If you are new to the concept of being a manager or someone who is in control of a new or established business, then you need to remember that the skills needed to be an excellent individual employee are not always the same skills needed to be an excellent ‘on top of things’ type of manager. We can agree that is not an easy task regardless of the resources you may have at your disposal because you are now responsible for a team and each individual member of that team. If something was to go wrong within that group, you will have to shoulder the responsibility, address the issue and deal with it all of the same time, all as the boss. It takes time to adjust to this new, sometimes scary, position and everyone has to start from somewhere. So, on that note, here are five tips that can help with the process of becoming a manager and the best way to adapt to an increasingly high-intensity job.
1. Change your perspective
As an employee, you are expected to do your job in the best way possible and in the most efficient way that you can. But at the same time, there is a lot that goes on behind the scenes that you as the individual contributor may not realize or may not even have the time to see. Seeing that you are now responsible for the actions of a team and not to mention your own, you have to look at things in a way that will benefit the organization as a whole. Mind you, it’s okay to look on things from an employee’s perspective because it will allow you to relate better to your team, but it should not be the base factor when it comes to decision making. Your role might have changed from being the plumber sent out to fix that blocked kitchen sink, to now being the person in charge who decides which plumber is the best fit for fixing a nasty and clogged blocked toilet.
2. Communicate
In some instances, you have managers who tend to ignore this simple and most effective practice. While we can understand that it is sometimes difficult to relay information especially in a large, growing and fast-paced organization, it’s no excuse for not establishing clear lines of communication between staff members, team leaders and obviously clients, patients or customers. Information is needed so employees can do their job as best as possible and as a manager or the person making the big decisions, you have to make this possible or in the longer run, it will affect you and the company at large. You yourself have to also learn to establish communication between all employees, this idea will be touched more on in the following section.
3. Make Time for Employees
A common feature of most organizations today are complaints about the lack of employee loyalty or dedication to seeing staff develop or grow in a professional sense. What causes this? Employees have feelings and problems just like anyone else, regardless of being in a working environment or not, so being able to take some time to find out what’s going on can be more helpful than you realize. It could be a situation where these problems are affecting their work, but as a manager and as a human being able to put away your phone for 30 minutes to help your team members and talk to them on a personal level, in turn this can help to strengthen the relationship between you and your team. Make them the most important person in the room and show interest. Examples of reaching out to employees may be if you are in charge of a very important infrastructure company and you have workers who are off location in industrial factories. You should go to each factory and speak to your assembly line workers who are building your new plastic water tanks or the truck drivers who are distributing your poly rainwater tanks. Regardless of your industry, reach out to those putting in the hard yards for you and your company and create a networking chain between you and your team.
4. Acknowledge Achievements
This is one of the many ways you can get the most from your employees and the best thing about it is that it doesn’t cost you a cent. Every employee wants to do a good job and wants to get recognized in turn for that hard work. However, this does not mean that you should go around dishing out praises for every single thing they manage to do correctly. Encouragement sweetens labour and a little of it every now and then will let your team feel good knowing that their efforts are appreciated.
5. Don’t Take it too Seriously
Being a manager is no joke because you have to ensure that everyone is doing their job while making sure that all objectives are being met. At the same time, however, in order to be a successful manager you have to make the workplace fun. Fun in the sense where employees don’t look for excuses to miss work because they are comfortable and enjoy what they do. This will help to create a more stable, loyal and committed workforce.
