Being a good manager is rather a difficult job as it has to do with sharing your knowledge, not being competitive and accepting the fact that others might know something valuable that you don’t. Not easy for everyone to achieve these!
In reality, obtaining the title of ‘Manager’ does not always request having good management skills. Not everyone is born to manage people but you can distinguish between people who are willing to work on becoming good managers and people who just take advantage of the ‘power’ that the title encloses.
To be a great manager one should:
- Share knowledge
- Not be competitive
- Recognize and appreciate effort and hard work
- Ask for feedback
- Truly care and communicate with the team
- Lead by example and inspire others
- Offer opportunities to learn
- Encourage their team to take initiatives
- Spend time to identify each individual’s strengths, weaknesses and capabilities
- Provide feedback for improvement
- Praise good performance
- Recommend team members for promotions
- Be open to hear other views
- Show empathy
- Be honest and kind
A good manager can play a key role in the wellness, performance and effectiveness of a team, making at the same time a positive impact to the company as a whole.
Remember.. people leave managers, not companies!
We all have stories to tell about good and bad managers. Experiences with great managers can be inspirational for the future of our career, while experiences with bad managers usually teach us lessons to remember in the next years and definitely make us stronger!
How would you rate yourself as a manager? How many boxes do you tick from the above?
Do you ever reflect on your performance and on how others perceive you as a manager, in order to improve?
