Management with a smile !

My title may surprise you, but luckily enough, management with a smile is a growing trend in companies, especially those which care about reducing staff turnover and increasing efficiency. 

Certain professions aside, it’s important to bear one simple idea in mind: work is not a life-or-death situation! However, some managers seem not to have taken this on board, and the worst of them instil a culture of fear. At best, managers like these fail to deal with pressure, a little like a pilot in difficulty announcing… “your attention please, we’re all going to diiiiiiiiie!” 

To understand what management with a smile is all about, you need to read Emile Zola… and do the exact opposite to the 19th century bosses he describes! Or read this article!

Keeping a smile on your face, staying optimistic no matter what and maintaining a good mood however tough things get are all virtues in a manager.

1- Build people up, don’t stress them out

Have you ever tried to get a lasting, structured result from a child by yelling at them? You may think that paternalistic management is a concept of the past. Fair point - however, resentment and humiliation have the same impact at 8 or at 45 years old: you do what you’ve been told, but your heart isn’t in it and, as soon as you get the chance, you take revenge! In a company, this means you lose your motivation and then you leave your job.

Maintaining a pleasant mood, no matter what, helps get the best out of your team since it makes them feel you value them and are treating them as adults not children. Smiling at your staff ensures they will fully engage with their work and stay loyal. Work is made up of three elements: its inherent interest, the pay, and the work environment, of which management is a part. Having a manager who makes you want to work for them is like choosing a friend: people will always go for buddies who are optimistic and have fun rather than whiners! And from a manager’s point of view, it’s always nicer to see a smile rather than a scowl on your staff’s faces…

2- Earn respect, don’t foster fear 

Here’s a story about dogs… yes, really. I know people talk about the rat race, but it can be a dog’s life at work too. So let’s look at the chihuahua and the pitbull. The former never stops barking but without really acting on it; the latter is far from friendly, but has no need to bark like crazy to gain people’s respect, and that makes all the difference. Not smiling, paradoxically, makes you look patronizing to your team and involuntarily reveals your weaknesses and doubts.  Personally, if I get into trouble, I’d rather have a pitbull by my side than a chihuahua! 

Managers no longer work in a fairly mindless top-down style, believing that their authority is enough to limit staff turnover and motivate people. Today, people skills are one of the keys to good management and managers who confuse authority and high-handedness have become an anachronism.

3- Optimize your energy, don’t waste it

As everybody knows, it takes more effort to yell than to smile! I have often wondered how stressed-out, borderline hysterical managers do it. We’ve all met at least one of them in our lives. And although we tell ourselves they’re pathetic, they can still ruin our lives… and often their own. A manager who responds to a problem by yelling isn’t looking for a solution, but at best someone to blame and at worse a way to salve their conscience: “If I yell, it proves I’m not guilty”. This attitude is often strongly linked to an inability to empathize or listen. Whereas smiling whatever’s going on shows a manager is looking for a solution. OK… sometimes it’s not that easy to keep smiling if a coworker has really messed up. However, the ability to stay calm should be tested as part of any recruitment process. A coworker who has made a mistake feels guilty enough without their manager making it worse. Maintaining a positive attitude sends the message “how can we fix this and stop it happening again?” whereas the attitude of a boss who yells is counter-productive and can even go against the company’s own interests.

4- Smiling goes a long way

Any manager’s best ambassadors are their staff, both inside and outside of the company. And would any company choose to promote 19th century values in public? I’m sure you’ve been at dinner with friends who thought hanging would be too good for their managers. And of course, this has an impact on the company’s good name. Recently, a friend was telling me about their irritable manager, probably a regular drug user given how jittery they are. My initial thought, after sympathizing over the daily victimization, was to wonder how a company could hire this kind of maniac. I’m looking for work at the moment, and will clearly never apply there. For sure, a bad manager can have a catastrophic impact on a company’s image. The worse they behave, the greater the effect.

HR and public relations departments should sometimes work together since the first and cheapest communication channel of any company is its staff!

5- Teams take after their managers

One of my managers at TF1 once said to me “Ga?l, as a manager, you are allowed to have one bad mood a year, and it has to happen at home!” A team can’t be efficient without an efficient manager just as a team can’t be happy without a happy manager. On the other hand, even if a manager is seething inside for professional or personal reasons, they must never get aggressive. As the saying goes “you reap what you sow”… be a grouchy manager, and you’ll spawn a hysterical team! Smile and stay even-tempered and your staff will feel galvanized and motivated. In my view, as well as smiling, a manager needs to set fair rules which suit each team member and make people their priority. Pressuring everyone for no reason is the worst thing they could do! Sometimes, spending time on something to save time later is the choice a manager needs to make.

6- Crisis management 

In your opinion, if we pick up on the example in our introduction, what would the passengers’ reaction be if their pilot starting panicking? Of course, they would panic too. In a company, it’s the same story. A manager who panics makes their team panic, turning them into an additional problem instead of a potential solution. An irritable manager, as well as failing to handle things, generates stress and a lack of motivation or, at best, the irrepressible urge to tell them to just shut up.

CONCLUSION

Management with a smile is not a na?ve concept, far from it. What would be na?ve is believing a job title is enough to engender respect and deserve the role of manager. A manager is somebody who must succeed in helping each member of their team to do their very best. This miracle can only come about in a climate of trust which means coworkers can make mistakes or take initiatives without getting yelled at. If they know that whatever they do, and whatever results it brings, there will be nothing but discussion and debriefings between mutually respectful adults… it generates so much energy!

In short: SMILE, YOU’RE ON THE JOB

Ga?l Chatelain

French version of that article

Other article : KINDNESS : THE FUTURE OF MANAGEMENT!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

?Ga?l Chatelain is a best-selling French author. His work focuses on people-centred management, well-being and the fight against sexism at work. One of his books, "Mon boss est nul, mais je le soigne" (How to Fix a Lousy Boss), launched in 2017 is still n°1 in France in the management book category. 

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