You’re a manager, you have responsibilities and you have any number of people under your authority. Remember this, you do not command or control, you manage! Your job is to make sure your department or division or job is to supply a key part of the whole service your company sells.
To do this you have many options, the most important is to manage your personnel so that they are motivated to be as productive and as happy at the same time.
Your employees are not robots, they have emotions and families, they have problems and responsibilities. All this is good, so long as they perform their tasks to the best possible outcome for your company. It is up to you to make them perform that way.
Each company in each industry sector offers different work environments for different worker skills and different sector cultures. For instance, working for Google is not like working for Public Works in the City of Chicago, which is not like working as a postal worker in Delhi, India or like working as an Oncologist in Barcelona, Spain. However, working as an office clerk in every country is similar work, the differences are not the work type but the environment and culture. A PA working in a Realtors office in London will have similar work as the counterpart in any other country, the same way a lathe machinist in Cairo, Egypt will operate the machinery in a similar if not identical fashion as the counterpart in Murmansk, Russia. The differences will be cultural, based on the country and as such there will be differences in delegation and inter-office communications.
With all this, there are two truths to EQ, the first is that your workers will relate to respect and determination more than to threat and indifference. The second is that your workers need leadership more than friendship.
So, in order to succeed as a manager, remember this, “Familiarity breeds contempt”, you don’t need to be your employee’s BFF, you need to be their inspiration and motivator, their manager and leader. This does not mean you need to be their enemy, it means that there is a fine line that when crossed will make your workers over-confident and stroppy. Don’t befriend them, be good to them and lead by example.
The Ten tips for successful leadership:
Always use strong decisive tones in your speech. Be decisive, be strong, and be succinct. Don’t leave room for interpretation, always make sure your workers know exactly what you want, how you want it and when.
Never shout in public, always reprimand in private. Do not belittle a worker by criticizing him or shouting at him or berating him (or her) in public. Imagine if your boss would do that to you, how would you feel?
Try to further educate them, a clever mind is a more productive one. By sending your employees to accreditation courses and conferences and seminars relevant to their profession and area of expertise you will create a more efficient worker. They will also become loyal and dedicated.
Always be sympathetic and conscientious, but don’t let them take advantage of this. Take into account that some workers will try to get more time off then necessary, they usually have lots of ill family members and funerals to attend. Don’t’ disbelieve them, but don’t let 6 billion die until you do.
Don’t criticize, teach them how to adapt and change. Always remember that not everyone is a manager or as intelligent as you are, try to help those with less knowledge than you. The end result will be a highly productive and loyal worker.
Don’t make fun of a worker to anyone ever. If you joke about someone that works for you, even in confidence, it can still leak out.
Promote originality, ask for their opinions on subjects under their control. By getting your workers to think of new ideas to improve the workplace, the product, the service you are promoting them to feel more connected with the company. You may even add incentives for the ideas you put into use.
Do not add incentives through inter-office competitions, this generates competitiveness in the workplace that evolves into pride and prejudice.
Add target based incentives, whilst this will generate competitiveness, it is a personal system where more than one can gain the prize.
Once a week hold an employee meeting, present your departments status from the last week, give news and updates and always include an inspirational speech, but keep it to context, you’re not the President saving the planet from aliens.
Board room tactics are also very important. When sitting in a boardroom meeting you will find many types, but they can be categorized into four groups; the quiet ones, these try to hide and generally don’t talk, they are scared that if they talk and upset their boss they could lose their position. The over talker, this is the exact opposite, they try to take over the discussion at every point, trying to prove how brilliant and irreplaceable they are, then there is the fact spouter, they usually aren’t inventive and rely on a mass of data and percentages to prove how capable they are, and are mainly ”yes men” and finally there are the visionaries, they tend to constantly come up with new ideas but don’t actually offer much data to back their ideas up. All these people are important as a group, they interact to create cohesion (except for the silent ones, they are useless in a board room and waste space.) The ideal board room executive is someone that combines data and facts with inventive and innovative thinking, and does not talk too much but speaks exactly what needs to be said. They must also argue when necessary, true leaders don’t want yes men, they want someone that will make the company go forward, that will manage their department properly for the benefit of the company.
There is a very interesting fact about great leaders, as opposed to tyrants. Great leaders were all sympathetic, perfectionists, original thinkers, very patient with those that needed extra help but impatient with those that didn’t. They were all witty, funny and highly intelligent. Another interesting fact, not all successful businessmen are leaders, some of them are merely great businessmen. Now, unless you have an original idea, or access to venture capital, or have a cousin that is CEO of a major corp. that wants to employ because his mother told him to, I suggest you learn EQ so you can start to stand out at work and evolve.
Professional Networking
Like socializing, the business sector has its own groups to belong to. In some industries, they come naturally like medical societies. Basically, you chose the society or societies your profession and experience is best suited to. Join and become an active member. Go to chapter meetings, national and international conferences, if necessary work on articles, abstracts and presentations. Become a known speaker. Or perhaps apply for voluntary board role, although it helps if you are well known, and that happens through your application and appearance. Once you start to advance in the society, don’t stop, use business networks to build up more presence, start to link them. Befriend peers from other companies, mingle with peers of all levels, but also try to meet with those in higher positions, it will help you advance. In some instances, being elected to and voluntary executive position in a society will help you advance your application for a new job. Everyone wants a leader in their profession, and there are two ways to gauge a leader, wither through their fame from publication or inventiveness or through their popularity online and in the society. Remember, if you are President of a Society, you can be called upon to give an official opinion in court or on TV…it always helps to be in that position.
