This document provides 23 tips for becoming a great manager. It covers topics such as business understanding, defining goals, planning skills, delegation skills, decision making skills, building a management system, interpersonal skills, analytic skills, presentation skills, problem solving skills, time management skills, motivation skills, communication skills, recruitment skills, training skills, employee relationship skills, feedback systems, giving clear instructions, performance management skills, accepting responsibility, and getting comfortable with conflict. Each tip is accompanied by additional explanation and related resources for further reading.
4. Best materials for you:
- Top 32 management books of all time
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FIRST EDITION NOV2017 - JobGuide247.info
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Best tips on how to become a great manager (tips for new
mangers, pro managers, leaders, supervisors…)
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5. JobGuide247.info
1. Business understanding
You need to be prepared to address questions
from your direct reports that take into account
the broader landscape of the company.
From strategy to culture and HR issues, you
need to know what is happening across the
business, so you can make informed
decisions while confidently providing direction.
How do you do this? Spend time with senior
leaders and ask questions. Why is the strategy
what it is? Why have certain decisions been
made? What can your team do to support
other parts of the business?
Businessunderstanding
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Related tools: BSC model, BCG model, McKinsey 7s model
6. JobGuide247.info
2. Define goals of your division
When your people don't
have clear goals, they
muddle through their day.
They can't be productive if
they have no idea what
they're working for, or what
their work means. They also
can't prioritize their
workload effectively,
meaning that projects and
tasks get completed in the
wrong order.
How to?
Avoid this mistake by
learning how to set
SMART goals for your
team. Also, use
principles from
Management by
Objectives
(MBO technique) to
align your team's goals
to the mission of the
organization.
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7. 3. Define goals of your employees
Once you have identified
your department's goals, you
need to identify goals and
targets for each employee.
The fastest way to derail
your employees' engine is to
leave them in the dark
without goals and directives.
Your employees will have
few challenges and even
less motivation.
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income-off-all-time.html
8. 3. Define goals of your employees
You must meet with your
employees to develop
attainable goals, to help
them understand what is
expected of them, and to
give them a vision to work
toward. Not only should you
work with them to set the
goals, but also to achieve
the goals.
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learner.html
9. 4. The 80/20 Rule
You should learn what the
80/20 rule is all about. This
rule states that 20% of your
tasks will give you 80% of
the results. You need to
follow this rule if you want to
take your business or
management skills to the
next level.
JobGuide247.info9
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10. 4. The 80/20 Rule (con…)
Focus your attention on the
tasks that are the most
profitable for you or that take
the most time so you can get
the most out of the day as
soon as possible. Remember
also that you need to delegate
these tasks as much as you
can so you can free up time for
other tasks. This will allow you
to focus your attention on the
things that matter most to you.
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Planning is the first and
most important step in any
management task. It also is
the most often overlooked
or purposely skipped step.
While the amount of
planning and the detail
required will vary from task
to task, to skip this task is
to invite sure disaster
except by blind luck.
Although most people
associate the term
planning with general
business planning, there
are also different levels of
planning: Strategic
Planning, Tactical
Planning, Operational
Planning
5. Planning skills
1 2
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12. 6. Delegating skills
Some managers don't
delegate, because they feel
that no-one apart from
themselves can do key jobs
properly. This can cause
huge problems as work
bottlenecks around them,
and as they become
stressed and burned out.
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13. 6. Delegating skills
Delegation does take a lot of
effort up-front, and it can be
hard to trust your team to do
the work correctly. But unless
you delegate tasks, you're
never going to have time to
focus on the "broader-view"
that most leaders and
managers are responsible for.
What's more, you'll fail to
develop your people so that
they can take the pressure off
you.
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skills.html
14. 7. Decision making skills
What decision-making
skills do employers look
for in job applicants?
Different employers look
for different things, of
course, but decision-
making skills are sought-
after by most companies
and for many different
positions.
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15. 7. Decision making skills (con…)
In general, applicants who
can demonstrate an ability
to identify all the options
and compare them in
terms of both costs and
effectiveness have an
advantage over those who
can’t.
