When we work with your organization on developing Better Managers, we coach and teach on behaviors. Here are the 12 Key Behaviors that we have identified and want you to consider.
When we work with your organization to develop Better Managers, we coach and teach behaviors. Here are the 12 Key Behaviors that we have identified (Source: Google's Project Oxygen) as critical to managerial success:
A Good Manager:
Is a good coach
Understand and leverage each employee's unique strengths
Does not micromanage but instead empowers
Is truly interested in each employee's success and well-being
Research shows that the ability to coach is the single most important competency of effective managers.
What is Coaching?
Coaching is a strategy to empower your team members by helping them develop and leverage strengths, improve skills, increase accountability, and in the end, get better results. By working with a coach, you can learn how to be a masterful coach.
As a skilled coach, you can facilitate coaching conversations between you and your team members focusing on areas for growth, addressing challenges, creating development plans, performing exercises, and checking on progress. Team members look to you to provide coaching in order to grow as professionals. They will feel motivated and will perform better if they know you are supporting them.
Coaching is more than giving directions and feedback. It’s a worthwhile investment of time – particularly if you want your team members to solve their own problems and become independent critical thinkers. Good managers with strong coaching skills ask questions, provide feedback, and cultivate accountability. The most important job you have as a manager is to get things done through people. Coaching will help you develop your employees who can act independently, achieve results, and thrive under your management. They will also be happier at work
2. A Good Manager Understands and Leverages Employees Unique Strengths
This two-part strategy will help you develop the unique strengths of each team member.
Investigate each individual's talents and skills. If you create a safe environment, team members can be themselves and show you what they can accomplish. Encourage them to take self-assessment tests so they understand their own capabilities.
Look for opportunities to leverage the abilities that you have uncovered. This will empower all the team members to advocate for themselves and take on projects they feel excited and passionate about. When done effectively, leveraging the unique strengths of each employee makes work more enjoyable for everyone, and demonstrates to the entire team that they are appreciated, understood, and valued.
An effective manager increases leverage by challenging team members to build their existing skills. They push for their team to attend training to expand those skills and work with team members who have complementary talents. Your role as manager is to check that each individual is engaged, productive, and enjoying the chance to demonstrate what they can achieve. Understanding and utilizing each individual’s talents builds self-confidence, increases productivity, and improves the overall performance of the team, which supports business results and the mission of the organization.
3. A Good Manager Does Not Micromanage but Instead Empowers
Micromanaging, or attempting to control every aspect of your team’s work, creates an environment of anxiety and gives the impression that you don’t trust them to do what they were hired to do. Micromanaging stifles learning and innovation, breeds resentment and resistance, and is a waste of human resources.
On the other hand, empowering your team members to complete the work and play lead roles on certain tasks, sends the message that you have confidence in them. Empowered team members are more committed, conscientious, and loyal, and are more likely to care about and creatively contribute to their teams and the organization as a whole. One strategy to avoid micromanaging is to practice delegating more often. Decide who is capable of managing a task, make sure they understand the expectations and have the tools to be successful. Assure them they will have your support and ongoing advice... then stand back and make trust your default.
Are you a Micromanager?
Are you part of every team meeting and every decision?
Do you always take the lead in email threads, rather than letting your team members handle things?
Are you the one who makes presentations to senior executives, even though your staff could benefit from opportunities to present?
Do you make statements rather than ask questions?
Do you have more work than you can handle because you can't delegate effectively?
Do you frequently assign work, then take it back because it's not getting done the way you want it done?
Do you tell your team exactly how you want things done and leave no room for them to take initiative?
4. A Good Manager Is Truly Interested In Each Employee's Success and Well Being
Team members who feel cared for by their managers are...
More productive
More likely to stay at a company longer
Less likely to miss workdays
Better Advocates for their organization
So how do you care?
Above all, make sure that an action plan comes out of the meeting with SMART tasks that are:
SPECIFIC
MANAGEABLE
ACHIEVABLE
REALISTIC
TIME-BASED
1. Be prepared
Identify the most important skills, knowledge, experience, and competencies you need in your new hire. Work with HR to prepare a job posting, and set up a screening process. Make sure the hiring team is representative and agrees on the interview questions.
2. Conduct an authentic interview
Ask behavior-oriented, open-ended questions that focus on what the candidate has done. Allow the interviewee ample time to respond and listen respectfully to the answers. Take notes and end the interview by explaining when you will be making your hiring decisions.
3. Choose the most qualified candidate
Make your decision based on input from all members of the interview team, and focus on qualifications not experience. Check references and make an offer.
4. Create an onboarding process
Set clear expectations, design your relationship, and spend time making the first few weeks a positive experience. Arrange for a seasoned member of your team to be a liaison person so that your new employee develops good habits early on. We don’t always know the unwritten rules in a new organization until we break them, but an effective onboarding process can cut down on the breakages!
