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It’s been a long journey of effort and polishing your skills and finally, you’ve accomplished your goal to become a manager. This may be great news but however, being proficient at your responsibilities doesn’t automatically make you a good manager.
A role of a manager is to manage people as well as motivate them and inspire them to do better in their respective fields. It stops being about you but what kind of energy you bring to your team. You need to be able to get your team to bring their best to the table. Initially, you may feel that being a manager is about possessing hard skills but it’s much more than that. When you consider the qualities of a good manager, you will realize that they cannot be proven or measured. There are some qualities that will make you turn from a good manager to a great leader. Such qualities are known as “soft skills” or “interpersonal skills”
Such skills can be very valuable because they are harder to learn. How to become a good manager you need to develop skills over time as you begin to interact, observe and work with your team members. Soft skills are extremely important for effective leadership and performance management.
Here are 5 skills on how to become a good manager.
Times have changed, once it was acceptable to keep things on a need-to-know basis with your employees. However, now transparency is an important skill of being a good manager.
In this day and era, employees will respect you more if you are transparent with them. They prefer knowing what’s going on within the company and how they are performing. Giving your employees direct and honest feedback from time to time can give them clarity of their performance. A manager who sugarcoats the truth or hides difficult realities is not deemed as a good manager.
When you consider how to become a good manager, you need to be excellent at communicating, this means regularly maintaining contact with everyone on their team as well as provide them with feedback often. Also, deliver recognition and rewards also helps in increasing the morals of your employees.
Maintaining open communication with your employees goes a long way. Communication doesn’t require to happen face-to-face, it can also be in the form of emails, body language, chat applications, and much more. Another good tip to become a good manager, you are required to communicate with your employees in such a manner that it makes them feel comfortable and can reach out to you for help when and if needed.
Research has proven that companies that encourage teamwork have more improved efficiency and work outcomes. How to become a good manager, you should also focus on the individual development of their team members. A good manager should also always be supportive and help in avoiding toxic behavior and unhealthy competition within their teams.
One of the tips on how to become a good manager, you are required to encourage and reward teamwork amongst your teams. You will gradually notice that your relationship with your employees will immensely improve; if you can prove to be a reliable and consistent manager.
How to become a good manager also expects you to be trustworthy and respect the confidentiality of your team members. Employees need to have faith in you. And, should know that they can rely on their managers in times of need; and be reassured that their managers have their good interests at heart.
If your employees feel that you cannot be trusted or that you don’t support them. It can lead to a toxic work environment and unhealthy competition within your workplace. Employees also need to be sure that their manager is telling them the truth; and keeping them in the loop with the company’s progress. You can build your trustworthiness by respecting the privacy of your employees and always offering honest feedback; and advice that can help your team members work better and help you in achieving your company’s goals.
In this age in the corporate world, a new trend is allowing your employees to determine and set their own goals. This gives your employees more ownership over their goals, and they can work better when they work on their own set target-based deadlines. This will result in work being done to a better standard than expected.
While you allow your employees to set their own goals but as a good manager; you still play a vital role in helping them set their goals. As a good manager, you need to understand how to build motivational and, realistic goals for your employees and then guide your team in a process that aligns with the organization’s objectives.
read more: Becoming a good manager is a corporate responsibility