In my previous post, I detailed the top five traits of really bad managers. Now let’s look at the flip side of the coin and examine the top five traits of really good managers—the things that good managers do that make them and their teams more effective. It’s not just about not doing the bad things, it’s about proactively behaving in ways that best motivate employees and benefit the organization.
1. Really Good Managers Hire Well
The first thing that really good managers do is surround themselves with really good people. That means hiring the best possible people they can find—and paying and incentivizing them to stay for the long term. The better the people around you, the better a manager you can be.
My management philosophy has always been to hire the best possible people and then let them do their jobs. If you hire people who are skilled and experienced, you don’t have to worry about them doing what they need to do. You don’t need to constantly monitor them and micromanage them and spend undo time showing them what needs to be done and how. The right employee can be productive on day one; just put them in place and push the “start” button.
Ideally, you want employees who can effectively manage themselves, that don’t require constant supervision. Now, this differs with the level and type of job you’re staffing. Obviously, you’ll have to give more management attention to a part-time minimum wage fast food worker than you will with a high-level marketing strategist. But the basic advice remains; hire the best possible people you can find for the jobs you need done.
Realistically, you may not have total control over your hiring decisions. You’re probably working with a fixed hiring budget that dictates how much you can afford to pay a given position. You may also be locked into fixed job levels with fixed salary ranges, which can constrict what you’re able to offer. In addition, in some companies, the HR department has undue control over who gets hired and for how much; in this type of environment you may have little or no input over who gets hired.
Some companies, I’ve found, operate on a totally different philosophy. They deliberately hire younger, less experienced, less expensive staff, thinking that they can train them to do things the company way and won’t get the same pushback they’d get from more senior hires. The problem with this philosophy is that these green recruits are not productive on day one; they require a lot of training and hand-holding and supervision over an extended period of time. I’ve found that companies that insist on hiring cheaply pay for that approach in terms of a less effective, less efficient staff—and management that gets stuck managing the day-to-day details that a more experienced staff could handle on their own.
If you do have control over hiring decisions, make sure you’re picking the best possible candidates. Look for staff with experience in the jobs you need them to do and a proven track record of success. Hiring great employees will make you a better manager—your job will be a lot easier and you’ll produce better results.
2. Really Good Managers Empower and Inspire
When you hire the best possible employees it’s imperative that you empower them to do their jobs. Tell them what they need to do then get out of their way.
That means giving employees the authority and the responsibility to essentially manage themselves—with some oversight on your part, of course. You must trust them to do their jobs, but trust and verity. When you empower employees, you tell them what they need to accomplish but don’t have to tell them precisely how to do it; you leave the “how” in their hands while you focus on the “what.”
Quality employees who feel empowered will do a better job. They won’t be looking over their shoulders or constantly asking for your approval. By empowering them you’re giving them your tacit approval upfront. You’re telling them that you trust them, and that trust goes a long way.
Of course, you can only empower those employees who are capable of accepting that responsibility. You don’t want to completely empower a newbie fresh out of school who’s never done that job before; that type of “empowerment” is actually setting the employee up to fail. Younger and newer employees will still need your guidance before they’re ready to be empowered.
You need to do more than just empower, however; you need to inspire your employees to do their best. Empowerment without inspiration is kind of like walking away with the job half-finished. You need to inspire your empowered employees to be the best they can be.
Employees who are inspired know that they have your approval and your encouragement. They feel they’re up to the task at hand and want to make you proud of them.
How can you inspire your employees? It starts by hiring people you can trust and letting them know you’re confident in their abilities. Create a positive work environment that rewards initiative, engagement, collaboration, and creativity, one that doesn’t second-guess employees who act on their own. Provide regular feedback, as positively as possible; couch all criticism as constructive criticism. Set reasonable goals with appropriate rewards. Let them know when they’ve done a good job and encourage them to do even better. Support them, even and especially when they fail. Let them know that you have their backs, no matter what.
Employees who are both empowered and inspired will perform at the top of their abilities. They’ll inspire other employees to step up to the challenge. They’ll make you look good and turn you into a better manager.
3. Really Good Managers Trust Their Team
Employees like to feel trusted. If they feel as if you don’t trust them, they’ll know—and react accordingly. Employees who don’t feel trusted are typically less productive (why work hard if their boss doesn’t trust them?), less independent, and more likely to jump ship.
