We Are Mobile First
Being a successful Business Manager doesn’t start and end with acing the selection and hiring process. It’s a living and breathing vocation that, when done well, can encourage the very best out of any team. Here are, in my opinion, the 10 essential qualities every manager needs in order to succeed.
A good leader does not rule, they train.
Employees need guidance, supervision and support in order to achieve the best possible results. A good manager facilitates this progress by challenging and encouraging every single member of the team along the way.
In order to be an efficient coach, you need to know exactly what drives each individual so that you can build a connection between individual passions and the collective mission and strategic objectives of the wider company.
Providing detailed feedback, particularly during training, is an excellent way to nurture this relationship.
Once this training is complete, however, it’s also important to take a step back to allow team members a chance to figure things out alone.
Micro-management and excessive supervision suggest a distinct lack of trust. A successful manager gives guidance, sure, but then leaves the team to carry out their tasks.
Knowing that you respect their autonomy and trust in their decision making is an easy way to empower your team members to take risks and embark on further learning whilst on the job.
The working environment has a crucial impact on the quality of the work that is being done.
It’s essential that managers thus recognise the importance of not only knowing but also taking an interest in each team member in order to create an inclusive environment that’s free of exclusions or discrimination.
Get to know your team members on an individual level and celebrate the fact that you’re made up of such unique and diverse people with different backgrounds, thoughts and experiences.
Taking a management role doesn’t mean you can sit on a pedestal and delegate everything.
A competent leader works to the same high standard that they expect from their employees. If you’re sat around exhibiting an obnoxiously lazy attitude, you’re highly likely to transfer that very same attitude to the rest of the team.
Keep busy and be driven by your ambition and your team members will soon follow suit.
Communication is as much about talking as it is actively listening.
Keep an open dialogue with each team member so that you both know you can rely on one another when it comes to problem-solving and finding solutions.
Express yourself as clearly as possible, avoiding playing the blame game or expecting everyone to know how to feel, and you’ll foster a company-wide attitude that will have a positive impact on every single department.
It’s very well overseeing projects but it’s just as important, in a managing role, to assess progress along the way.
Hold regularly informal meetings with your team members in order to discuss their goals, expectations and how you can best facilitate their progress.
Personal and professional development feed into one another so take a vested interest in your team in order to remind them that you’ve hired them for their whole being and not for a particular skill set.
It’s your job to have a clear vision of the wider company’s purpose and make decisions accordingly.
Keep your team members in the loop every step in the way, ensuring that they too recognise the strategy that you’re following in order to achieve collective goals.
By doing so, everyone paddles in the same direction.
Good organisational skills aren’t enough to successfully lead a team.
You need to back up that up with the practical application of said skills and strong technical knowledge in order to always be one step ahead.
Management is all about collaboration.
Focus on building healthy working relationships with your team leads and you’ll create the leadership foundations needed to work to and beyond your potential.
Hold group meetings. Ask for contributions. Don’t always take your own thoughts and observations as gospel.
You need to make time to listen to the opinions of your team members, of course, but you must then be able to make the final decision in order to obtain the best workable solution.
That said, it’s also important that business managers acknowledge any mistakes that they make along the way and then learn from them. We’re all fallible, after all.
Effective management takes ownership and turns each instance into lessons which they can then pass onto their employees. Your team will respect your honesty and undoubtedly learn from your example.
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Those are the 10 essential qualities every manager needs in order to succeed. Are you a Business Manager? What advice do you have for your fellow Business Managers? Tweet us and we’ll be sure to retweet the responses!
We Are Mobile First is a digital product agency based in Barcelona helping to transform businesses in a mobile-first world. Follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn and Medium to be notified of our future posts and stay up-to-date with our company news. We share weekly content on everything from how to successfully lead a software development team to blogging for developers: how to write compelling blog content.