The 3 Keys to Being a Good Manager
Here’s where to start if you’re a new manager with no training
Since becoming a professional coach, I’ve had the honor of working with dozens of professionals across a variety of industries. Whether it’s aerospace, entertainment, healthcare, the military, academia, or public policy, there’s one significant challenge that clients repeatedly bring up: they need help becoming a better manager.
Sometimes they’re new managers who have just been promoted and have no idea how to manage. They’re often worried that they won’t do a good job and their team will suffer. This is a very common sentiment among managers. And if you think about it, it’s totally understandable.
Independent contributors who are technically skilled get promoted because of their competency and experience. But they lack the people-manager skills that we aren’t really taught in school or before we enter the workforce. We’re expected to learn these skills on our own or on the job. Research shows that 58% of managers never received any type of people-manager training.
It's estimated that over 50% of employees leave their job because of poor management. And of those who stay in a job, research has found that the quality of their manager makes the most difference in their engagement and satisfaction levels.
As part of their promotion, new managers are sometimes provided the opportunity to work with a coach and the first thing they want to develop are their management skills. When I start coaching with a new manager, I always share The 3 Keys to Being a Good Manager. Using that framework, we can then start working on who they are as a leader and how they want to lead their team.
Here are the 3 Keys to Being a Good Manager:
Provide the resources necessary for your team’s success.
Remove obstacles to your team’s success.
Invest in your team’s professional growth.
These 3 Keys address the three challenges that repeatedly surface when I’m coaching with a client who is struggling with a poor manager:
They’re frustrated that they don’t have the financial, emotional, structural, or strategic support they desperately need to do their job well.
They encounter challenges with internal systems or people who prevent them from accomplishing their goals.
They feel like their growth isn’t being cultivated, which research shows is critical for employees’ engagement and retention.
Management expert Peter Drucker once observed, “So much of what we call management consists in making it difficult for people to work.” If you use these 3 Keys, you’ll avoid this modern management challenge and actually be a good manager. If you want to be an exceptional manager, the next step is to develop your conscious leadership and expand upon the 3 Keys to Being a Good Manager.
Work happy. Live happy. BE happy.
Meredith
The way we work and build teams is rapidly changing. Leaders often feel unprepared to navigate the transition. As a conscious leadership coach, consultant, and communicator, Meredith helps leaders and their teams create new ways of working and relating so they can prepare for the future by consciously co-creating it.
Contact her to develop your conscious leadership and transform your organization into the workplace of the future.
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