Image Credit: Liz Brooks
The job of being a manager is a tough one. There are a lot of different things that you’ll be asked to do and meanwhile you have the responsibility of leading your team and showing them what to do. None of us were born knowing how to go about doing all of this and so we probably don’t have the manager skills or manager training that we need. If we can get any help from the outside, we should always be grateful for it. The good news is that there have been a lot of managers before us and if we can only take the time to listen to what they want to tell us, then we can become better at this manager thing.
It’s All About Motivation
As a manager it’s your job to find ways to get the most out of your team. This can be a very tricky thing to do – your team has a lot on their plate and they often don’t feel that they have the time to listen to what you want them to be doing. What this means for you is that you are going to have to accomplish several things. First, you are going to have to get their attention. Next you are going to have to be able to convince them to do what you need them to do. Neither of these things will ever be easy to do.
In order to accomplish both of these goals, you are going to have to do some strange things. In fact, what you do may initially appear to be unhinged to your team. This may involve throwing things, deleting things, or perhaps ripping things up. Although this may appear outlandish, it’s actually a very calculated act. As a manager you need to understand that in certain tough situations, words may not be enough. By taking the time to make a graphical display of just how ferocious you are, you are going to be able to connect with the members of your team on a deeper level.
Dissent Is Ok
Being a manager means that you need to work with a lot of different people. Yes, of course, there is your team. However, there are also other managers, other departments, and in many cases vendors and other companies. Each one of these parties has their own set of objectives and different things that they want to accomplish. What this means for you is that you are going to have a lot of people telling you what they think that you should be doing.
As a manager you are going to have to keep your thinking independent. Just because other people think that you or your team should be doing something does not mean that you should be doing it. Instead, you are going to have to be willing to push back – to dissent. When you disagree with someone, it’s going to be your responsibility to let them know. However, you have to be careful to make sure that your disagreement is not personal. You are going to have to make sure that everyone realizes that conflict when it is focused on supporting your team’s goals is not something that is destructive. Rather, it is essential to being a good manager.
You Need To Be Relentless
Life is not easy. Things don’t always go the way that we want them to go. What this means for you as a manager is that as you attempt to lead your team, you are going to experience roadblocks and setbacks. When these occur you are going to be faced with the need to make a decision. What are you going to do? Once option is to give up and go off and try something else. However, as a manager you are also trying to lead a team. This means that you want to show your team that when you face challenges, you find ways to solve them.
That’s why the correct course of action is to make sure that your team is left with no doubt about your level of commitment. Your willingness to solve the problems that you run into will be seen as an indication of just how committed you are to your team. No matter how big of an obstacle you are facing, you are going to want to show your team that you are not going to give up. One way that you can do this is by always show up at work – don’t take too much time off. Showing that you are committed to helping the team get what it needs, even when you are dealing with a small thing, will show your team your level of commitment.
What All Of This Means For You
Anybody can be a manager. It takes something special to be a great manager. Although most of us are just trying to determine how to be the best manager that we can be, we can learn from those who have gone before us. There have been some truly great managers and if we take the time, we can learn how they were able to accomplish great things.
The first thing that we need to understand is that a great manager knows how to motivate his or her team. You are going to have to take bold actions in order to grab your team’s attention. By doing this you’ll be able to connect with them at a deeper level – almost like you were doing team building. Managers have the responsibility to interact with a lot of different people. These people will ask us to do a lot of different things. It’s ok to say “no” – dissent is what a manager is expected to do. It will show your team that you are standing up for them. Finally, never give up! You will encounter roadblocks and things that appear to be blocking you from accomplishing your tasks. You need to keep on going – find ways to overcome everything that is blocking you. Doing this will show your team that you are willing to stand up for them.
Nobody ever said that this manager thing was going to be easy. The good news is that others have gone before us and we can learn from what they have done in order to become better. We need find ways to motivate our teams, think independently, and become relentless. If we can do these things, then we can become a great manager.
– Dr. Jim Anderson
Blue Elephant Consulting –
Your Source For Real World IT Management Skills™
Question For You: When you face an obstacle, do you think that you should tell your team about it?
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What We’ll Be Talking About Next Time
As a manager, you are called upon to to use your manager skills to interact with a lot of different people. Some of those people may be on your team and some won’t. Some of those people will be easy to get along with and some will, how shall I say this, be difficult to get along with. When it comes to these difficult people you can both avoid them and make it harder to get your job done or you can find ways to be compassionate towards them in the hopes that you’ll be able to work with them. No, it’s not going to be easy and you don’t have any manager training on how to do this, but the payoff will be worth the effort.