According to Gallup research, 50 percent of employees leave companies because of their boss. Why? Having little or no guidance kills morale and creates stress, which later leads to employees’ dissatisfaction with their lives. Surely, you don’t want to be that boss, but how can you avoid it?
First, we are going to mention a few qualities every good manager has to have:
Dedication
Every good manager should lead by example. But what kind of example does an uninterested manager make? You have to be passionate about what you’re doing, in order to do it well. Otherwise, you’ll keep struggling with trying to stay motivated which will transfer to your team.
Encouragement
Research shows that 74 percent of workers feel that they aren’t achieving their full potential at work. People want to improve and progress. As their mentor, it’s your job to recognize their potential and guide them through improving it. Praise your team for a job well done, and use failures as just another learning method. Maintain an open-door policy and encourage your workers to feel more comfortable in giving their input.
Clear Vision
This is key to project success. A manager has to have the big picture in mind and set up a foundation that will direct the team towards reaching the project goals.
Communication Skills
It’s one thing to have a clear vision of your goals, but it’s another to communicate that to your team. Good managers have the ability to keep the team on the same page – avoiding different interpretations of a work that needs to be done. This is true regarding both oral and written communication.
What should you avoid?
Not Providing Regular Feedback
You’re not just appointed to distribute tasks and responsibilities, but also to monitor and provide feedback on employee’s performance. Imagine this situation – your tech support Karen constantly answers in short, unprofessional emails. She might not be aware that this turns down your customers, but you are, and you should draw her attention to it before it results in even more customer loss.
Don’t limit feedback just to a negative one, in fact, positive feedback is highly desirable, and is expected from a good manager. Learn more about how to be a great people manager here at Leavedates.
Failing to Set Goals
You can’t expect your team to be productive if they don’t know what they should be aiming towards. Avoid failing to set up clear goals by using a SMART method to set up your objectives. SMART is an acronym that stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-bound, and it’s the most effective tool for creating achievable goals.
Not Being Adaptable
The ability to change and adjust to new circumstances is an important quality you should have. It’s the willingness to get out of the comfort zone and adapt to different surroundings that make or break a good leader.
Don’t go by the book – be open to learning from every experience, and from your employees too. Always be open to new ideas, since a different perspective can help you see the problem more clearly.
If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it
So you think you’re doing a good job leading your team. But how can you check if your beliefs are accurate?
Lucky for you, always-improving technology invented project management and time tracking software which allows you to keep track of what employees are working on. How is this important for managers?
A computer activity tracker, like Workpuls, helps you monitor project progress and allocate employees to their tasks. You can easily see if the team is advancing towards set goals or if you need to make certain changes. Computer time monitoring software gives you real-time insight, so you can solve every problem on the go and that way save time and money.
A good manager always monitors but intervenes only when needed. Use a computer program to monitor activity and catch errors on time. Sometimes though, you’ll want to let it happen before stepping in. This way you’re letting your employees learn from their mistakes without stress, as it’s stopped before it does more harm.
Workpuls has productivity charts for individuals, teams and even the whole company which you can use to create weekly, monthly and annual productivity reports. This way you can give your employees fact-based feedback on their work.
Another Workpuls feature you should make use of is a unique employee login. This feature allows employees to access pc usage tracking software and check their own productivity data, and take initiative to change their workflow if needed.
In Conclusion
Being a manager is a tough job full of responsibilities. If you want that “World’s Best Boss” cup on your table, you have to know how to always get the most out of your team.
