Qualities of an effective manager

It’s said that good help is hard to find, and if that’s true, finding a truly effective manager could be a double hard task. For a manager to be competent, he or she needs a few prerequisite skills.{{more}}

First, that person must be in touch with the team, able to understand the staff, to see the needs of the staff, and then to provide the resources the staff requires to facilitate quality work. If necessary a manager should have no problems pitching in to help; but they also must know how to delegate at the right time to the right people.

Second, he or she must be comfortable communicating with both the team and upper management. This is critical if the manager is the bridge between the front-line staff and those at the top. A manager will be ineffective if they have great rapport with the staff but struggle to connect with senior level personnel, as the true power comes from senior level personnel supporting the manager to empower the staff.

Once those basic skills are met, the following are some of the other qualities managers in any results-oriented work environment need to possess.

1. Effective managers work well with diverse populations. Regardless of what business one is in, a manager will come in contact with diverse people through direct supervision or as customers. Diversity cuts across racial, ethnic, generational, and societal lines. Working in harmony with different people to meet the organizational goal will take a sensitive, open, and insightful person who knows how to best meet the needs of different groups.

2. Effective managers are motivators. Every staff member, at some point during their career, will reach a point when progress seems impossible or a time when an extra push is needed to overcome a particular business barrier. It’s during these times that employees really want someone who believes in their abilities and can positively move them to produce exceptional work, especially in high-pressured environments.

3. Effective managers are great communicators. Studies show that when we listen to someone speak, we receive 55 percent of what is said through his/her body language, 38 percent through tone and inflection, and only 7 percent through the actual words, if they are understood. It’s critical that managers be very clear and direct when giving instructions. They can leave almost nothing to speculation or interpretation, as that’s when costly errors occur.

4. Effective managers must think in the box and out of the box. Too much emphasis has been placed on out-of-the-box thinking that the tasks that must be done in a traditional way get lost to over creativity.

An effective manager must have these and many more qualities, but anyone in a management position must stop every now and then and evaluate himself or herself. How well are you doing as a manager? How do you motivate your staff on a regular basis? How effective are your communication skills?

Karen Hinds President/CEO – Workplace Success Group,
Toll Free: 1-877-902-2775;
Tel: 1-203-757-4103
Karen@WorkplaceSuccess.com
www.WorkplaceSuccess.com
Creator of The Workplace Success Program (TM)