Effective management is a key part of any organisation and its employees’ work life. If management is lacking, itโs easy for teams to lose motivation, enthusiasm for their role and for their overall performance to deteriorate. This could have a drastic effect on your business and it could even lead to employees seeking new opportunities. To ensure this doesnโt happen, take a look at these six tips to becoming an effective manager.
Your Attitude
People ultimately look to their manager for guidance. However, if your attitude reflects that youโd rather not be at work, this will eventually rub off on your employees. Although you might not be able to crack a smile 24/7, try to keep up your general enthusiasm to encourage employees to work at their best. Just because you might be having a bad day, doesnโt mean the whole team has to join you. The most important thing is that you encourage people to be happy in their job and if you arenโt, theyโre going to know about it.
Strengths & Weaknessesย
In your team, no two people are going to be the same (unless theyโre identical twins or something). What I mean by that, is everyoneโs going to have individual strengths and weaknesses in their job. Itโs important as a manager that you get to know what these are and show appreciation for them. It could be that youโve got a task that would suit a particular employee, giving them a new opportunity and in turn strengthening your relationship. They will recognise that youโre aware of the successful work theyโre doing and rewarding them with opportunities to utilise their strengths.
Work Together
One of the best traits you can have as an effective manager is to keep your employees in the loop and include them in developing ideas, goals and strategies. If youโre talking at them and not with them, this will soon become demotivating and make them feel like they arenโt part of a team.ย
Being able to participate in discussions and contribute their ideas, will give them motivation to perform at their best. Although youโre ultimately in charge, you donโt want to come across as a know-it-all who doesnโt have time to listen to their employees.
A Chance To Growย
Most employees are motivated by the opportunity to extend their knowledge and work their way up in a role. Thatโs why itโs so important for an effective manager to delegate responsibilities to their team members, which will give them greater ownership in the efficient functioning of the department. If thereโs no chance for personal or professional growth in an organisation, this will quickly lead to loss of motivation and potentially becoming too comfortable/lazy with their work. Delegating responsibilities also gives you the chance to free up your time for more pressing activities, knowing that the work is in trusted and capable hands. Itโs a win-win!ย
Be Availableย
Employees should always feel like they can talk to their manager. If they donโt, something has seriously gone wrong. Itโs vital that you make it clear that they can come to you whenever necessary to discuss relevant issues. Especially if youโre giving them new responsibilities and opportunities, they might require you to answer questions or give occasional guidance. However, if youโre going to encourage interaction, make sure youโre ready to actually pay attention. You may be a busy person, but making time for your employees is vital.ย An effective manager gives the right amount of time to their time regardless of the situation.
Feedbackย
If youโre offering your employees the opportunity to be more involved or take on new responsibilities, you should be prepared to give them feedback. Giving them reassurance that theyโre doing a good job is a great motivator. However, letting your team members know what they could improve on is important too. If theyโre eager to take on new responsibilities, it means they want to learn more and master their craft, so any feedback will be helpful. Make sure you keep on top of this, you donโt want them to make mistakes before itโs too late and leave them unmotivated to take on new challenges in the future.
You can use these six suggestions to examine your current management attitudes and actions. You never know, there might be areas you could work on or implement into your organisation, that will help to keep your employees motivated and performing to the best of their abilities.