for the concerns and experience of your direct reports is key to kicking off a change initiative in a positive way.’

‘Don’t make your direct reports guess your motivations for requesting feedback.’

‘Leaders provide feedback to help people see what they are not seeing.’

‘When a leader delegates and gets back a poor result, it is usually the leader’s responsibility.’

‘Great leaders plan goals with their teams rather than for them, and delegate tasks without abandoning or micromanaging. They shift from telling team members what to do, to aligning their work to greater purposes and supporting their efforts.’

‘Because you’re a leader, you’re noticed. Every time you communicate, every time you open your mouth, you create culture.’

Source:

Scott Miller, Todd Davis and Victoria Roos Olsson (2019). Everyone Deserves a Great Manager: The 6 Critical Practices for Leading a Team

RecruitTheBest Daily Digest- ‘Entrepreneurial Leadership’ In Action

Realise you will need different operating systems for different tasks as you move from manager to leader. Be flexible and patient with yourself as you try on different lenses.’

Don’t let your brand limit you to the familiar. Understand your meta brand and its possibilities.’

Every entrepreneurial leader needs a plan to help him or her escape the strong gravitational pull of work.’

Set boundaries on your work to make room for nonwork interests and communities.’

Work hard to articulate a clear purpose, a desired end result, what winning looks like.’

Break down your mission into a limited number of goals that can be measured by meaningful, qualified, and time-bound deliverables.’

Ensure your goals align with your values and with the actions necessary to achieve them.’

Make sure everyone in your organization can recite its top three goals.’

Correct misalignments unless they are over values. When values aren’t aligned, someone must leave the organization.’

Invest in culture by rewarding those who behave consistently with it and coaching or removing those who violate it.’

‘Teams succeed and fail together.’

Trust is enhanced by delivering on promises.’

Source:

Joel Peterson (2020). Entrepreneurial Leadership: The Art of Launching New Ventures, Inspiring Others, and Running Stuff