Most of us become managers because we are good at the task. In other words, the best salesperson becomes the sales manager. The dilemma is that being a manager is completely different from only having to think of your own work and manage your own projects.
Follow these tips to start your journey into successful management:
1. Put your staff top of your ‘To do’ list
Research has shown that managers consistently agree that their staff are their top priority. Yet they often focus their time on other things.
“If my people are happy, I will have a happy business”
2. Build in proactive time to deal with your staff.
The same research showed that managers often put their people as their top priority and yet they only spent 5% of their time with their staff.
You will get better results if you build in proactive time for your people. Diarise it in so it will happen.
3. Be a role model
I must role model the behaviour I expect from others. So, if my staff see me reacting in a stressed way, they will role model this behaviour. If I arrive late for work consistently, it will be hard for me to manage attendance of my staff.
4. Make time for your own development
A good manager is someone who is keen to keep up to date with learning new approaches. It helps in keeping things fresh and exciting.
5. Make time to walk about and see what is happening
Managing involves monitoring what people are doing. The only way you will be able to get a true picture of how staff are managing the telephone or handling clients is to be seen regularly.
6. Learn to be emotionally resilient
A lot of managers I work with struggle with getting to know their staff as people and the ‘human’ need to get on with people. However, to be a successful manager, we need to be friendly but not friends. Management involves providing people with boundaries, goals, and constructive feedback when it goes wrong.
If you learn to develop your emotional resilience, you will be able to confidently manage the most challenging discussion without it affecting your own self worth and confidence.
7. Delegate effectively
The only way we can truly develop our roles and ourselves is to delegate out our knowledge and skills to others. If we constantly steal experiences from others, they will not develop and we will not be enabling ourselves to develop.
My biggest achievement as a manager was developing my assistant to the level of competence that she left to set up her own company. It gave me the confidence to do it for myself.
