How to be an Effective Manager
You might not be a charismatic leader, but your company still needs rock-star managers
As I was wrapping up work for the day in my home office, my 6-year-old daughter burst in and grabbed my arm, dragging me to the garage. She knew what time it was. Time for daddy to be done with work so she could go ride her bike. I grabbed a book and a lawn chair while she grabbed her helmet.
“What are you reading, daddy?”
“I’m reading a book to teach me how to be a better boss,” I told her as we were walking down our driveway. She smiled and took off on her bike. I thought that was the end of the conversation, so I sat down to read while she raced through the cul-de-sac.
“Daddy, what does it mean to be a boss?”
She laid her bike on the grass and sat down next to me, forgetting her bike for the moment. Struck by this profound question coming from a 6-year-old, I took a minute to think.
“A boss leads people,” I finally said, starting with a vague statement to buy myself some time to translate all of my ideas about leadership into words she would understand.
“So you tell them what to do?”
“No, it’s more than just telling people what to do. A boss helps other people do their jobs better.”
I could tell she wasn’t completely satisfied yet, but by now, her bike was more tempting than a leadership lesson. She hopped back on her bike, while I continued to ponder our conversation.
You’ve probably worked for a boss who thinks being in charge means telling people what to do. It might even feel like you work for a 6-year-old. He thinks that being your supervisor equates to telling you how to do your job. That’s a quick way to frustrate everyone.
You don’t have to be that kind of boss. You can be the kind that helps your team succeed.
Mediocre bosses tell people what to do. Effective managers help people succeed.
You’ve probably read about the differences between a leader and a manager. You might even feel discouraged if you relate more to the get-things-done style of a manager than the charismatic, vision-driven leader.
It’s easier to praise the qualities of a leader than those of a manager. But organizations need effective managers as much as they need inspirational leaders.
If a company has too many vision-oriented leaders, they’ll end up with some captivating pictures of the future, but without strategy-driven managers, they’ll have no one to take them there. Leaders cast a vision of what the future looks like. Managers create strategies that help an organization achieve that vision. Both roles are crucial for success.
If your organization needs you to be a manager more than a leader, here’s how you can succeed in that role.
Help your team set goals that will achieve the vision
The 4 Disciplines of Execution offers the most helpful method of goal-setting I’ve seen. Your team’s workweek is already filled to the brim with tasks. Adding a goal or set of goals into the mix is a recipe for disaster. The goals get forgotten and business carries on as usual. Consider New Year’s resolutions if you need proof.
As a manager, your job is to keep the goal front-and-center. Help your team prioritize their time so they have 20% of their week available to focus exclusively on achieving the goal. They might need you to help them evaluate their workload to better understand which things are a priority and which things can wait for another day.
You can also help your team set targets that are within their control to achieve. A target of “increasing sales volume by 25%” is a good goal, but it isn’t specifically within their control. A better target would be something like, “Make 5 cold calls to prospective clients every day.” A person can’t control the outcome, but she can control certain actions.
Help your team solve problems and overcome obstacles
Your team is going to encounter problems en route to pursuing the vision. Your job is to help them see those as opportunities. Doing this changes the mindset of your team. They start focusing more on creative solutions rather than getting through the problem as quickly as possible.
Beyond a mindset shift, there are a few practical ways you can help them work through their problems.
- Offer your experience and expertise in small doses.
- Sometimes collaboration is needed. Use your relationships and network to bring in the missing piece to help work through the problem.
- Reframe the problem and possible solutions by asking the right questions.
Help your team ask the right questions
The path to success often becomes clear when you change the questions you’re asking. Most of the work your team does is the result of assumptions and questions, most of them unspoken. If your team is stuck, changing the question can often lead to a breakthrough.
The question is the answer. When you ask different questions, you get different answers. As a manager, you can help your team understand the unspoken questions they have been answering and then think creatively about better questions.
Most of their questions revolve around “how.” How are we going to accomplish the goal? How are we going to meet the deadline? How am I going to respond to all of these emails in my inbox?
“How” questions are important, but they might be leading your team down the right path to the wrong target.
Help your team take a step back and ask, “Why?” Why is this the right goal to be pursuing? Why am I spending so much time responding to email and never getting bigger projects done?
If your team is really stuck on a problem, or really struggling to make progress, use the 5 Why Technique. In the face of a problem, asking “Why?” 5 times in a row can unearth new insights.
Help your team succeed
Being an effective manager boils down to helping your team succeed. Use this as a mantra when you start work every day. Say it to yourself before you start every meeting. When you feel stuck as a manager, ask yourself the question, “How can I help my team succeed?”
When this is your priority as a manager, your mindset shifts from issuing directives to partnering in the process. You become an ally rather than an enemy. You become a guide rather than an enforcer.
Bad bosses tell people what to do. Great managers help people succeed.
