In many everyday settings, people often have an uncontrollable tendency to slip up under pressure. It’s not on purpose, and it’s hard to avoid. Unfortunately, the workplace is not an exception to these dilemmas. Even effective managers sometimes struggle to perform at their best through difficult situations. In order to help you avoid failure, we have come up with 3 qualities to instill in your management team.
Embrace Change
People process change in all different ways; sometimes negatively. How can you tell if your management team falls into that category? Here are some signs:
- Manager expresses anger at the suggestion of change
- Manager’s attitude becomes skeptical and unreasonable
- Manager does the same processes, expecting them to yield different results
If your manager exhibits these signs, consider encouraging them to embrace change. Make sure you understand what it is about said changes that are making the manager uncomfortable. Is he or she afraid of the risk, or are they just comfortable with their way of doing things? Once you know why they are opposed to change, you can better help them embrace it.
The next step is to make sure the manager is aware of their aversion and how it is affecting productivity. Sometimes people’s reaction to change is involuntary; the manager may not realize how strongly he or she is rejecting the change. Avoid accusing or blaming them; rather than making them feel bad about their feelings, just make them aware so they can help you help them understand the positives of occasional changes.
As important as all this communication is, it doesn’t stop there. The final step is to implement goals and projects for your management team that are oriented toward this new, positive change. Inspect their willingness to participate and the quality of the outcome to determine if your “embrace change” mantra stuck with them.
Communication is Key to Effective Management
This well known phrase is another quality to instill in your management team. Although manager-employee communication may seem effective in your organization, it can often falter during difficult situations. Pay attention to these signs to see if your management team lacks communication skills when those situations arise.
- Manager has a reputation for being distant and insensitive; may deliver serious news by e-mail instead of face-to-face
- Manager blatantly disagrees with anyone’s individual goals or ideas
- Manager often chooses one side of a disagreement within the office instead of being the neutral problem solver
Again, the first step here is to make sure your manager is aware of these tendencies. It is possible that they may be subconsciously nervous of the risks of straying from their usual path and releasing their edginess by diminishing communication. Help your management team be aware of their flawed communication methods, so they may internally improve themselves with your help. Observe their improvements and provide feedback so they know which methods are effective and which are detrimental.
On the other hand, make sure that a temporary influx in stress is actually the cause of your manager’s communication hiccup. It could be a much deeper problem; maybe the individual is just a poor fit as a leader, despite their success as an individual employee. If you find this to be the case, it may be time to search for a new manager.
Results by Leadership
Have you ever heard the saying, “Treat others as you wish to be treated”? A similar concept can be applied to how you achieve results. Leadership styles are like snowflakes—every one is different, because everyone thinks differently; some leaders focus on making employees happy, others focus solely on completing tasks efficiently regardless of the employees’ thoughts or feelings about the task, for example. However, no matter how much they differ, all leadership styles should strongly promote results. Regardless of the way it is achieved, the goal should be to implement tasks and encourage results. If you promote productivity, you will receive productivity.
It pays to occasionally evaluate the effectiveness of your management team; they may be struggling through problematic situations, or even through every day processes. If these struggles go unnoticed, your organization’s productivity, happiness at work, and general wellbeing could suffer. Upon noticing any hiccups, observe the situation to find out the cause and provide some solutions and guidelines to get everyone back on track. These three qualities are a basis for helping your struggling management team get back on its feet during rough times, and for strengthening your team to defend against future dilemmas.
