A good manager engages in effective business communication with employees, adheres to ethical norms, and has clear organizational skills. Working with people has never been easy, as each personality is unique. However, a manager is a person who must have professional connections with each team member. To achieve this, managers make sacrifices, prioritizing the team's interests over their own, resulting in the principle that "leaders eat last."
1. Move from words to action
Implement ideas surrounding you rather than just discussing their potential implementation. Make ideas your priority and give up futile activities like scrolling through Instagram stories or playing games on your phone. Find some free time in the morning or before bed to achieve your goal.
To accomplish something big, start by studying and addressing a problem you're familiar with. This way, you'll appreciate the innovation more, and your choice will be more informed when proposing further work to the team. You can find more effective insights about this in our Rework summary.
2. Create your own projects
Strive to draw inspiration for creating your business or managing projects without plagiarism. In any case, someone will always want to take advantage of your creative potential. Therefore, infuse a unique perspective into your work process and implementation. Thus, through your uniqueness, it will be difficult to copy your creation.
Don't get caught up in competition. It causes stress and requires effort. Since a competitive environment is never the same, prioritize self-improvement. Aim to create new rules and projects rather than imitating competitors.
3. Implement deadlines and segmentation into the work process
Use deadlines and segmentation to avoid delays and unwanted outcomes. Deadlines encourage making decisions that might otherwise be postponed. For example, in one study, participants were more likely to receive a reward when deadlines were set than those without. Thus, give deadlines to employees so that they can count on their strengths and complete tasks in a timely manner.
Segmentation is also useful. Instead of investing a significant amount of money in a project all at once, you can divide it into smaller parts over time. This encourages employees’ conscious engagement in the work. At the end of the day, you can be sure that the process won't stop.
4. Use time wisely
To be more productive, allocate special uninterrupted time during the workday to focus on specific goals and strategies. Collaborate carefully in the work process, as it can affect your effectiveness as a manager. Meetings can be costly in terms of lost productivity. For example, a one-hour meeting with ten people can result in a work disruption of ten to fifteen hours due to excessive mental effort required to shift focus.
To make meetings beneficial, adhere to simple rules. Set a time limit, discuss work issues only with experts, and follow the agenda. Focus on specific problems, propose practical solutions, and share responsibility. Adhering to these rules demonstrates the use of top leadership skills.
5. Divide work into deep and shallow
Divide all work into deep and shallow. Deep work is a time when you don't scatter your attention on many things but focus on the main goal. This type of work helps you improve your good manager skills and quality of work, yet it requires maximum concentration.
Shallow work is an activity during which you can easily distract yourself by checking a message, taking a call from a colleague, etc. It doesn't require special skills. When a manager pays attention to too many things simultaneously, all work automatically becomes shallow. Ultimately, the manager doesn't complete their tasks, becoming stressed and affecting the team’s overall work.
6. Learn how to live and work with the scrum technique
Incorporate the scrum technique into your life. For the Japanese, this philosophy is more than just working on projects. It's a way of life. Scrum is about stopping and reviewing the plan at regular, short intervals. This ensures that the team is moving in the right direction.
Scrum suggests treating work as a skill that simply needs to be mastered. Let go of control, and don't worry about the eternal desire to control every part of the plan. Typically, changes and innovations make projects incredible in the end. Stop doubting and start moving forward. To find out more about it, here is our Scrum summary.
7. Choose the best staff for your team
Be careful with candidates' resumes, as they may be falsified. Use intuition to understand if a person can fill a specific position. During the interview, in addition to checking the candidates' knowledge, pay attention to your manager-employee mental connection. In future cooperation, this helps you quickly find a common language when discussing projects and planning tasks.
The best manager traits involve adapting to real-life situations. Modern technology allows talent acquisition worldwide, making the team diverse. Take advantage of the opportunity to hire the most qualified people regardless of location. It's better to tailor the position to an excellent employee than to hire someone without the necessary skills and qualities but who lives near the company's office. In our summary of The Making of a Manager, we share more tips on this issue — read more to explore them!
The modern world has brought significant changes to management. Therefore, traditional techniques and rules only partially apply to good management. Keep developing yourself professionally. It will help you set an example for your employees and motivate them. However, don't forget that you are primarily human and have the right to make mistakes. Don't stop if you encounter setbacks and misunderstandings between team members. Continue to do what you believe in and work together to achieve the company's goals.
Credentials:
