Managing people is a highly specialized and skilled job, and not everyone is able to do it successfully. There is a big difference between being a manager and being a good manager, and it is these latter people who get the most out of their team and run the most successful businesses. Being an effective manager is something that it is possible to learn how to do, and if you feel that you should be thinking about how to better yourself, here are some ways to do it.
Have Fun
Perhaps most important of all is a manager who knows how to have fun. This is not the same as a manager who does not take their work seriously; running a business and managing people is a serious job and should not be taken lightly. However, if the only thing you ever talk about is work, and if you never engage personally with your employees and talk about the things they enjoy doing when they have free time, you will come across as dull and uninspiring.
Your team will respond to you much better if you can show them that you have fun and enjoy your job and home life equally – it will give them something to aspire to. Talk about your hobbies, for example. If you love taking part in marathons, that’s important. If you write novels in your spare time, discuss your plots or characters. Don’t just talk about yourself, though; make sure you find out what your team enjoys doing too.
Delegate Well
Delegating is something that every manager needs to know how to do. Yet simply handing out tasks that you don’t want to do to anyone who happens to be passing your office or whose eye you catch in a meeting is not a good way to go about doing this. Instead, you need to match each task to a worker’s particular set of skills. This is why getting to know your team is crucial; the more successfully you can delegate, the better it will be for everyone.
Effective delegation will get the job done much more quickly and efficiently, but it will also be done to a higher standard. Just handing out tasks in any fashion without thinking about it first could mean that those who don’t have the skills to complete the task are asked to do it, and they therefore won’t do a good job of it. Remember also to be aware of when delegation needs to become outsourcing. Sometimes the skills in your team won’t be enough, which is why a company such as Costas Constructions might be a valuable ally to have if you are involved in property, or having an accountant or marketing expert on side could be useful too.
Set Goals
Goal setting is a very important part of being an effective manager. Without goals, your team may feel as though they have no guidance and no way of knowing what they should be doing at any given moment. They won’t understand why what they are being asked to do is important and how it fits in with the overall company aim.
Setting goals means that everyone understands why jobs need to be done and where the business is heading. It gives them something to aim for personally as well. Smaller goals are much better than big ones; they are easier to achieve and give the worker a sense of accomplishment, improving productivity and happiness all around.
