Good Management

Being the leader of a team, whether it is an entire office or a small task group requires specific traits and the ability to understand your employees.

The team leader is responsible for the productivity of the group, but also the well being and satisfaction of the members.

“It can be easy to be a demanding leader, but harder to be an inspirational mentor.”

In order to be an effective manager, you must know your team. Placing the correct employees into the roles that best fit there strengths is a good start, but they also should be encouraged to grow and work on weaknesses. If you are in charge of a specific department you must be the in house expert on that specific field. You cannot be the manager of a team who know the subject matter better than you, so let them teach you what they know in order to grow as a team and become a better manager. The best way to learn is to teach, as a manager you must foster an atmosphere of growth and innovation, never let your team stagnate or slow the evolution of the group. Everyone should be sharing there ideas and techniques in order to make co-workers stronger and more effective. It is the managers job to know the strengths and ideals of each employee, understand there feelings on the position which they are working in. Never let employees feel undervalued, it is your job not only to demand excellence and productivity but also reward for that work being done satisfactorily.

Do Not Put Unqualified People in Charge

It is important above all to promote the right people. It is discouraging to see a co-worker move ahead of you by way of a personal relationship rather then merit and hard work. Employees must be encouraged to speak up whether to and among co-workers or directly to the managers, and without fear of negative repercussions. The successful manager should never take criticism personally, but use it as an advantage and a way to better understand your team members. The brightest people in history are on a never ending journey of learning, no matter how much knowledge you have there is always more to be gained. Too often the good ole boy system is the driving factor of upward movement in companies and business divisions. It should need not saying that sexism, racism, ageism should never effect managerial decisions and every member of your team should feel comfortable and encouraged to share there ideas on improvement.

Strategies should be put in place to allow the open discussion of operational techniques and areas for improvement. Whether it be an open door policy, weekly discussions or meetings, a comment box, or a periodic meeting with individual employees to discuss such matters.