Great managers have a different way of approaching their jobs. They are more than just leaders; they are supportive and caring. They understand that the success of the company relies on the happiness of those around them.
There is a big difference between an average manager and a great manager. An average manager can cause a lower employer retention, costing your company thousands. A great manager will select people based on talent and get to know their employees.
If you are looking to become a great manager, here are 5 things great managers do differently.
Select People Based on Talent, Not Experience
Hiring great talent is one of the most difficult things to do at a company. One bad hire can cost your company an average of 30% of the employee’s first-year earnings, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.
The hiring process can be stressful, which is why we have several blogs about the hiring process including: Missing Out on Candidate in Candidate Driven Market, 5 Things You Need to Look for in a Resume, Identifying Your Own Biases, The Surprising Secret to Filling Your Company’s Job Openings, and 5 Proven Ways to Speed up the Hiring Process.
We are not here to talk about the hiring process, but we are going to talk about how great managers select candidates based on talent over experience. In a recent Gallup survey, the majority of great managers stated that they select staff members based on talent rather than experience, education, or intelligence.
Talents include:
Striving: Examples: drive for achievement, need for expertise, drive to put beliefs in action,
Thinking: Examples: focus, discipline, personal responsibility, and
Relating: Examples: empathy, attentiveness to individual differences, ability to persuade, taking charge.
Great Managers get more out of their time by surrounding themselves with good people. When you surround yourself with good people, you will be able to free up time for other activities. You don’t have the luxury of wasting time training a bad employee, which is why great managers choose to hire a candidate with talent over experience. Experience can be trained, intangibles can’t be.
Know Their Employees
Great Managers know how to get it done. The best managers don’t try to do everything themselves. They trust their employees to do their job and fend for themselves if they have no other choice. They know what needs to be done, when it needs to get done, and who can do the job best. This is only done by getting to know their employees.
When you get to understand your employees, you will understand their strengths and weaknesses. Companies are full of diversity. Understanding your employees will help you give the right employee the right job.
“As an example, if a challenge is what your staff person craves, make sure he always has one tough, challenging assignment. If your staff member prefers routine, send more repetitive work in his direction. If he enjoys solving problems for people, he may excel in front-line service.” – The Balance Careers
You can teach experience; you can’t teach talent. Many employers choose to hire candidates with years of experience over candidates with very minimal experience. However, looking for candidates that have the talent over experience may be a good idea.
You can teach Microsoft Office, organizational skills, and many other things, but you can’t teach talent. In the beginning, if you choose to hire a candidate with talent and no experience, it will be morning training for you. However, after training is completed, you will have a much better candidate than if you chose to hire based off experience.
Keep Lines of Communication Open
Communication is key in everything you do. Offering your number to your employees shows that you are open to questions, concerns, and conversation. Employees want to feel like they have a voice at their position. If you do not offer the ability for them to talk to you, they will keep their problems cooped up until they had enough.
Great managers go to great lengths to help their employees feel heard. Consistently being available to speak to is something many managers do not do. This is something that sets great managers apart.
Great managers also take the time to plan events, parties, and outings where employees can get together as a team outside of work.
Great managers are never too far away from anything going on in the office. It’s important to maintain communication at all times with your employees; well-being matters just as much as production. Lack of communication causes in decrease in employee satisfaction.
Constantly Training Employees
No one is perfect: no one knows everything. Remember that constantly training and motivating your employees to learn is ideal. Studies have found that training employees both for current work and additional skills will increase productivity and morale.
Most managers forget about training and learning additional skills because they don’t see an issue with what their employees are doing currently. However, think of your work as a basketball team.
Let’s say you are the head coach of the 96’ Chicago Bulls. As a head coach, you just won the title with the best record in NBA history during that time. Are you going to just let your players go into the next year without any training? No. Even though you have the best team and arguably the best NBA player ever, you are still going to look to train them for next season. Same goes with being a manager.
Training for work-related tasks will help with quality and efficiency. Continuously training your employees will help your company grow quicker. Training shouldn’t only be done during the onboarding process, but a continued process during the employee’s time with your company.
Not Afraid to Get Their Hands Dirty
Great managers approach work with a hands-on mentality. They do not sit on their high horse chatting about business or politics over lunch. Instead, they roll up their sleeves and work side by side with their team members. They know that looking at their work from the eyes of someone who does it every day assists in creating better strategies for the future.
Sometimes problems happen. Whether a shipment is delayed, an employee calls out, or you have a very buys day, it is those great managers that step in and work right alongside their employees.
“When employees have to do work that they don’t particularly enjoy or that may be difficult, it is easy to develop resentment for their managers who are not dealing with the same pains.” – Inc.com
Conclusion
So, what do great managers do then? They train their employees throughout the year.
Great managers have an infinite amount of patience, and can deal with adversity every day. They are never too tired to listen to you about personal problems at work or outside of work.
Because they care for your life both inside and outside of work, they want to help make things better for you. After all, money isn’t everything – investing in people will reap the greatest rewards in the end.
Great managers don’t just talk about doing it right; they constantly encourage employees to do a task correctly and efficiently. Great managers not only give positive feedback when necessary but also provide constructive criticism, which improves office wellbeing!
