Do You Want To be a Better Manager?

How To Be A Better Manager

By F. John Reh, About.com Guide

 

Earlier, we did a Letterman-like top ten list - How To Tell If You Are Management Material. Here are some key skills and abilities that help anyone be a better manager.

Need For Good Managers Increasing

The need for good managers is not going away. It is intensifying. With ‘flatter’ organizations and self-directed teams becoming common; with personal computers and networks making information available to more people more quickly; the raw number of managers needed is decreasing. However, the need for good managers, people who can manage themselves and others in a high stress environment, is increasing. 

I believe anyone can be a good manager. It is as much trainable skill as it is inherent ability; as much science as art. Here are some things that make you a better manager:
As a person:

• You have confidence in yourself and your abilities. You are happy with who you are, but you are still learning and getting better.
• You are something of an extrovert. You don’t have to be the life of the party, but you can’t be a wallflower. Management is a people skill - it’s not the job for someone who doesn’t enjoy people.
• You are honest and straight forward. Your success depends heavily on the trust of others.
• You are an includer not an excluder. You bring others into what you do. You don’t exclude other because they lack certain attributes.
• You have a ‘presence’. Managers must lead. Effective leaders have a quality about them that makes people notice when they enter a room.

On the job:

• You are consistent, but not rigid; dependable, but can change your mind. You make decisions, but easily accept input from others.
• You are a little bit crazy. You think out-of-the box. You try new things and if they fail, you admit the mistake, but don’t apologize for having tried.
• You are not afraid to “do the math”. You make plans and schedules and work toward them.
• You are nimble and can change plans quickly, but you are not flighty.
• You see information as a tool to be used, not as power to be hoarded.

Take a look at yourself against this list. Find the places where you can improve and then get going. And , if you need help, remember that's what this site is all about - Helping new managers get started and experienced managers get better. 

 

My Thoughts

 

If you're wondering why managers get higher pay and better perks, this article should tell you why.  It's a tall order, isn't it.  A giant of an order, actually.  

 

If you want to be a better manager, it doesn't call for better skills, apparently.   The article didn't mention better planning skills nor better presentation skills nor the ability to know the right and wrong of decision making.

Go over the article again.  It talked about confidence, liking people, honesty, being straightforward.  It talked about consistency and flexibility, about change and thinking outside the box.  It talked about being a better person, not a person with more skills.

Think about that!