In today's flat, lean organisations, many individual contributors believe they don't need to lead or manage. We sometimes think people can work alone, motivate themselves and solve all their problems without input from others. So why is management still important?
Because individual contributors work so hard on their own tasks, they may not be able to see the big picture as well as their managers. They may also occasionally feel discouraged and need someone to give them an outside perspective. In addition, they may need the extra training that their manager can provide. In short, everyone needs a mentor or leader. Good managers can provide important external leadership and perspective that we can't get anywhere else.
First-line and middle managers may also need more professional development and encouragement to be successful in their roles. They could benefit from learning more about the responsibilities of management, the impact of their manager and specific skills they can improve to be more effective.
Here are 7 ways managers can positively influence their team members and play a significant role in their working lives.
Build loyalty
When employees reflect on the importance of management in their career development, they often remember managers who truly care about them. Showing that you care is the number one way managers can build loyalty among team members. This can be encountered in a number of ways.
Regular one-to-one meetings: schedule a personal conversation with your team members at least once a month, if not more often, to help them solve problems, find out how they want to progress in their careers and learn more about them.
Support them in times of failure: all people need some level of unconditional support. If you only praise great successes, your team members may think you won't support them if they make a mistake. Praise them for their attempts and failures and focus on what can be learned from setbacks.
Help establish a work-life balance: people need time to look after themselves physically (e.g. going to the doctor), but they also need to look after themselves in other ways. Support a healthy work-life balance by ensuring that the workload is evenly distributed throughout the team, or even by taking on extra work yourself if necessary. Remember that your work-life balance is also important, and the example you set helps greatly.
Inspire team members when they struggle
What do you do when team members struggle to motivate themselves to perform well? Do you try to change their behaviour and attitudes? Do you argue with them about why they should shape up? A better way is to help release the motivation that already exists within people by removing barriers to their productivity by following these steps.
Get more data: Find out for yourself whether a depressed employee has personal problems that are sapping their energy? What does he or she like and dislike in general and at work? How do they describe themselves? What do they think of their manager (you)? How do they relate to other members of the team? Are you or other team members doing things that drain their energy?
Look for multiple solutions: rather than just trying to change people, brainstorm alternative solutions. Would a different task suit their personality better? Do they have skills that are being utilised? Would a different management approach make them happier and more productive at work?
Have a meeting: arrange a meeting that focuses on asking questions, testing your assumptions and finding solutions together. Make it clear that the situation cannot continue as it is, but that you are willing to explore a variety of positive, win-win outcomes.
Understand the strengths of your team members and delegate accordingly
Many fledgling leaders struggle to delegate, but it is something that all leaders must learn to do. Front-line team members cannot see the full picture of all the work to be done and all the different strengths and skills of team members. A good manager has these insights and understands that to be most effective, the workload must be distributed throughout the team.
The leader has the information needed to take inventory of all the competencies the team must provide and then distribute the team's current responsibilities among them based on individual skills and organisational goals. This can make the whole team more efficient and save everyone's time. It also allows team members to become more confident and develop their ability to contribute to the team in more and better ways.
Empowering team members to innovate
Innovation is vital to every organisation. Part of your employees' time should be spent generating new ideas and approaches to keep up with today's pace of change, and management can have an impact on the success of the business by encouraging innovation. Try the following methods to support a culture of innovation at work.
Make innovation a habit: Have team members schedule a certain percentage of their time each week for experimentation.
Expand their minds: stimulate their creativity by regularly involving them in projects they wouldn't normally do.
Create a way to submit ideas: provide an easy channel for your colleagues to share ideas and projects they want to pursue and make sure they know how to use it and feel safe.
Develop a professional growth team
Employees are often so focused on their jobs that they don't spend much time thinking about how to improve their skills and knowledge, especially if they already feel overloaded and may need the influence of their manager to get them to lift their heads from their jobs and receive training that can advance their careers.
You can provide training for managers to help them delegate, increase profits, solve problems, motivate others and become more confident as a manager. For individual contributors, you can meet with them to learn more about their career goals and then provide training to support those goals.
Performance and growth coaching
Coaching team members to achieve results is one of the most rewarding but challenging parts of being a manager, and it illustrates why management is important to organisations. Effective coaching requires empathy, emotional awareness, negotiation skills and other leadership abilities, and managers can be better coached by keeping in mind certain principles and practices.
Show support: always start by demonstrating that you want the best for others, that you like them as people and that you genuinely support them.
Be honest: Explain how you really see things, being kind and non-judgmental, while providing all the necessary facts and observations to help form a view of opportunities for improvement or growth.
Explain the impact: Paint a big picture for team members, such as how their actions impact the team, other departments and the organisation, both positively and negatively.
Create follow-up steps: Work together to develop a plan, get feedback and ideas from trainees, and schedule follow-up conversations.
Leading workplace communication
Managers can model and encourage the type of communication that is healthiest for each individual and the team as a whole. You can certainly schedule weekly and monthly meetings with each team member, but daily communication - and a quick response to their calls, texts and emails - can make them more engaged. You should always know what they're doing, get to know them personally and encourage them to communicate any needs they have.