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making-skills.html
16. 8. Build management system
Many people think that ISO
9001 (or 9000) is a product
quality system ... that is wrong.
ISO 9001 is a comprehensive
quality management system
(work, product, service,
process).
ISO 9001 will help you to build
your operating manual,
operating procedures, work
instructions, forms, control
systems, system improvements,
etc. This is the perfect tool to
manage your department.
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17. 8. Build management system (con…)
Finally, you need to note that,
you learn ISO 9001 to manage
a department, a company. You
does not learn it to manage the
quality of products or services.
Top tools to build your
management system:
PDCA, SPC
JobGuide247.info17
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18. 9. Interpersonal Skills
Interpersonal skills are the
skills we use every day
when we communicate and
interact with other people,
both individually and in
groups.
People with strong
interpersonal skills are often
more successful in both
their professional and
personal lives.
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19. 9. Interpersonal Skills (con…)
listening, questioning and understanding body language. They
also include the skills and attributes associated with emotional
intelligence, or being able to understand and manage your own
and others’ emotions.
There are two important tools for developing interpersonal skills:
MBTI and DISC
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Interpersonal skills
include a wide variety of
skills, though many are
centred around
communication, such as
20. Smartphone
Mockup
A failure to share expectations for individuals
or the team as a whole can backfire on the
manager. Encouraging the team to merely
“sell more” or “save money” fails to
communicate the steps that must be taken to
generate higher sales or reduce expenses.
Authors Fred Kuglin and Ray Wood say that
understanding the organization’s profit & loss
structure can assist managers in directing
employees and tasks for maximum results.
Effectively using information helps managers
to connect the dots between internal process
and external results.
10. Analytic skills
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21. This is a festive titlePresentation skills, used in the context of
business, refers to all the qualities you'll
need to embody to create and deliver a
clear and effective oral presentation.
Your prospective employer may want you
to deliver briefings and reports to
colleagues, conduct training sessions,
present information to clients, or any
number of other possible tasks including
speaking before large audiences.
11. Presentation skills
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skills.html
22. 12. Problem solving skills
In nearly every sector,
problem solving is one of
the key skills that
employers seek in job
applicants. It is hard to find
a blue collar, administrative,
managerial, or professional
position that doesn't require
problem solving skills of
some kind.
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skills.html
23. 13. Time management skills
Employees who manage their time well
are more productive, more efficient, and
more likely to meet deadlines.
They focus on the most important and
time sensitive tasks and limit the amount
of time wasted on non-essential duties.
Effective time management requires staff
to analyze their workload, assign priorities,
and maintain focus on productive
endeavors. Employees who are excellent
time managers can eliminate distractions
and enlist support from colleagues to help
accomplish their goals.
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management.html
24. If your sales figures reached or exceeded expectations
last month, don't bask in the glory alone. Acknowledge
all who had a hand in the success. Nothing motivates
like praise and rewards, and there are multiple ways you
can reward your staff without breaking the bank. For
instance, you can take the top-performing employees
out on an exclusive offsite at your weekend home, get
tickets to a sporting event or concert, or even a night on
the town. Building this kind of rapport can reap huge
rewards for building momentum and loyalty.
14. Motivation skills
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motivation.html
25. 15. Communication skills
The ability to communicate
effectively with superiors,
colleagues, and staff is essential,
no matter what industry you work
in. Workers in the digital age must
know how to effectively convey
and receive messages in person
as well as via phone, email, and
social media. What skills do
employers look for? Which
communication skills will help
ensure your success?
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communicator.html
26. Choose the right person. A new manager usually has a
lot on his plate, but no matter how busy he is, he would
do right by getting to know the members of his team.
Each person on a team has particular skills and
experiences. Knowing these skills will help when it
comes time to delegating tasks to the right person. For
instance, knowing that a certain employee has
experience in design software means a manager will
know whom to delegate design-related tasks to, or a
manager might delegate a database update to
someone on the team who is an Excel whiz.
