So now your in charge... What sort of manager do you want to be? Part 1

It's no secret, there are A LOT of poor managers out there, and we have all experienced them. A manager who tells you one thing then does another, promises you the world yet doesn't deliver. If it was your employee or a member of your team they wouldn't last long, so why is it ok for your manager to be like this?

To be a great manager you have to be a great leader, people will argue that these are 2 completely different things, in my opinion they go hand in hand, they can be separate for different tasks but ultimately it's hard to achieve one without the other. Leaders have people follow them, managers have people work for them, using this concept, it is far easier to be a leader than a manager right?

To be a GREAT leader you need to set examples in judgement, understanding, bearing, will power, integrity, courage and knowledge, not just some of them, ALL of them, couple this with the highest ranked qualities of a manager and what do you get... A team that works for you but will follow you with every decision, because they know your good for it and they trust you.

As a 'manager' you must know that trust with your workforce is hard gained and easily lost, it is important to be beyond reproach to ensure your credibility remains intact. This means you must be understanding to the needs of your team and each individual, your bearing must set examples for your team to replicate, you must have the will power to do the right thing, not cut corners or play the system to your advantage just because apparently 'you earned the right' by being promoted, you must have the integrity to step up when a decision YOU made didn't work out.... hang on, these are the qualities of a LEADER..... EXACTLY!! Like I said, hand in hand.

In my opinion MANAGEMENT IS - Getting someone to do something that you want done, because they want to do it. Read it a couple of times and think about what that actually means.

So let’s look at management, what sort of manager are you, what sort of manager should you be? Too autocratic and you will lose your team, a team with no autonomy is a team of robots that just do what they are told, they never use their creativity and they will never develop to their full potential, if you are an autocratic manager you probably don’t have any idea of your teams potential anyway. Too Laissez-faire and your team could be running around like headless chickens, getting above themselves and your respect will most likely be lost as it would seem that you make no decisions at all, it could also portray laziness. Laissez-faire styles are more for mentors than managers and certainly not leaders.

So where do you want to be? In the middle? Not at all, you need to be both ends of the scale and everything in-between, the key is knowing when to adopt a certain style for certain tasks.

You can't become a good manager over night by reading the different management styles and simply adopting one, it takes a lot of time and learning, testing and adjusting. It’s a perception in business that you have been promoted because you have learnt this on your way up the ladder, it’s not the case, you may have learnt some of it, in pieces, but never in context and that’s where the problem lies, the fact a manager is poor is probably because of the manager above them and so on, not to mention the culture of the business. In my opinion this is the main reason why poor management even exists.

Management is a whole manner of expertise moulded in to one 'category', coaching, mentoring, counselling, leading, experience, and knowledge and so on and so on. Some can be learned, some can come natural, some need experience but ultimately EVERYBODY has the potential to be a great manager, it’s about getting the opportunity and taking it whilst learning CONSTANTLY. I am not the all-knowing, I know that there is much to be learned, from the managing director right down to the lowest level, there is opportunities to learn at every level, shared knowledge may just be the key to success.

One last thing to think about when striving to become a great manager, you need to be STRONG and that means UP as well as down, imagine your team like your children, be their voice, be strong for them, you are the link between senior managers and your team and it is your duty to protect them when they need it, if it is warranted obviously. Master this and they would follow you to the end of the earth.

There is a new age of management coming up through the ranks and it will change the face of business. In my time as a manager I have lead and managed teams and individuals in business, in the military and in war. I also achieved a 340% increase in lead generation in 3 months, simply by changing the way we interacted and involved our teams, it wasn't an accident.

This post merely scratches the surface of management but hopefully it gets you intruiged enough to want to learn more (If you dont already know it, this post is not meant to be condescending in any way).

In my next post I will talk about getting the best out of individuals and teams, helping them reach their full potential for the benefit of themselves with a huge benefit to the business as a by-product.