Trust builds confidence. Employees who feel trusted are more likely to fully engage with their work, collaborate with others, and propose new ideas. They’re also more likely to trust you and the decisions you make, as well as trust the other members of their team.
You can show trust in your team by giving them appropriate leeway and independence. Don’t micromanage them, don’t over-monitor their work, and don’t constantly criticize their performance. Don’t force them to do things your way; trust them to do the jobs for which they were hired. Treat them as the skilled and competent individuals they hopefully are.
If you can’t trust a given employee, determine why. Is it because it’s hard for you to develop trust or is it because the employee has a history of poor performance? If it’s the former, you have to learn how to trust. If it’s the latter, get another employee that you can trust. You don’t want to spend all your time second-guessing employees who’ve proven untrustworthy.
And when you do trust your employees, make sure they know it. Tell them that you trust them in so many words. Don’t require unnecessary updates. Don’t ask them to revise things just because it’s not done exactly as you’d do them. Don’t second guess them. Don’t bad mouth them to their co-workers or other management. Trust them to be the professionals they are and treat them as such.
4. Really Good Managers Communicate Effectively
Really bad managers don’t know how to or simply don’t communicate well, if at all. Really good managers, in contrast, are excellent communicators—upstream, downstream, and sideways in the organization.
Really good managers know or just innately sense how important it is to communicate effectively with everyone they interact with. For your employees and colleagues to do their jobs properly, they must be properly informed. Keep them in the dark and chances are they won’t do what you actually want them to do; they’re not mind readers, after all.
In addition, when you keep employees out of the loop they’re not as invested in the job as they could be. They feel as if they’re somehow less important and not part of the process. They may feel as if you’re playing favorites, especially if you’re more fully communicating with other team members. They may even start to resent you and the way you manage.
The solution to all these issues is to regularly communicate with your employees. Tell them what’s going on, share the reasons why behind the what they need to do, include them in key conversations. Keep them in the loop and they’ll feel like a valuable member of the team—and work harder because of it.
For employees at any level to feel as if they’re part of the team and part of the process they need to know what’s going on throughout the company. I’ve worked with companies that steadfastly refused to share key details of the business with their employees. As a result, employees felt devalued and unimportant and never developed a connection with management or the company as a whole. The lack of company-wide communication created a culture of us-versus-them isolationism. There was no incentive to work together as a team for a larger goal because nobody knew what the larger goal was.
Communicating with your team means being open with them about both the good and the bad. Don’t keep them in the dark, or they’ll think the worst. Darkness breeds distrust, conspiracy theories, and a toxic environment. When you’re open about what’s really going on, your employees will trust and respect you more.
Communication goes both ways, of course. You not only have to communicate to your employees, you have to empower employees to communicate with you. That means having a relatively open-door policy and encouraging your employees to ask questions and share their issues with you. It also means actively listening to your employees and acting on what they share with you.
This one is simple. Great managers are great communicators. Use all the tools available to you—email, text messaging, Slack/Teams/etc., and in-person availability—to connect with your employees and make them feel part of the team. A few words every day will go a long way.
5. Really Good Managers Treat Their Employees as People
The final and perhaps most important thing that really good managers do is to treat their employees as people. Your employees are unique individuals and need to be recognized as such. They’re not interchangeable cogs in the corporate machine; they’re individuals with their own specific needs who contribute in their own unique ways.
This requires showing empathy for your employees. You need to know a little bit about them personally and truly care about them. They’re not just numbers on a spreadsheet; your employees are people whom you want to succeed, not just in their jobs but also in life.
Treating an employee as a flesh and blood human being means not asking them to do unreasonable things. Recognize that they have separate home and work lives and need to maintain the proper balance between the two. They may get sick, their kids may have issues at school, they may have good days and bad days at home. You need to realize this and treat them accordingly, with the proper care and respect.
That means not expecting employees to work unreasonable hours. It means not expecting them to come into work no matter how they’re feeling or what’s happening in their personal lives. It means listening to them when they have problems and offering advice and consoling them when they need it. It means being a decent human being yourself.
In short, you need to treat your employees the way you’d like them to treat you, with respect and empathy. It’s the business version of the Golden Rule, and it’s essential if you want to be a really good manager.
Do You Want to Be a Really Good Manager?
If you don’t do the five things discussed here, you’re not as good a manager as you could be. You need to learn to do these five things—and more—to become a really good manager. They are essential.
