Finance and Business Blog

Being a manager is a tricky juggling act; you need to motivate your team, ensure all projects are on track, and report the progress to your superiors. If you can’t establish a good relationship with your team or don’t have the right skills, you’ll struggle to perform your job effectively – but even if you’re at the top of your game, it never hurts to evaluate your performance and see where you can make improvements. Management training will help you follow best practices – but whether you’re an experienced manager or just starting out, the following simple hacks will ensure you manage your team efficiently.

1. Establish a Rapport with Your Team

The modern workplace is constantly evolving and these days, the line between management and employees isn’t as clearly defined as it used to be. There are pros and cons to this, but you need to establish a solid rapport with your team in order to improve your own management skills, without compromising on respect. When you communicate with your team openly and regularly, you become more aware of their personalities, strengths, and weaknesses. You can use this knowledge to delegate tasks wisely and ensure everyone in your team performs to their full potential.

2. Set a Good Example

As a manager, it’s vital that you lead by example. Team members and employees can’t help but draw inspiration from their leaders and managers. Excellent managers motivate team members to work hard and bring their best to the table – but if you’re sloppy or lazy, your team won’t think they need to be any better. On the other hand, if you’re hardworking, positive, open to advice and recommendations, friendly, and communicative, your team will follow your example and strive to be the same.

3. Active Listening

Employees respond well to managers who actually listen to them and keep the lines of communication open. Managers should practice active listening and ensure they welcome all kinds of feedback. Be open to ideas suggested by your team members and encourage discussion over it. For example, if one person suggests a new way for handling a particular project, listen to their reasons and explanations carefully and encourage your other team members to listen as well.

This helps build trust and ensures team members are more confident in sharing their opinions and suggestions. Active learning will lead to active participation and communication from your employees. Active listening will also help you detect problems early and resolve them.

4. Acknowledge Contributions and Successes

Research suggests that employees are more concerned about job satisfaction than very high salaries. They want to know they have contributed positively to the company’s success and that their hard work has paid off – and it’s important that managers recognise this and make a point of acknowledging it. For example, if a problem during a project was resolved because of an out-of-the-box solution from your employees, make it a point to acknowledge and explain how it helped. This won’t just make your employees happy, but will encourage them to work harder.

5. Discipline With Dignity

Far too many managers point out mistakes publically and reprimand or “dress-down” employees in plain view. This can have a demoralizing effect on employees in general and make them more hesitant to approach you or suggest ideas.

Instead of addressing mistakes in public, make all your reprimands and disciplinary actions private. Ask the employees that make mistakes to come to your office, explain the problem to them, and encourage them to open the discussion. Mistakes and drops in performance can happen but public disciplining won’t help anyone.

6. Deal with Conflicts Calmly

When different people come together and work on the same goals every day, arguments and differences in opinion are inevitable. Most employees will resolve these differences without your input or assistance, but if their arguments turn hostile and cause conflict, you need to intervene and settle the matter yourself.

The best way to do that is to discuss the matter with all parties involved separately before you schedule a three-way meeting. During this meeting, you should focus on conflict resolution. You should also try to help the two hostile parties develop a healthier relationship. If you’re still struggling to diffuse the situation, you’ll find more useful advice here.

7. Motivate Your Team

Motivating the team is one of the most challenging tasks managers face. If the team isn’t motivated and enthusiastic about their job, the company progress will slow down and the team morale will drop. You can motivate your team in a number of ways, including:

• Sharing company success stories with them.
• Setting clear and achievable short-term goals.
• Providing rewards and incentives after reaching big milestones.
• Openly sharing your enthusiasm for different projects and challenges.

As a manager, your main job is to keep the workplace environment positive and relatively stress-free. With a little effort and commitment, you can improve your management skills, establish a good rapport with your team, and improve overall company performance. These tips can help you reach your potential as a manager.

Author bio: Jordan James is a Digital Marketing Specialist at Activia Training, a UK-based classroom and e-learning training provider specialising in improving delegates’ workplace performance in business skills, management development and IT applications. Jordan is passionate about social media and customer service issues, and regularly blogs about these – and many other – topics on the Activia blog.

Comments are closed.