There are innumerable management and leadership skills that will help managers "do nothing." However, the ones selected in this book enable the shift of focus from doing to managing and leading to occur quickly, with the greatest impact on successful management. I call these crucial management and leadership skills the Platinum skills (see Platinum skills of managing and leading). They are:
- Developing your staff, which includes training and delegating
- Active listening
- Giving and receiving feedback
- Motivating your staff
Another way to get started down this road to management success is to try to enjoy the job of managing and the positive effect that you can have on others. Why not make the best of being a manager? Many accidental managers have discovered that if they begin to enjoy the job and realize the important impact that they could have, everything else falls into place. Those who have taken this road tell me that it made their jobs so much easier and less stressful, and they got the results they wanted much faster than they ever thought they would. Let me share some of the tips others have shared with me that helped make them successful managers.
Get Rid of Excuses
Successful managers learn to stop blaming the company or senior management for putting them in the management position. They also stop blaming themselves for not being prepared or automatically good at managing. And they accept the fact that they may have inherited miserable staff members. They also put their energy into managing. Once they do that, the job becomes challenging and fun. Successful managers decide not to waste their creative energy on excuse making.
Try Something New
Successful managers will try something that they never thought they would do, or something that no other manager they knew of ever did before. As an example, a manager at a governmental agency in Washington, D.C. told me that she would begin each meeting with a management-related joke (a very good one, of course). It set a very different tone and built immediate rapport with the staff. Trying something new got her that home run.
Give Yourself a Big Pat on the Back
Successful managers tell themselves what they did well lately, where they have made progress, and what obstacles they overcame. They use a lot of positive self-talk. They congratulate themselves. They realize that nobody else might give them the positive feedback that they need. Then they go out and earn themselves another pat on the back. They believe in themselves.
Use Visualization
Successful managers have a picture of what they want to accomplish (e.g., establishing a good relationship with each employee, making each employee more productive), and in their minds they repeat that visual image often until it becomes part of how they view themselves and their actions. Visualizing positive pictures in their minds provides them with unexpected positive results.
Use Small Wins to Build Confidence in Your Team
Successful managers recognize their team members for incremental improvements or whenever they finish or accomplish part of an assignment or project. Waiting until the end to express gratitude doesn’t work as well.
Speak with Passion, Demonstrate Your Commitment
Successful managers get excited when results are achieved. They are enthusiastic when assigning tasks or projects. They don’t give up, and they encourage others to try their hardest.
Communicate the Vision Constantly
When managers share information about customers, the business environment, what’s happening in the department, the company’s future direction, etc., their team members usually become much more interested in the work they are doing. They are better able to see the connection between their tasks and the goals of the department and organization.
Let Your Intentions Be Known
Hopefully, managers have good intentions. They want to manage well and have their team succeed. However, having good intentions is not enough because no one really knows what managers’ good intentions are. What managers get judged on in the workplace are their actions, behaviors, and the results they achieve. Successful managers know that they have to put their good intentions into practice, not just keep them to themselves.
Foster Self-Reliance
Some managers believe that being there to help out employees is the best thing a manager can do. It shows interest and concern and earns employees’ respect. Actually, many successful managers learn quite the opposite. They come to realize that, in most instances, if they encourage their employees to learn, develop, and work more independently (and interdependently with other employees), they will feel much better about themselves and the quality, quantity, and speed of their work will improve. One of the best methods for fostering self-reliance is to involve team members in decision making. When staff members are involved in decision making, or make decisions on their own, they are much more likely to believe in the decision and implement it than if the manager made the decision on her own. When successful managers involve their team members in the decision-making process, their team members "own" the decision.
Get a Mentor
The best organizations provide a mentor for managers to help them learn the culture, politics, and accepted managerial practices of the organization. If the organization doesn’t provide a mentor, then successful managers, when they have to, find their own mentors. The manager has to find someone in the organization that she and everyone else on her team respects and whom she believes is an excellent manager. Then she has to ask the individual if he would be willing to help out her and her team.
Build Trust and Believability
Early in their tenures, managers discover that if their staff trusts and believes them, that makes the job of managing so much easier and they are likely to be much more successful. Building trust and believability is not easy because most employees are somewhat suspicious of the motivations of their managers. But, if managers do what they say, carry through on promises, advocate for their staff, tell the truth, provide necessary material and people resources, communicate continually, get to know each staff member on an individual basis, and provide opportunities for staff to develop and grow, then chances are high that trust will be established.