How To Be A Great Manager

A topic that is discussed every now and then in industries is how to become better managers in order to increase the productivity of the team.

The definition of a manager is a person responsible for supervising and motivating employees and for directing the progress of an organization. This is different from being a leader, to know more about who a leader is, read my article on authentic leadership.

Average Managers play checkers with their team. Susan Quinn, in her book titled 'Management Basics' published in 2010, stated that "one of the major challenges with been a manager is that the job is fragmented and constantly changing even as the day progresses". The key thing for a manager is to know how to drive the team he is responsible for in the right direction.

An average manager does not make use of the different strengths and weaknesses of his team members to an advantage. He expects every team member to fulfill duties in the same way and manner, forgetting that everybody is not the same. This explains the analogy of playing checkers because all the pieces can replace each other and they move the same way.

A great manager plays chess with the team, he uses the unique characteristics of each team member to his advantage in achieving the team's target. This is because he takes the time to study each individual and observes their strengths and weaknesses, which he puts into effective management of his team. This yields to better performance of the team and these actions are a continual process.

According to Buckingham (2005), great leaders make every member of his team regardless of their differences to see the big picture of the company and use that understanding in driving the achievement of the target. They use the most common motivating factor of the entire team members to get the job done. This is definitely the kind of manager you should strive to be.

The 3 major skills required to be a manager are conceptual, technical, and human. Conceptual is the ability to have ideas, plan, and create a vision. Technical is a specific experience or knowledge required to get a job done. Human is the ability to network and work well with others. All these skills are required to be an effective manager.

In summary, a great manager is able to motivate and guide the team to achieve its objectives or targets.

That's all folks.

Is there any other skill that can be added to this article? leave me a comment.