Post by Why Companies Have So Few Good on Nov 6, 2024 2:03:16 GMT -5
Today, a manager is expected to perform the functions of a coach - he must be part of the team, help employees in their work, mentor, and engage in their professional and career advancement. In this case, each subordinate individually will show high work results, and the team will fulfill and exceed plans. In fact, most managers do not cope with this task. Let's figure out why this happens?
Read also
For information on how to take your first steps as a manager, read the article “And Now You’re the Boss. A Guide for Newcomers”
Read more
Who is a manager?
If you look in the dictionary, you can find the definition of the term "Manager". It sounds like this: a person who directs the activities of other people. Today, the requirements for a manager can be described as follows:
plan the work of the department,
distribute tasks among team members,
set work standards,
provide a productive environment,
control the results of the team's work,
motivate staff for professional development.
The better a manager is at working with people – helping them in their work and development – the higher the results of the department’s work will be.
Guide employees
There are a huge number of tools, approaches, and techniques that allow you to achieve high results from your team. First of all, these shopify website design
are personal meetings . The manager should meet with each team member on a weekly basis and discuss current projects, career and professional plans.
For this and other reasons, the famous American business strategist Fred Reichheld writes in his book The Ultimate Question 2.0 that a team under one manager should not include more than ten people. Ideally, up to seven. In this case, working with the team will be most fruitful. Often, saving on management, companies inflate the staff of one department to 20 employees or more. In this case, it will be difficult to establish communication with each team member. In this case, the manager should hold meetings with each specialist once every two weeks.
Inform the team
Another important part of a manager's job is to be a liaison between senior management and their goals and the team.
The manager should set aside time for meetings with employees to discuss everything that is happening in the company. The team should be explained what goals the company currently has and how they are transmitted to the department and to each employee personally. The staff should also be kept informed of all changes occurring in the company or department. And it is imperative to collect feedback - has it become more convenient to work, what could be done differently, what else can be done, and so on.
Top management should inform the company's team about major changes or important events using PR tools: through articles and news on the corporate portal, mailings or video messages. However, after that, the manager must definitely "talk" the news to his team. The team trusts the words of their immediate supervisor more and will be more quickly imbued with ideas or goals if they are additionally voiced during the meeting.
Provide a productive environment
Finally, the team will show high results only if the "environment" is conducive to this. The manager's job is to distribute tasks among employees in such a way that subordinates are not overloaded and do not stay late after work, so that the assigned tasks are within their capabilities - in accordance with their professional level. Finally, the manager's direct responsibility is to provide the team with resources to complete the work. Working without the right tools, materials or information results in enormous stress. Stanford organizational behavior professor Jeffrey Pfeffer in his book "Dying for the Paycheck" comes to the conclusion that the most detrimental effect on people in terms of stress is work with insufficient resources.
Thus, managers are an important link in realizing the company's needs through the efforts of their team.
Read also
What skills are expected from managers working with remote employees today, read in the article “What a distributed team manager should be able to do. Tips and checklist”
Read more
The leader is not the performer
The manager's management functions are quite extensive and take up a lot of time: planning the work of the department in accordance with the plans issued, preparing and holding personal and team meetings, analyzing and improving the work of the department, filling out reports and answering to senior management for the work of the team can eat up to 60% of the time.
Problems arise when the manager's job responsibilities are replete with executor duties. If the manager works "full time" as an executor along with his subordinates, he will stay after the end of the working day to deal with "bureaucracy". There will simply not be enough time for the team. As a result, the department will have a "stressed out" manager and a team that is not developing. Of course, this will affect the department's results.
The main task of the manager is to manage the team. Therefore, the manager's job responsibilities must be "cleaned". The manager is allowed to participate in work projects, but in a limited amount, so that it does not interfere with the management of the department.
Manager without management competencies
The scenario when a strong specialist, with successfully implemented projects and merits, gets the manager's chair is very popular. Problems, as a rule, begin immediately. Such a manager knows everything about how to complete tasks, but "swims" in matters of team management.
