Barry Silverstein - Best Practices: Managing People: Secrets to Leading for New Managers

S ECRETS TO L EADING FOR N EW M ANAGERS

What It Takes to Be a Good Manager

Before you can effectively manage other people, you need to know about yourself and your management abilities. The Self-Assessment Quiz on pages 23 will help you understand what skills you bring to the game.

If your staff is happy, you are doing your job. People dont often leave jobsand, in particular, bossesthey like. Treat people the right way and you will have disciples for life.

Tom Markert,
author of You Cant Win a Fight with Your Boss

Managing people used to mean dominating them. The bosss word was absolute and not to be questioned. But todays workplace is very different. As companies continue to increase productivity and reduce costs, operations tend to be consolidated: a smaller number of people do a greater amount of work with fewer managers.

To succeed in this climate, businesses depend on knowledge-sharing, effective communication, and teamwork. These are difficult to achieve without the three Cs described on pages 67.

The BIG Picture

THE MANAGERS PERSPECTIVE

The managers perspective needs to be broad and all-encompassing. As a manager, you are the one who needs to understand what must get done, what it will take to accomplish your goal, how to assess and monitor progress, and how to measure success at the completion of the work.

Take advantage of the capabilities of each of your staff members and delegate the appropriate tasks so they can work as a team towards a common goal. Match specific tasks to the skills of each individual. Help and guide thembut let them do the work. Hold team progress meetings to keep everyone on track and follow up individually with any team member who is having trouble or falling behind.

Like a great maestro conducting an orchestra, you are there to keep every individual working in harmony and to ensure that the end result is a beautifully executed performance.

Behind the Numbers

DECLINE IN MIDDLE MANAGERS

During the 13 years between 1986 and 1999, the number of middle managers in large corporations declined by 27 percent. This study reflects the reality of more than 300 publicly traded U.S. firms.

SOURCE: The Flattening Firm by Raghuram Rajan and Julie Wulf, National Bureau of Economic Research (April 2003).

Collaboration. A good manager creates many opportunities for people to collaborate in setting goals, determining how work will get accomplished, and establishing criteria to measure a projects success rate.

Cooperation. Fostering cooperation within a work group and setting a good example as a manager encourages employees to focus on the needs of the group rather than only on their own needs.

Consensus. Establishing consensus among your workers creates a common sense of purpose and involves everyone in working toward the same goal. Good managers use consensus-building to encourage employees to voice opinions while maintaining control of the group.

Whats Your Management Style?

Managers can have very different styles and still succeed.

At one extreme are autocratic, heavy-handed managers who govern by fear and intimidation. In the long term, this generates ill will and lack of respect; employees either contribute minimally or eventually choose to work elsewhere.

POWER POINTS

SECRETS OF MANAGERIAL SUCCESS

Effective people managers practice the fine art of delegation.

• They delegate tasks without abdicating their responsibility.
• They explain the why but never dictate the how .
• They give instructions, not orders.