Bringing donuts to work only goes so far. You need to take concrete steps to show you have a genuine interest in the people you work with. For example, dedicate time to getting to know them and what motivates them. Inquire about their hobbies and families, without being intrusive. Celebrate birthdays and achievements. As for work, become an advocate for your employees by supporting their ideas and bringing them forward to higher levels in the organization. Stay connected with them through regular face-to-face meetings and be available for online chats. Be transparent about your own goals and motivations, and create opportunities for friendly exchanges. When your team members perceive that you care about their success and personal well-being, they are more likely to be productive and go the extra mile for you. Knowing they are cared for gives everyone a sense of well-being, which is an essential performance driver.
5. A Good Manager Recognizes and Praises Excellence
Good managers consistently recognize and acknowledge team members.
Recognizing excellence is the most effective way to engage, motivate, and retain employees. But don’t confuse it with monetary rewards or other incentives. Praise from managers and peers consistently ranks higher than salary on employee engagement surveys. Recognition also hits a physiological sweet spot by triggering the release of dopamine, a neurotransmitter. Dopamine tells our brain, “We’ve done something good,” and helps us to remember it, and encourages us to do it again. And while a regular flow of dopamine contributes to learning and positive performance, a lack of it leads to frustration and anxiety. So, it helps if managers know how to provide regular recognition.
Our advice is to know your team members so that you can be specific in recognizing their contributions. Be spontaneous in applauding small successes as they happen, in addition to announcing major achievements at big meetings. Don’t forget to provide some kind of recognition for all employees, not just the stars, and arrange for team members to explain what they have done in a group setting so that everyone can learn from the process. If you are generous in your praise and honestly appreciative of everyone’s efforts, there will be good feelings all around, and you will be one of the beneficiaries.
6. A Good Manager is Results Oriented and Productive
What are the signs that a manager is productive?
One key indicator of productivity is the way in which meetings are run and the action that results from them. Your meetings are a window into your overall effectiveness and your interpretation of your role. Start by circulating an agenda ahead of the meeting to get input from your team. In the meetings, stick to the agenda and keep track of time. Be inclusive, so that all the people at the table (and online virtual attendees) have a chance to contribute. Above all, make sure that an action plan comes out of the meeting with SMART tasks that are: SPECIFIC MANAGEABLE ACHIEVABLE REALISTIC TIME-BASED
Then follow up.
Distribute the minutes from the meetings, detailing action steps and assignments. Talk to the team members who have tasks assigned to ensure they understand the scope of the work and have the tools that they need. Give deadlines for progress reports, but make it clear that your door is always open for project leaders who run into barriers that threaten those deadlines. Your goal is to help your team achieve successful results. Those successes will also reflect well on you, and they will contribute to your reputation as a results-oriented manager.
7. A Good Manager Sets Clear Expectations
Clear expectations improve performance, engagement, and accountability. 50% of employees are not sure what is expected of them and are left guessing, resulting in low engagement and wasted resources. Team members need to understand your expectations related to their role, the goals, and the metrics used to measure success. Clarity should be the outcome of a dialogue, resulting in team members committing to a set of deliverables within an agreed-upon timeframe. Ongoing conversations ensure that everyone stays on track. Here are the three main steps that we recommend to avoid misunderstandings:
Set clear expectations and goals:
Be clear about the “what and why”, and coach team members in identifying the “how”. Require specifics and aim for mutual agreement.
Agree on timeframes and schedule regular status updates:
Use status updates to check progress, provide feedback and support, and stay on track.
Be accessible to support and coach team members as needed:
Create a safe environment where team members feel comfortable approaching you.
And a final question:
Have you set clear goals and expectations for yourself? Employees will know if you are unfocused, not sure of your own direction, or unclear about why you are in a management role. Communicate through your actions that you know exactly what you expect of yourself as well as the team, and everyone will follow.
8. A Good Manager Listens To the Team and Is a Good Communicator
It’s important for managers to communicate clearly and effectively, and for team members to feel heard and understood. Poor communication raises barriers, causes mistrust, fuels politicking, is counterproductive, and can lead to costly mistakes. In contrast, teams that communicate clearly complete projects faster and more efficiently. Effective communication ensures that team members understand the goals and objectives, and their roles in achieving what needs to be done.
Think about the fact that communication is comprised of at least five elements:
A sender who has a goal for communicating
A message that is clear and purposeful
A medium for sending the message, in person or electronically
A receiver who is open to the message and ready to interpret it and respond.
A feedback loop that tells the sender that the message was received and understood.
If communication breaks down, analyze the process to discover the point at which problems arise. Frequently, “noise” interferes with communication, including distractions that might prevent you from listening attentively. Also, the culture of the organization might not favor the transparency that encourages team members to talk to a manager. If you show you are available for questions, listen actively, and give feedback in a respectful way, you will gain the reputation of being a good communicator.
