Four Things You Need to Be a Stand-Out Manager

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Managers in 2020 have a huge amount to deal with.

You have to lead your team through the worst pandemic since 1918, the worst recession in 300 years and a complete sea-change in how and where people work.

How can you manage all of those things while still looking after your performance and wellbeing?

Luckily, for us, we can learn a lot from a group of people whose wisdom has been battle-tested through 2,000 years of human experience. The 19 Stoic philosophers, of which the most famous are Cato, Epictetus, Seneca and Marcus Aurelius (remember Gladiator?) gave us a philosophy of personal ethics informed by its system of logic and its views on the natural world.

Here are the four fundamental virtues you can use to guide your behaviour as you lead your team through these emotionally turbulent times.

Courage

Wisdom

Justice

Moderation

This article will elaborate more on each of these critical virtues and how they relate to you as a manager.

Courage

“Circumstances don’t make the man, they only reveal him to himself.”

― Epictetus

We all have a fantastic opportunity right now to realise that we are more than we give ourselves credit for. That we have within us more qualities, grit and courage than we realise.

What has changed is the circumstances. The pandemic is having the effect of washing away the sediment that has built up around you that comes with leading a team when times are good, and life is relatively easy. The lazy habits, you fall into, the shortcuts you take.

Now is the time as a manager to find the courage to admit you don’t have all the answers. To invest time and energy is giving all of your team a voice in finding the solutions. The courageous manager embraces the uncertainty and limitations of themselves and seeks the answers to the challenges from a wider audience.

The mentally sensitive manager does not. They hide their insecurity behind a facade of self-confidence, gift of the gab and a refusal to acknowledge others opinions or ideas. The mentally sensitive manager, doesn’t admit to fear, or doubt or to not having all the answers.

The courageous manager admits to all those things and acts anyway. She asks for the thoughts and ideas of others and admits to feelings of uncertainty and doubt. She then makes a decision based on the information they have at the time and acts anyway.

As Seneca said, “Sometimes even to live is an act of courage.”

Wisdom

"It is impossible for a man to learn what he thinks he already knows."   

Epictetus

Does wisdom come with age and experience? Can you, as a new and inexperienced manager, have wisdom without experience? I think you can.

Wisdom is the ability to think and act using knowledge, experience, understanding, common sense and insight. Wisdom is associated with attributes such as unbiased judgment, compassion, experiential self-knowledge, self-transcendence and non-attachment, and virtues such as ethics and benevolence.

The wise manager is aware of what he knows and that he doesn’t know everything. An intelligent manager is wise to their emotions and knows how to control them effectively. How to use them to help rather than hinder a situation.

The wise manager is clear about their values and ethics, which provides the framework for their decisions. It helps them moderate their behaviours and choose the appropriate level of energy and commitment.

The wise manager is kind when things they go wrong, to themselves and others. They don’t seek to shout and attach blame. They seek to understand what went wrong, to evaluate and correct without blame.

Justice

"The best way of avenging thyself is to not become like the wrong-doer."

Marcus Aurelius

I’m guessing you have experienced wrong-doing—the manager who lays blame, who steals your ideas and takes the credit.

Damian Hughes, the author of Liquid Leadership and co-host of the table-topping High-Performance podcast, described middle management as “an abject lesson in frustration,” in my book Tips from the Top: How to Successfully Navigate Middle Management

He was talking about the frustration of being stuck in the middle; of having to deal with what comes down and with what’s coming up. This can put a strain on any manager as they have to interpret differing views, demands and expectations whilst ensuring a sense of justice is maintained.

The effective manager is acutely aware of the importance of justice and a sense of fairness. They realise that without that, leading is always done based on ‘role-power’ only. They know the key to long-lasting discretionary effort from the people they lead, to is be a fair and influencing manager.

That means listening to your people. It doesn’t mean you have to agree with everything they say or give in to whatever they ask, but you do have to listen. Few things challenge a person’s sense of justice than the feeling they have not been heard.

Moderation

"If one oversteps the bounds of moderation, the greatest pleasures cease to please."

Epictetus

In today’s world, we often seem to prize excess. We admire those who pursue excess, who have an excess of ambition, discipline, self-confidence, money, fame, adaptability etc.

In all things, the excess can be our undoing, though. The Stoics understood the value of moderation. They realise that most values and virtues exist on a continuum.

Take empathy, for example. On the one hand, too little empathy comes across as cold and calculating. On the other, too much can be draining, suffocating and paralysing.

For confidence, too little leads to inaction in indecision and you appearing weak. At the same time, too much can lead you to mistakes and the wrong action and coming across as arrogant.

Moderation more than ever is an essential quality of the effective manager. It will help you lead your team through the turbulence of 2020 and into whatever the new world of work looks like.

To Re-Cap

The current pandemic and the turbulent times we live in may be new to all of us, but they are not unique to humankind. By learning to embrace the four virtues that the Stoics wrote so eloquently about, you can use this period to uncover things within you that will, over your lifetime, be worth your weight in gold.

Courage, wisdom, justice and moderation are the keys to your success. You can use them to unlock what’s already inside of you.

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Anthony is the author of Tips from the Top - The Secrets of How to Successfully Navigate Middle Management Sign up to get free extracts from the book