Manage yourself first
Before you can manage others, you first need to take care of yourself. Make your own schedule a priority and guard your time, setting aside a block of time each day that you dedicate to completing your own work without interruptions. And to further expand this thought, you need to prioritize your own mental, physical, and spiritual health as it is impossible to lead well when your own fuel gauges are on empty.
Get to know your team
The first step to effective management is understanding the people you are managing. Depending on their personality type, people respond differently to various leadership styles. And remember, there are no shortcuts to getting to know your team members, it requires time and commitment on your part to cultivate those relationships.
Delegate tasks
Learning how to trust others with key tasks allows you to focus on high-level management duties instead of micromanaging each responsibility on a project. Once you learn about each team member's strengths, weaknesses, experiences and skills, you will be able to accurately delegate jobs to the people who are likely to do them well within the given time frame. One of the phrases that still sticks with me years later is if you are a 25 cent person, don't constantly be doing 5 cent jobs. Yes, of course there will be times when you need to put on an apron and jump in to help your team, but if you find yourself doing this on a regular basis you have a major problem. You are being paid to work on 25 cent jobs, hire and delegate your team to do the 5 cent tasks.
Take control of communication
Instead of waiting for your team members to reach out to you with questions, updates and concerns, take the initiative when communicating with others. When you first step into your managerial role, whether it is official or unofficial, explain how team members should communicate with you and with one another. Identify the main channels for communication so that everyone understands what steps to take if they encounter an issue. If you monitor and prioritize the channels of communication, this along with your investment in listening and getting to know your team members should result in improved communication between everyone involved.
Develop clear goals
Set goals as a team and individually to guide your management efforts. Creating goals at the beginning of a project gives you a guideline as a leader and keeps everyone focused on how their behavior impacts the success of a project or initiative. Write each goal down so that you have a document you can reference when assessing project success at key benchmarks. Discuss with your team the steps everyone needs to take to accomplish their goals, providing everyone with opportunities to ask questions and make suggestions about strategies for meeting or exceeding team goals.
Provide positive reinforcement
Positive reinforcement is a highly effective management technique where you reward people who demonstrate excellence in the workplace. Be vocal when you notice someone producing quality work and encourage team members to celebrate one another's success. You can recognize excellent work by something as simple as verbal praise or through a structured reward system, depending on what motivates your team the best. Find something positive about everyone on your team to emphasize so that you can recognize top performers and encourage others to be more confident as they grow their skills.
Give honest feedback
Good managers are able to be tactful and direct with their team when giving both praise and constructive criticism. To get the most out of others, you must be able to be honest about their strengths and weaknesses, identifying when their work is not up to standard and strategizing on ways to improve. Your feedback should be honest without being discouraging so that failures can be used as growth opportunities instead of demoralizing moments.
Actively resolve conflicts
While your professional relationship with each individual on your team is an important part of management, you also need to be aware of how team members interact with one another. Interpersonal or professional conflicts between team members can slow down production and cause miscommunications across the entire team. If you notice conflict, take steps to mediate and actively resolve the conflict before it becomes a pervasive issue that impacts workflow. Do not make the mistake of hoping the situation resolves itself, it will not and will result in even greater destruction to your team's productivity.
Ask for input
Just as it is important for you to give clear, constructive feedback to your team, it is also critical for you to seek out feedback about your management skills. Give your team the opportunity to share their experience and offer suggestions as to how you can be a better manager and provide the support they need to succeed. When you receive input from your team, thank them for their thoughts and seriously consider how you could resolve the issue they brought up. Listening without action is an exercise of futility on both sides.
Also, consider using an anonymous channel so that everyone can share their honest thoughts without fear of awkwardness and retribution, especially if you have seniority over your team members. Their feedback can help you adjust individual workloads to prevent burnout, change unhelpful company policies or reorganize the workflow to improve productivity.
Allow for flexibility
Build a culture of mutual respect by being flexible with how team members accomplish their responsibilities. Giving people freedom in areas such as dress code or how they decorate their personal space can help them enjoy their work more and become more productive. Help your team enjoy the work environment by encouraging them to customize their work process. When people feel that someone in a leadership position cares about their well-being as an individual, they are more likely to accept direction and produce their best work.
Meet your own expectations
Lead by example and show your team that you hold yourself to the same standards that you expect of them. Even if you have more flexibility in your workload as a manager, it is important to show that you are a team player by abiding by the same deadlines and expectations you set for the rest of your team. Communicate with others about the steps you are taking to accomplish your role in the project to demonstrate that you have a personal stake in the team's success. Effective managers not only treat their team members consistently but also manage their own behavior based on the same fair expectations.
Three reasons people don't perform to your expectations
Reason #1 - They are not capable. This may mean that they lack the physical, mental, or even emotional skills needed to perform the tasks they have been given. If this is the case, the correct response is patience. Take the time to evaluate their strengths and weaknesses, and then have honest conversations about your findings. The next step is to help them find a position that is better suited for their unique skill set, whether in your organization or with another employer.
Reason #2 - They haven't been properly trained. This is why it is so important to invest the time in your team members. Diagnosing the reason for poor job performance means deducing between lack of training and lack of ability. Once again the correct response is patience. It is up to you to determine the correct situation. If you discover that the issue is lack of training, the obvious antidote is to give your team member additional training and see if that resolves the issue. If it does not, then it is time to determine whether their job performance issues fall under Reason #1 or Reason #3.
Reason #3 - They don't care. The correct response to this situation is a little more complicated. If this is a recent change in behavior then take the time to investigate the motivation behind this shift in performance. There might be external pressures involved that you have no clue is impacting their current behavior. However, if this has been a constant linear path since they were hired, promoted, or transferred to their current position, the correct response is accountability. Follow the correct steps your HR department has for this type of situation. Above all, don't let this situation continue without addressing the performance. If the team member is reluctant or aggressive in denying the issue, once again, follow your prescribed methods for bringing accountability to their performance. The longer a rotten apple is left with the healthy fruit the greater the chances that the healthy fruit will also become tainted.