16. Recruitment skills
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effectively.html
27. 17. Training skills
Develop your staff. People want to
feel like they have growth
opportunities at their job. Whether
it’s offering high performers a
management position at a new
location, or implementing a bonus
program for people who go above
and beyond (like putting in extra
hours to help set up for an event),
investing in your employees builds
their confidence and drive.
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effectively.html
28. 17. Training skills (con…)
You might also consider offering
professional development
opportunities for your staff. If
you own a coffee shop, for
example, send your employees
to a workshop on latte art or the
latest barista techniques. You
might also consider footing the
bill for additional certifications
for employees who want to
advance. It’s an investment,
yes, but having valuable
employees on board will help
you scale your business faster.
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29. 18. Employee relationship skills
Developing a relationship with
reporting employees is a key
factor in managing. You don't
want to be your employees'
divorce counselor or therapist,
but you do want to know what's
happening in their lives. When
you know where the employee
is going on vacation or that his
kids play soccer, you are taking
a healthy interest in your
employees' lives.
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30. 18. Employee relationship skills
Knowing that the dog died,
expressing sympathy, or that
her daughter won a coveted
award at school make you an
interested, involved boss.
Knowing employees will make
you a better manager, a
manager who is more
responsive to employee needs,
moods, and life cycle events.
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31. Do not be too friendly
Most of us want to be seen as friendly
and approachable to people in our
team. After all, people are happier
working for a manager that they get on
with. However, you'll sometimes have
to make tough decisions regarding
people in your team, and some people
will be tempted to take advantage of
your relationship if you're too friendly
with them.
This doesn't mean that you can't
socialize with your people. But, you do
need to get the balance right between
being a friend and being the boss.
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19. Providing or receiving feedback system
2
3
1 -- it behooves
leaders to gain
their tribe's
trust by coming
to them first for
input, buy-in,
advice, and
strategy.
This fosters a
culture of trust,
questioning and
creativity, where
followers feel safe
enough to
contribute ideas and
share concerns that
have value and can
help resolve
situations.
Since employees
are the ones most
intimately
acquainted to how
things are going
on in the trenches
-- with customers,
processes, etc.
32
33. 20. Give clear instructions.
Managers fail to create
standards and give people
clear expectations so they
know what they are
supposed to do, and
wonder why they fail. If
you make every task a
priority, people will soon
believe that there are no
priorities. More
importantly, they will never
feel as if they have
accomplished a complete
task or goal.
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34. 20. Give clear instructions (con…).
Within your clear
expectations, if you are
either too rigid or too
flexible, your reporting
employees will feel
rudderless. You need to
achieve an appropriate
balance that allows you to
lead employees and
provide direction without
dictating and destroying
employee empowerment
and employee
engagement.
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35. This is a festive title
Successful performance management is
multifaceted and tailored to each individual
employee and their job role.
Performance management involves the
planning of personal objectives, the
implementation of these objectives, tracking
progress to ensure there are clear steps
being taken towards achieving the
objectives, and using regular performance
reviews to evaluate progress.
You must build KPI (key performance
indicators) system in your department.
21. Performance management skills
36. 22. Accept responsibility.
Simply put, if you make a mistake,
own up to it. Don't be tempted to
pass the blame onto employees if
it's your error, as this can cause
you to lose credibility and trust with
your staff.
However, if you accept
responsibility for your own errors,
your staff is more likely to respect
and support you, and therefore will
work harder for you. Once you've
taken responsibility, proactively
address your mistake to correct it
and to ensure that it doesn't
happen again. JobGuide247.info36
37. 23. Get comfortable with conflict
If you're in
management for a
while, you'll find you
have plenty. Best
neither to avoid it nor
steamroll it, but to learn
to deal with it fairly and
diplomatically. Think of
"resolving" more than
"winning." Effectively
managing conflict is a
critical skill for
successful managers
to have.
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38. 24. Listening skills
One respondent puts it this way:
"It is not the inability to listen but the
inability to 'hear' what their team
[members] are saying to them."
The lack of active and respectful
listening, and two-way communication
-- sending without receiving -- is a
clear shortcoming for many. I have
written about how this type of
"authentic listening" may be the most
underutilized and underdeveloped
leadership skill you will find in
entrepreneurs.
