Stop Being a Manager, be a storyteller!

Let’s begin with some hard truth! Did you know more than 50% of the people working in a certain organisation quit, because they hate their bosses? In fact, only a mere 12% of the surveyed group (according to a study of Wall Street Journal) are happy with their bosses, for helping them figure out project goals and life goals, giving them proper guidelines to complete a certain task. It is generally the guidance and reliability that executives look out for in their bosses.

Now that we have established the reason why most employees quit, let’s discuss what really makes a good manager. Leadership qualities? Being hard on your subs? Or being a friend?

It’s actually a mix of all. Even better if the manager takes his/her kids out for a luncheon! I mean, who doesn’t like free food.

Clients can be difficult to work with, we all understand that. In fact, your client is like that relative of yours, who is never happy with what you achieve in life! They always have something bad to say. In such situations, making sure that you forward the right expectations to your subs is very important. In fact, that is the most important factor to being a good manager (actually the basics need of the role).

Is being a good manager an inborn talent or it can be developed? It’s actually the latter.

People love listening to stories, haven’t we all done that as a kid? Aren’t our grandmothers stories still the favourite ones. Being a manager is similar and I say this from personal experience. If you can be the granny and tell your subs a story, which involves all the important elements you want them to cover in a certain project, consider your work done.

If your client has given you a set of pointers to work on, weave a story out of it and present it to your executives. This not just helps them understand the needs of the client better but also gives them a direction to work in.

I’ll give you an example. Say, your client X,which is an online apparel trader, wants you to provide them an analysis report on how their brand performed during their last campaign. If you pass on the exact information to your subs, they will have a hundred questions to ask, and multiple delays in the project due to lack of understanding of the research area will occur.

So, here’s how I would present it, “Our client X, is looking at getting a report by (date Y). Over the last few days, our client X had run a campaign around the launch of a new line of clothing. The campaign is over and they are pretty sure they have performed well. However, they do not have the exact numbers. So, here’s what they want us to do:

1. Find out how much buzz has their latest campaign (name of campaign) has generated.
2. Was the campaign a success? If yes, how successful was it?
3. Have people spoken good about the brand or otherwise?
4. Give examples of what has been spoken positively about and what has been spoken negatively about”… and a few more pointers.

Once you are done with providing the pointers, give them a summary, with examples of few suggestions you would give the client and set them to work!

You decide, doesn’t the latter sound much better! Try it out for yourself.