Vital qualities of a Manager who leads
In my 10 years of the working life I have had my fair share of individuals who were assigned to take me through my working experience or as they are mostly regarded – my managers. At the start of my career my expectation of a manager was one of support, guidance, and to keep my interest and passion for the role blazing.
My first manager Susanne set the scene for all other future managers to come. She was calm, intelligent, observant and aware of my challenges and strengths. Her method of management was to ensure I had a meaningful role with real responsibilities, she created an environment that I wanted to work in, kept my aspirations alive, she was gentle and constructive with her corrections of my work.
Through my observations with how Susanne lead the team, these are the three vital qualities of a manager who wants their staff to thrive that I had the privilege of experiencing :
1. Positive production
Positive thinking sounds useful on the surface but is far more beneficial when you start to understand the effects that it has on the brain. A Psychologist named Barbara Fredrickson explains how having Positive thoughts can actually create real value in life and help individuals build skills.
Her study draws attention to how a person responds to different scenarios. Her subjects were put into four groups, each group was shown a piece of video that created different emotions and how that affected their reaction after.
The conclusion of her study showed that the participants who saw the video that brought out the emotions of fear and anger wrote down the fewest response and on the other hand the participants who saw video of contentment, joy and happiness wrote down a much higher number of actions that they would take, even when compared to the neutral group.
In other words, when you are experiencing positive emotions like joy, contentment, purpose, and love, you will see more possibilities. In a working environment, one of the qualities of a manager’s role is to have their team members optimise their skills to think outside their box. Positivity is not turning a blind eye to a problem but is amplifying techniques that allow a state of creative flow resulting in a thriving workplace environment and a win-win scenario.
2. Kung Fu Panda Skills
Yes, reference is to the cartoon. The main actor Po who is an overweight and clumsy panda was labeled an unskilled candidate to be the dragon warrior. Although he highly regarded Kung Fu and was passionate about its history, never did he imagine that he would become chosen to lead the fantastic five and be part of the legends that defended the nation.
What everyone saw on the outside was a disaster but one Master saw the hidden talent that was within, and so began to nurture this talent. At first Master, Shi-foo saw no skills but soon learned that to get to Po’s talent his normal kung fu training methods would not suffice.
Ok. so what does all this panda talk have to do with being a manager? The qualities of a manager are not only to be aware of a person’s talents but also the ability to discover how to amplify and develop the talent. If your employee is failing to achieve, taking a moment to understand their grief and work out a method that will see them thrive is a vital quality of a manager who wants to lead their team to optimal success.
“ A teacher’s talent can be seen in the way he is able to find out what MOTIVATES his student” – Mihai Herman
3. Good old Communication
Communication is the fuel that drives the vehicle. I find that in a business that has so many good systems, talented individuals and a wealth of resources once the communication failed, this would take a project from successful to crunch time and chaos.
This vital quality has numerous facets that add to being an effective communicator and include:
- Written communication.
- Speaking/tone of voice.
- Constructive feedback.
- Active listening.
- Specific instructions.
As simple as this may sound, we are all individual people with great ideas and determination to move forward with no telepathic skills to know what the people around us are thinking. So to create a One Team-One Dream scenario with tunnel vision to reach the goals set, communication is so vital for all to see and understand the direction.
These three qualities of a manager are what I experienced from the outstanding managers that supported me through my career. If you are a manager in your business, what can you do more of to continue to see your subordinates thrive and succeed not just in the role but in their complete career? How can you think differently as a manager?
If you are feeling overwhelmed and need some guidance on how to manage a team, there are career coaches who can help get you to your goals.
