Effective management is an important and necessary factor in any business. Inherent in its importance comes a paradox: the desire for a top-notch managerial style, and the confusion on how to accomplish this desired style. Management can be difficult, here are some tips and common misconceptions great managers must know.
First, some talents of great managers:
- Motivation of every single employee to take action and engage employees with a compelling mission and vision.
- Assertiveness to drive outcomes and the ability to overcome adversity and resistance.
- Creation of a culture of clear accountability.
- Building of relationships that create trust, open dialogue, and full transparency.
- Decision making based on productivity, not politics.
These are the rudimentary ways to improve management in the workplace. Another important role of managers is performance management—the monitoring of efficiency and effectiveness in reaching goals set within an office or organization. Unfortunately, there are a few misconceptions pertaining to performance management. Luckily these can be debunked:
- Feedback should only take place during the annual performance review. Feedback is valuable and provides coaching necessary for ongoing change. Therefore, it should constantly be shared.
- Goals should only be set at the beginning of the year or quarter and do not need to be revisited. The world and businesses within it are constantly changing. Having a stagnant set of goals won’t help you keep up with the changing times. Goals must be revisited and revised to reach their maximum potential.
- Performance management is only for management roles. Useful feedback can come from anyone in the office if you’re willing to listen. In fact, relying on just one person for feedback is detrimental; one person can only provide feedback based on a one-sided view.
- Performance management is only for individual employees. Teamwork is a huge aspect of businesses. Performance management can reflect on a group as a whole and is meant to be shared, not reserved for an individual.Now that we’ve listed good managerial qualities and debunked some misconceptions, let’s look at one final tool:
- Analyzing the performance gap between your average employees and your top employees. This allows you to visualize the range of your employees’ performance levels, and decide what that range should encompass. Taking the gap and comparing it to the number of employees you currently have provides knowledge of whether you need more people for the job, or just need to focus management efforts on your current employees for an improvement.
No one said effective management would be easy. In fact, it’s practically undefinable. Just keep in mind that sticking to the important talents, not getting swayed by falsehoods, and being aware of the varying levels of performance in your company are just a few ways to make that management role a little easier to handle.