9. A Good Manager Helps Employees With Career Development
A mutually agreed upon development plan for employees is crucial to the manager/employee relationship and leads to better business results.
A development plan helps employees to:
Know what is expected of them
See what they do well, and see where they can grow their skillset
Create a vision and identify the next steps for their career
Your HR department may have a process and timeline for creating career goals and performance metrics, and that’s a good place to start. However, make sure that you involve the employee in the process by focusing on opportunities that demonstrate strengths. Meet regularly to monitor that career goals are being met and to ensure that you are doing everything you can to help the individual succeed.
Keep in mind, too, that you may be grooming a future manager, so you may become future colleagues. In that case, you will be a role model in helping the new manager to build and lead a team, communicate effectively, and deal with all the leadership issues that will arise. Your own career path may include managing a team of managers, and the development and growth that you want to foster in other workers need attention in your life too.
10. A Good Manager Has a Clear Vision and Strategy
Your team members need to understand the vision, purpose, and strategy of the team. They want to know that the team matters and will affect the company's success.
Here are two approaches to fostering the vision that will inform strategies:
1. Develop a shared vision:
Schedule team meetings that focus on values, culture, roles and working norms. From those conversations, develop a shared vision that the entire team can buy into, and document it so that you can refer to it often.
2. Explore new visions:
A vision should never be cast in stone. It needs to be reviewed periodically and changes made as the team grows and changes. Regular team and one-on-one conversations can be used to reflect on whether the vision is still valid, or whether new elements need to be integrated. Strategies will grow from the shared vision. We regularly remind managers that they need to view the effectiveness of their strategies from two perspectives: from the dance floor and from the balcony. We use this metaphor to point out that when you are in the middle of things and part of the action you may lose perspective. Stepping away and finding a vantage point that’s removed from the action will give you a high-level view of what’s happening. If things are going well, there will be a good beat and lots of rhythm!
11. A Good Manager Has the Key Technical Skills To Advise the Team
Technical skills give a workforce the know-how and capability to complete tasks related to engineering, science, mathematics, or computer technology. But do managers need to possess those skills too? Perhaps. But the level of technical skills depends on the core business of your organization.
Let’s consider three management scenarios and the technical skills needed for each:
1. You’ve worked up the corporate ladder to a management position in a production plant so you are skilled in the technical aspects of the workplace. However, you are now leading a warehousing department that’s not directly connected to the day-to-day production. The challenge for you is to stay current with your knowledge of production, in order to advise your team on proper warehousing techniques.
2. The position you hold is in technical leadership. You manage a team of engineers in a company that is designing and building aircraft. The engineers all have advanced degrees and years of experience. It’s essential for you to have professional engineering skills and qualifications so that you can earn the respect of your team.
3. You are managing millennials in a hi-tech start-up company. Your team lacks work experience but, as digital natives, they have grown up with code. It’s important for you to know the computer languages they use. You also need to translate the work of your crew into language that the senior managers can understand, which is a special skill of its own! It is especially important to create a safe environment where team members feel comfortable approaching you.
You may see yourself in one of these scenarios, or perhaps your situation is completely different. The point, though, is that nearly all positions in the modern workplace are connected to technology, and every manager must have the technical skills required to earn the respect of team members.
12. A Good Manager Makes Good Hires
Getting things done through others is the main responsibility of any manager. Having the right people on your team is the key to success.
Ensuring your team has the necessary talent, experience, skills, and knowledge all begins with hiring. The more disciplined and mindful you are in your selection process, the more likely you are to get the right-fit personnel. This will help you to avoid the type of mistakes made when hiring decisions are based solely on personality or gut feelings.
Here Are Four Steps To Successful Hiring:
1. Be prepared
Identify the most important skills, knowledge, experience, and competencies you need in your new hire. Work with HR to prepare a job posting, and set up a screening process. Make sure the hiring team is representative and agrees on the interview questions.
2. Conduct an authentic interview
Ask behavior-oriented, open-ended questions that focus on what the candidate has done. Allow the interviewee ample time to respond and listen respectfully to the answers. Take notes and end the interview by explaining when you will be making your hiring decisions.
3. Choose the most qualified candidate Make your decision based on input from all members of the interview team, and focus on qualifications not experience. Check references and make an offer.
4. Create an onboarding process
Set clear expectations, design your relationship, and spend time making the first few weeks a positive experience. Arrange for a seasoned member of your team to be a liaison person so that your new employee develops good habits early on. We don't always know the unwritten rules in a new organization until we break them, but an effective onboarding process can cut down on the breakages!
Ready to improve your management performance?
We hope you enjoyed our book on the 12 behaviors that make a manager exceptional at their job.
We created BetterManager with the simple goal of helping managers make a positive difference in the lives of the people with whom they work every day, as well as within the organizations to which they devote their time and energy.
Through our programs, we improve manager skills which raises team productivity and employee engagement and reduces churn.
We are excited to get started improving your team‘s performance!
