Just because someone gets a position at the head of a company, doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re prepared to lead a team. There’s so much more that goes into being an amazing manager, than simply having the right credentials and enough experience. Managers need to be motivational, inspiring, and supportive enough to guide their people towards success.
The good news is that new managers can improve their skills one step at a time. By implementing the following changes, any leader can become the kind of boss their employees crave.
Step 1: Be a Motivational Master
Human beings do things for a range of different reasons. Some people go to work every day because they need to earn a salary for their families. Others approach their career with a more personal focus, feeling as though they’re contributing to a better world. The key to success for any manager, is to find out what motivates people, and work on improving that motivation.
Leaders who can inspire and push their employees towards success will end up getting the results they need from their followers much faster. Remember, today’s staff don’t just want a bigger paycheck, other motivating factors can include ethical values, social responsibility, and work/life balance.
Step 2: Be Both a Leader, and A Manager
A manager builds a fantastic team and tells them what to do to achieve success. A leader inspires and encourages that team to achieve incredible things, giving them the guidance, they need to reach their goals. The best managers are those that combine their position at the head of a company with leadership skills that turn their employees into loyal followers.
While many employees follow the instruction of managers out of a sense of duty – and because they want to get paid, people follow leaders because they believe in what those people do and say.
Step 3: Improve Communication
Perhaps one of the most important skills that any manager can have – is good communication. Managers help their team members understand what they need to accomplish in each task and give them the support they need to reach those goals. It’s hard for a manager to get the right results from any employee, if they don’t know how to communicate their expectations in a simple, easy-to-follow manner.
Working on communication skills can be a great way for managers to improve their confidence in their position, and make other employees feel more comfortable working underneath them.
Step 4: Take a Break at Times
When an ambitious employee becomes the manager of a team, the weight of that new responsibility can be overwhelming. However, it’s important to remember that while managers are often under more scrutiny than lower-level employees, that doesn’t mean that they’re expected to be perfect. Everyone makes mistakes, and those embracing a leadership role for the first time will need a period of adjustment.
New managers should take regular breaks to assess what they’re doing and make sure that they’re not taking on more than they can handle.