In practice, it often looks like this: a new manager distributes tasks between subordinates and begins to actively participate in their implementation. As a professional, he sees shortcomings, pitfalls, and he rushes to get around them by interfering in the work of a subordinate. Micromanagement is obvious. Needless to say, such an approach will lead to a decrease in loyalty and productivity of the team, and as a result, to a deterioration in the business results of the department.
Read also
For information on how to take your first steps as a manager, read the article “And Now You’re the Boss. A Guide for Newcomers”
Read more
Who is a manager?
If you look in the dictionary, you can find the definition of the term "Manager". It sounds like this: a person who directs the activities of other people. Today, the requirements for a manager can be described as follows:
plan the work of the department,
distribute tasks among team members,
set work standards,
provide a productive environment,
control the results of the team's work,
motivate staff for professional development.
The better a manager is at working with people – helping them in their work and development – the higher the results of the department’s work will be.
Guide employees
There are a huge number of tools, approaches, and techniques that allow you to achieve high results from your team. First of all, these shopify website design
are personal meetings . The manager should meet with each team member on a weekly basis and discuss current projects, career and professional plans.
For this and other reasons, the famous American business strategist Fred Reichheld writes in his book The Ultimate Question 2.0 that a team under one manager should not include more than ten people. Ideally, up to seven. In this case, working with the team will be most fruitful. Often, saving on management, companies inflate the staff of one department to 20 employees or more. In this case, it will be difficult to establish communication with each team member. In this case, the manager should hold meetings with each specialist once every two weeks.
Inform the team
Another important part of a manager's job is to be a liaison between senior management and their goals and the team.
The manager should set aside time for meetings with employees to discuss everything that is happening in the company. The team should be explained what goals the company currently has and how they are transmitted to the department and to each employee personally. The staff should also be kept informed of all changes occurring in the company or department. And it is imperative to collect feedback - has it become more convenient to work, what could be done differently, what else can be done, and so on.
Top management should inform the company's team about major changes or important events using PR tools: through articles and news on the corporate portal, mailings or video messages. However, after that, the manager must definitely "talk" the news to his team. The team trusts the words of their immediate supervisor more and will be more quickly imbued with ideas or goals if they are additionally voiced during the meeting.
Provide a productive environment
Finally, the team will show high results only if the "environment" is conducive to this. The manager's job is to distribute tasks among employees in such a way that subordinates are not overloaded and do not stay late after work, so that the assigned tasks are within their capabilities - in accordance with their professional level. Finally, the manager's direct responsibility is to provide the team with resources to complete the work. Working without the right tools, materials or information results in enormous stress. Stanford organizational behavior professor Jeffrey Pfeffer in his book "Dying for the Paycheck" comes to the conclusion that the most detrimental effect on people in terms of stress is work with insufficient resources.
Thus, managers are an important link in realizing the company's needs through the efforts of their team.
Read also
What skills are expected from managers working with remote employees today, read in the article “What a distributed team manager should be able to do. Tips and checklist”
Read more
The leader is not the performer
The manager's management functions are quite extensive and take up a lot of time: planning the work of the department in accordance with the plans issued, preparing and holding personal and team meetings, analyzing and improving the work of the department, filling out reports and answering to senior management for the work of the team can eat up to 60% of the time.
Problems arise when the manager's job responsibilities are replete with executor duties. If the manager works "full time" as an executor along with his subordinates, he will stay after the end of the working day to deal with "bureaucracy". There will simply not be enough time for the team. As a result, the department will have a "stressed out" manager and a team that is not developing. Of course, this will affect the department's results.
The main task of the manager is to manage the team. Therefore, the manager's job responsibilities must be "cleaned". The manager is allowed to participate in work projects, but in a limited amount, so that it does not interfere with the management of the department.
Manager without management competencies
The scenario when a strong specialist, with successfully implemented projects and merits, gets the manager's chair is very popular. Problems, as a rule, begin immediately. Such a manager knows everything about how to complete tasks, but "swims" in matters of team management.
In practice, it often looks like this: a new manager distributes tasks between subordinates and begins to actively participate in their implementation. As a professional, he sees shortcomings, pitfalls, and he rushes to get around them by interfering in the work of a subordinate. Micromanagement is obvious. Needless to say, such an approach will lead to a decrease in loyalty and productivity of the team, and as a result, to a deterioration in the business results of the department.