DNA OF A GREAT MANAGER
Greatness is not a cap your
wear or take off for the rain or sun. It must come genuinely and spontaneously
from within. You must possess it as dear and give it to others joyously not as
a sense of compulsion to toe the company’s HR policy.
- Enjoy helping people grow. Few things feel better than helping someone who is new to a role, or who has been struggling, into becoming a productive, confident person. There’s a kind of satisfaction in helping someone figure out how to be successful that doesn’t come from many other living experiences. Great mangers love seeing this happen on their teams.
- Love creating positive environments. A
great manager creates a team and and office environment that makes it easy
for smart people to do good things. They love that moment when they wander
the halls and see all sorts of amazing things happening all on their own,
with passionate, motivated people doing good work without much involvement
from the manager.
- Want to correct mistakes inflicted on them. Some
great managers are looking to undo the evil managers they had. Rather than
take it out on their subordinates, they want to do a kind of pay it
forward revenge: prove to themselves and the world that it can be better
that what happened to them in the past. This can create the trap of
fighting the last war: your team may not care at all about avoiding the
mistakes of your previous manager. They want to avoid the mistakes you,
and your blind spots, are probably making right now.
- Care deeply about the success and well being of their
team. Thoroughbred horses get well cared for.
Their owners see them as an expensive asset and do whatever they can to
optimize their health, performance, and longevity, even if their
motivations are largely selfish. A great manager cares deeply about their
staff, and goes out of his way to protect, train, care for, and reward
their own team, even if their primary motivation is their own success.
- Succession mentality. A
successful manager eventually realizes their own leadership will end one
day, but if they teach and instill the right things into people who work
for them, that philosophy can live on for a long time, long after the
manager is gone. This can go horribly wrong but the desire to have a
lasting impact generally helps people think on longer term cycles and pay
attention to wider trends short term managers do not notice.
- Long term sense of reward. Many
of the mistakes managers make involve reaping short term rewards at the
expense of long term loyalty and morale. Any leader who inverts this
philosophy, and makes short term sacrifices to provide long term gains,
will generally be a much better manager. They recognize the value of
taking the time to explain things, to build trust, to provide training,
and to build relationships, all of which results in a kind of team
performance and loyalty the short term manager never believes is possible.
- Practice of the golden rule. It’s
funny how well
known this little gem is, and rare in life people follow it.
But I think anyone in power who believes in it, and treats all of their
employees the same way they truly would want to be treated, or even
better, treats employees as they actually want to be treated, will always
be a decent, above average manager. A deeply moral person can’t help but
do better than most people, as treating people with respect, honesty and
trust are the 3 things I suspect most people wish they could get from
their bosses.
- Self aware, including
weaknesses. This is the kicker. Great leaders know what
they relish and are proficient in , and either work on those skills or
hire people they know make up for their own weaknesses, and empower them
to do so. This tiny little bit of self-awareness makes them open to
feedback and criticism to new areas they need to work on, and creates an
example for movement in how people should be growing and learning about
new things.
- Sets tone of healthy debate and criticism. If the
boss gives and takes feedback well, everyone else will too. If the boss is
defensive, passive-aggressive, plays favorites, or does other things that
work against the best idea winning, everyone else will play these
destructive games. Only a boss who sees their own behavior as a model the
rest of the organization will tend to follow can ever become a truly great
manager. Without this, they will always wonder why the team behaves in
certain unproductive ways that are strangely familiar.
- Willing to fight, but picks their battles. Great
managers are not cowards. They are willing to stake their reputation and
make big bets now and then (I’d say at least once a year, as a totally
random, put possibly useful stake in the ground). However they are not
crazy either. They are good at doing political math and seeing which
battle is worth the fight at a given time. A manager that never fights can
never be great – they will never have enough skin in the game to earn the
deepest level of respect of the people that work for them. But a manager
that always fights is much worse. They continually put their own ego ahead
of what their team is capable of.
WHAT DO THE TRULY GREAT MANAGERS BELIEVE IN?
- To be a
GREAT manager one must be a manager of self-first. Remember that those who
are under your supervision are the backbone of your company. Treat them
with respect and dignity. The Law of Mutual Exchange demands that you do.
When you pick up one end of the stick, you get the end opposite also.
- To be a
GREAT manager one must first be a student. Learn from those under your
supervision. No man is an island unto himself. Realize that every employee
is a never ending, vast supply of human potential. Tap the supply while
opportunity is ripe.
- Every
human being is a diamond in the rough waiting to be brought to full
brilliance. As a GREAT manager, you must help to develop every facet until
the whole person emerges.
4.
Managers believe that people are innately good.
Without this core belief and faith in people, great management is not possible.
5.
Managers believe that “empowerment” comes from within,
and has more to do with self-motivation and innate talent than with the
acceptance of authority. They get their cues from the person, not from the task or process.
6.
To be a GREAT manager, your first priority is to be a
GREAT teacher.
7.
Managers believe that the people they manage are more
than capable of creating a better future. They hold great faith and trust in
the four-fold human capacities of physical ability, intellect, emotion, and
spirit.
8.
Managers believe in the power of positive, affirmative
thinking, and they have a low tolerance for negativity. They are confident and
eternal optimists.
9.
Managers believe it is their job to remove barriers
and obstacles so people can attain the level of greatness they are destined
for. They believe that “can’t” is a temporary state of affairs, and that
everything is only impossible until the first person does it.
10.
Managers believe that their legacy will be in the other people
they have helped to achieve worthwhile and meaningful goals. They believe that
success is measured in people who thrive and prosper.
A GREAT manager is one who others will want to follow. Not because
he is their manager, but because of what he stands for.
With best compliments
Dr Wilfred Monteiro
