And now for the final installment in the three-part series on leadership… The last, but not the least, quality that all good leaders possess is great management skills.

There are libraries full of books, catalogs full of courses, universities full of degrees in management. But you don’t need an MBA or the latest fad management book to be a great leader–all you need are a few basic principles.

• Become a MACROmanager. We’ve all experienced (or at least heard of) the dreaded micromanager–the supervisor who looks over your shoulder, triple checking everything you do and offering “helpful” hints when you just want to be left alone to do your work. But it can be hard–especially for first-time managers–to let go and empower your employees to work independently. So how do you become a macromanager? Use this handy acronym! S.T.D. Stay out of the details. Trust your employees to do their work–don’t second guess their decisions. Delegate, delegate, delegate.
• Provide honest feedback. If an employee has done a great job or come up with a new and innovative way to do something, then tell them. Don’t save it for the end-of-year performance appraisal. More importantly, if an employee is not doing a good job, you should immediately speak with him about it. Yes, it’s an uncomfortable conversation, but if you put it on the back burner, it’s going to sit there and simmer until you explode out of the blue on your poor unsuspecting employee. That’s just not fair.
• Ask for and listen to honest feedback. This is the flip side of providing honest feedback. I’ve worked for many managers who had absolutely no problem telling employees what they were doing wrong, but never asked for (or asked for and then reacted badly to) honest feedback from employees. At least once per quarter, you should ask a few employees (individually–not in a group) how you’re doing. Alternately, you could ask for anonymous suggestions. Is there anything you could do better? Do your employees have suggestions to improve things around the office? There’s only one way to find out! And a good leader listens to and accepts constructive criticism–she doesn’t lash out or punish others for being honest.
• Remember that one size does NOT fit all. I once heard a great story (can’t remember where, of course) about an American manager who was sent to oversee a factory in Japan. To reward an employee who was doing a particularly good job, the manager called a staff meeting and presented the employee with an award in front of everyone. The employee was mortified. In Japanese culture, humility is important–by singling out the employee, the manager actually shamed him. Talk to your employees about how they each individually would like to be rewarded. What motivates them? Perhaps a health conscious employee would like an hour three times a week to go to the gym. (Healthy employees cost the company less in insurance!) Perhaps a busy mom would like an extra hour in the morning one day a week to spend with the kids. Maybe an up-and-coming star would like to be sent to a project management course. You don’t know until you ASK.

What management techniques have you used (or seen as an employee) that embodied good leadership?

Tags: Career, leadership

Trackback URI | Comments RSS