10 ‘Practical Lessons For New Managers’

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‘To be a great boss, you have to set clear, well-defined, and explicit expectations for your team members.’

Set clear expectations for your people. And when you think your expectations are clear enough, go back and make them even clearer.’

‘To be a great manager, not only do you have to be great at giving effective feedback, but also you have to be great at receiving effective feedback from your team.’

‘To be a great manager, make sure your team feels comfortable speaking up and speaking out.’

You cannot create a one-size-fits-all development plan for all individuals on your team.’

‘To be a great manager, don’t be afraid to use performance improvement plans to clearly articulate how team members can get better.

‘To motivate your team, understand what uniquely drives each of your employees.’

‘A great team needs a strong foundation built early in the team’s life.’

‘To be a great manager, help your team members develop goals that motivate and understand when goals just don’t matter.’

Build into your management practice questions that ask how your team members are truly feeling. And be truly interested in a response often than ‘fine.’

‘The first rule of good communicating is simply to make sure you are actually communicating. And the second rule is to overcommunicate. Repeat the point you want to get across. Then repeat it again. And repeat it one more time.’

Hiring the right people makes life wonderful- full of rainbows and butterflies and unicorns. Hiring the wrong people makes life a nightmare.’

Source

Rachel Pacheco (2021). Bringing Up the Boss: Practical Lessons for New Managers

Why Great Leaders Lead With Questions

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Great leaders are not afraid to lead with questions. They don’t assume they know what others are thinking.

If you want to know more, ask the right questions. If you are not getting the right answers from your people, ask more questions.

Questions show you where to go next. Questions make things better, not worse.

According to Michael J. MarQuardt and Bob Tiede, ‘Leaders must have a deep commitment to listening to others, and thereby become better able to identify and clarify the will of a group.’

‘Leaders need to be careful not to interrupt; rather, they should make sure they have a complete understanding of the situation.’

‘Leaders should be careful not to rush the responses to their questions. A good question will often cause the recipient to step back and reflect.’

‘Leaders should be comfortable when there is no immediate response to a question.’

‘Leaders ask better questions when they are curious rather than demanding.’

‘A questing mindset shows that you care about the other person.’

‘Empowering questions help develop alignment within teams and draw out the optimum performance from individual members and the team as a whole.’

‘Questioning leaders are confident and willing to challenge beliefs and assumptions.’

‘Questioning leaders recognize that everyone is needed, and that everyone should serve one another, if the organization is to be successful.’

‘Questioning leaders … improve their ability to teach, mentor, and coach.’

‘Leaders who ask questions develop their emotional intelligence through questions.’

‘A questioning culture encourages reflection.’

Source:

Michael J. MarQuardt and Bob Tiede (2023). Leading with Questions: How Leaders Discover Powerful Answers by Knowing How and What to Ask