JobGuide247.info38
Useful post: http://www.jobguide247.info/2017/11/top-8-tips-to-improve-listening-
skills.html
39. 25. Starting your day without a plan of action
Time management plays a
large role in your day-to-
day and long-term
success. This entails doing
the right things efficiently.
Other people will take all
your time if you let them,
so you must begin each
day with a clear idea of
allotted personal time and
employee time.
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40. 26. Getting out of balance with your life
Attention workaholics:
there's more to life than
work. You have health,
family, financial, spiritual,
intellectual, and social
pursuits and aspects in your
life. If you spend a sufficient
quantity and quality of time
in each area, you should
feel happy and productive
at work. It's when you
neglect one or more areas
in your life that other areas,
especially your work life
starts to show signs of
suffering. JobGuide247.info40
41. 27. Not enough leadership
To many leaders focus too much on
management and too little on
leadership. That is mainly because
managers are taught to use
management tools, of which many
exist.
Leadership, on the other hand, is
hard to teach, springing as it does
from many personal qualities. And,
compared to the great quantity of
management tools, few leadership
tools are available to the manager.
One of the few – and one of the
most effective – is storytelling.
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leader.html
42. This is a festive titleAll change in organizations is challenging,
but perhaps the most daunting is
changing culture. When people in an
organization realize and recognize that
their current organizational culture needs
to transform to support the organization’s
success and progress, change can occur.
28. Ignoring current corporate culture
43. 29. Don’t overuse meetings
Conducting too many
meetings is another
common management
mistake that hurts
employee productivity.
Meetings are a great
way to address issues
and set expectations
with your team, but it
can also interrupt the
daily flow and waste a
lot of time if not
managed properly.
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44. 29. Don’t overuse meetings
Great leaders use meetings
sparingly. When a meeting is
necessary, try creating an
agenda that you share with
everyone prior to the
meeting. Make sure to follow
the agenda, and keep the
conversations centered on a
specific topic. The more
efficiently you run meetings,
the more productive your
team will be and the less
likely you are to run into
communication errors.
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45. 30. Find a mentor
One of the first steps you should take is
to find a mentor that you can go to
when you have questions or need
support. Find someone who has
excelled at being the type of manager
you want to be; ideally someone who
has experience handling a diverse set
of situations, so you can understand
first hand the pros and cons for
handling certain situations certain
ways.
How do you do this? Look across
your company or outside your company
(perhaps someone you worked with in
a previous job) and approach them and
see if they would be willing to help out. JobGuide247.info45
46. 31. Conflict management skills
It’s hard to avoid conflict
entirely, both in the
workplace and elsewhere in
life. It’s human nature to
disagree. In fact,
eliminating conflict entirely
would cause its own
problems: there would be
no diversity of opinion and
no way for us to catch and
correct flawed plans and
policies.
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management-skills.html
47. 31. Conflict management skills (con…)
But poor communication or
interpersonal tension can
easily cause simple
disagreements to flare up into
resentment or worse.
Conflicts that are allowed to
fester and grow will ultimately
diminish productivity and
damage staff morale. This is
why employers seek
employees with the skills to
manage and diffuse conflict.
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48. 32. Critical thinking skills
Critical thinking involves the
evaluation of sources such as data,
facts, observable phenomenon, and
research findings. Good critical
thinkers can draw reasonable
conclusions from a set of information
and discriminate between useful and
less useful details for solving a
problem or making a decision.
Critical thinkers can present coherent
reasons for adopting a position and
debunk faulty reasoning regarding a
proposal or assertion.
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49. 33. Organize skills
A manager must be able to
organize teams, tasks, and
projects in order to get the
team's work done in the
most efficient and effective
manner.
As a beginning manager,
you may be organizing a
small work team or a project
team. These same skills will
be required later in your
career when you have to
organize a department or a
new division of the company.
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50. 33. Organize skills (con…)
Clearly, there is a lot of
overlap between planning
the work and in organizing
it. Where planning focuses
on what needs to be done,
organization is more
operational and is more
focused on how to get the
work done best.
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