If you are looking to become a manager or you are currently a manager, this article is for you
Management seems to be so easy to learn and practice. However, by looking at the results of the majority of managers, it becomes so obvious that management is the hardest job to grasp.
Management is not a position nor a job, or a milestone in a career path, it is rather a tremendous responsibility as it combines two very sensitive areas; managing the daily tasks to accomplish the business objectives and leading team members to perform while helping them to grow in their career and reach their own personal development goals as well.
Unfortunately, most managers focus on achieving business objectives and ignore taking care of their team members, although it is very critical to succeed in both, which is possible if certain guidelines are followed.
This is the widely suggested list of things that managers are being asked to have to be effective.
- Interpersonal skills.
- Inclusivity
- Communication and motivation.
- Emotional Intelligence
- Organisation and delegation.
- Time Management
- Collaboration
- Giving and receiving feedback
- Forward planning and strategic thinking.
- Problem solving and decision-making.
- Commercial awareness.
- Mentoring.
Going through this list, one can easily observe that everything a manager should be doing has to go in the direction of achieving the organization’s goals and objectives. This is how a manager is being evaluated whether he or she is effective or not.
The word effective means to be “successful in producing a desired or intended result” as per Oxford Languages. Therefore, all derived synonyms go in the same direction; productive, constructive, successful, functional, etc…
As we all know, a manager is not able to be successful in producing the desired result or outcome without an effective team working alongside her or him. So the question to be asked is how any team can be effective if it is not being taken care of ?
Taking care of a team means taking care of each team member on the personal level first to build a productive, functional, and successful team that is able to achieve the organization’s objectives.
Developing and managing an effective team is the pivot point of any manager’s success story. Thus, an effective manager requires the ability to contribute to the development and growth of his or her team members on the personal level and the professional level as well.
Almost all managers nowadays schedule individual one on one meetings with their team members on a monthly basis. The agenda of these meetings are usually around how to increase performance, achieve business objectives, and if there are any critical issues. It is rarely when a manager asks how she or he can contribute to the personal growth of the team member. This is a very important question to ask because it opens the door widely to build a deeper relationship with the team member. It shows that the manager cares not only to see higher performance from a business perspective, however, he or she is also interested in helping to make your future brighter and see you grow in your career and reach your personal goals.
In addition to the list mentioned above, the magical recipe for managers to effectively achieve higher business performance, is to start caring for their team members. In return, they will help you get the highest results.
