The modern workplace requires managers and teams to work closely together, adapt to various roles and share in the glory of success and in the shame of failure. Although the role of managers and employees has been evolving for a long time, many leaders still have not mastered important ways to get the best results from a team. The following ten tips can help.
1. Make Good Hiring Decisions. One of the most needed areas of management development involves learning how to locate qualified hiring candidates and choose the ones that will fit best with their team. The front line defence against interpersonal conflicts in the workplace is the job interview.
2. Build a Team. Managers should build a team, not an empire or an army. Everyone on the team has positive and negative traits and differing skills. A good manager knows that the modern workforce is most productive when people work with each other in a collaborative, synergistic relationship.
3. Lead by Example. Managers should not flaunt their authority nor should they exempt themselves from their own unpopular decisions. Managers can lead their team to incredible accomplishments if they apply their own expectations to themselves.
4. Be a Coach. Managers should focus on helping every person on their team be the best he or she can be. Employees who are coached rather than managed know that they are valued as people, not just as profit centres.
5. Develop Communication Skills. Surveys put communication issues at the top of the list of causes of workplace dysfunction. Management development programs that encourage open and honest communications among team members usually result in fast productivity improvements. People are more willing to share their information if they know they won’t be punished for mistakes or criticised for voicing unconventional opinions.
6. Focus on Time Management. Wasted time during the work day is a plague managers and team members must confront head on. Goal setting, planning and scheduling are great ways to make sure the right things get done at the right times. Management should learn to apply the Pareto principal so the team always is tackling the most valuable tasks at all times.
7. Relax. Uptight, nervous, high-strung managers are sometimes unpopular because of the way they act. Management should not be micromanaging the team, hovering over it like they would a chess board. When managers learn to relax, the team can relax.
8. Exhibit Trust. Managers should trust their team members and their team to complete assignments properly and on time. The more a manager trusts workers to perform as needed, the more they will rise to any challenge.
9. Praise Often. Criticism fosters a negative work environment that can stifle innovation and communication and lead to morale problems and inertia. When management rarely criticises but frequently praise, it lays the framework for a highly motivated and productive team.
10. Be Ethical. When a manager acts in deceptive ways with vendors, customers or other teams within the company; that manager loses the respect of his or her team. Unethical conduct is contagious, but so is ethical conduct. Managers should do the right thing and their team will follow.
