What Great Managers Do That Okay Ones Don’t – 5 Secrets To Become A Better Manager
What great managers do that okay ones don’t affects us all. The productivity gap between the top 5% of managers and the average manager is a whopping 800% according to McKinsey. The top 5% of managers create 8 times more value than an average manager. Think how you would be treated at work if you were in the top 5% of managers. Think about the respect you would get from your team, the appreciation you would get from your boss and the envy and admiration from peers.
The top 5% of managers don’t work 8 times harder or anything close – to deliver their great results. They work differently. To begin to get similar amazing results through your team, learn what great managers do and become a better manager quickly.
For each I explain why each of these actions and approaches is so vitally important for creating higher performing teams plus give you practical tips so you can start putting these actions into practice. Instantly become a better manager.
What Great Managers Do That Okay Ones Don’t – 5 Secrets To Become A Better Manager
- Great managers put the team before themselves
- They Create a trusting team environment
- Great managers Are comfortable with conflict
- They partner with and value their team members
- They Are Unfailingly Results orientated
Watch on YouTube
Listen on Podcast
Firstly, great managers put the team before themselves
Great managers understand and know with absolute confidence something that the rest are too scared to take the risk on. Great managers know that when they work in service to the team, they are most effectively working in service to themselves.
The work environment is ultra-competitive. Many want to progress their careers so they keep learning, they get exposure to different experiences, gain new skills, gain more status, get paid more, can support their families better, can have nicer holidays, and so on.
In this competitive environment, it seems like a huge risk to help others become better, to help them deliver more, to potentially speed up their career progress. You might be thinking “they might overtake me and make it harder for me to get ahead – why would I help them rather than myself?”
A “me first” approach works well as a worker, as a direct contributor. The more you deliver personally, the more you get ahead in the competitive workplace. So far so good.
Then you become a manager. Managers create a lot more value through others, through their team, than then can hope to achieve by themselves as individuals. Great managers create value and benefit for their business by enabling a team of people to produce more. Managers can leverage their personal time and effort through others.
The previously successful “me first” approach is now an anchor in your role as manager. Great managers change “me first” into “my team first”. A manager’s performance is assessed on their team’s performance. The better the team does, the better the manager personally does.
To Become a Better Manager
Great managers help improve team performance by working hard in service of the team. They set and maintain clear direction for each member of the team. They remove obstacles. Great managers create enjoyable and trusting team environments to work in. They are comfortable with conflict and dealing with it. Great manager consistently make decisions and take actions that scream team first, even when it costs them personally.
In short, great managers do everything they can to help their teams do better, to produce more, to become more skilled, to progress team member careers for the benefit of the team.
Great managers know that working in service to their team is the best way to help everyone, including themselves.
Secondly, Great managers create a trusting team environment
The leader of a team sets the rules and establishes the working environment through the decisions and actions they take and the behaviour they display. Actions speak louder than words.
Most managers look after a collection of individuals. When the manager uses a “me first” approach, then the people they look after follow suit. Trust is limited and teamwork is hampered.
A collection of individuals – that are dependant on each other to do their jobs well – don’t perform anywhere near as well as a team. Teamwork requires trust. Trust that the other person can do their jobs well AND trust that the other person will look after me as an individual – i.e. they have my back. Great managers know this.
Great managers work hard to demonstrate they have the team’s back. They fight for the team. They support and help team members. Great managers show they care on a personal as well as a professional level. They show their respect and admiration for their team members.
Great leaders manage their own behaviour, decisions and actions carefully to demonstrate their trust worthiness and to act as a role model for how they expect team members to conduct themselves at work and towards other team members.
Great Managers Remove Problems
Great managers work hard to remove – or mitigate – obstacles and problems than make team members’ jobs harder – from organisation politics to poor behaviour or performance.
When every day, your leader is working hard to help you, being open and honest, and their actions are aligned with their words and in the team’s best interests, it is very easy to appreciate them and trust them.
When your leader is trustworthy and encourages actions that build trust within the team and discourages actions that damage trust within the team, it is a lot easier for the team to build trust.
A trusting environment, that promotes teamwork and interdependency quickly follows. Higher levels of trust and better teamwork produce better results.
Thirdly, great managers are comfortable with conflict
In every organisation, there will be conflict. Resources are limited and each department and manager are competing for these limited resources. Different departments usually have goals with some conflict built in. Add structural, process and other organisation conflicts … you are guaranteed a level of conflict within any organisation.
Then there are conflicts between individuals – because of differences in background, values, beliefs, experiences, assumptions and personal goals. This creates another layer of conflict to manage.
Great managers are comfortable with conflict. Some types of conflict are creative and support the team reaching goals faster and better. For example, harnessing the differences between individuals in the team – different ideas, different approaches, different viewpoints – can create much better solutions than any one individual on their own. Great managers carefully manage creative conflict to ensure it does not become destructive.
Other types of conflict are destructive and promote bad decisions, poor behaviour, and damage relationships. Great managers act very quickly and effectively to resolve these conflicts before they damage team performance. They know how to approach resolving conflicts and they have built enough trust that they will not damage relationships in the process.
Average managers allow destructive conflict to continue too long, or ignore it in the hope that the conflict won’t matter too much. Fear of damaging relationships or lack of skills and confidence in how to resolve conflict prevents them from taking the action needed. Conflict damages trust, teamwork and team performance.
Great managers are constantly looking out for conflict and act quickly and effectively to resolve conflicts when they happen.
Fourth, great managers partner with and value their team members
It is really easy for managers to think of their team members “I am better than you”. After all, managers have worked hard, and developed their skills to get promoted into the management ranks and their team members have not. Of course be proud of your achievements but don’t look down on others.
Believing, consciously or unconsciously, that you are better than your team members is performance suicide. Your beliefs about the team will show through your actions and behaviours.
Great managers know how important team members are to them personally. Without team members, there is no need for a manager. Managers depend on their team members to enable the manager to personally create value for the business.
Think of your team members as valuable partners. Get to know them, their strengths, their ambitions, and their weaknesses. Help them play to their strengths and minimise their weaknesses. The more you help them, the better they do, the better the team does which leads to you doing better. A clear partnership which is very valuable to you.
Great managers partner with and value their team members. The manager’s beliefs about their team members are demonstrated in everything the manager does. Admiring your team members is a brilliant way to create trust, respect and teamwork.
Fifth, great managers are Unfailingly Results orientated
Businesses need to deliver great outcomes for their customers to be successful. There will be many components involved in delivering great outcomes and each team needs to do their part – sales, marketing, operations, customer services, finance, etc.
Great managers know their team needs to deliver results – for example in terms of sales, lead generation, products or service delivery, or ensuring activity is turned into profits and cash.
In results orientated teams, great leaders make the goals clear, keep them on display and talk about them regularly. There is a lot of visibility and measurement of progress towards those goals, so everyone knows exactly where they and the team stand.
Great managers know that there are many ways to reach goals and will consider all viable routes, often with team members. Then they choose and focus on the solution that delivers the most progress towards goals while working within the constraints the team is under.
Great managers move from agenda doers to agenda setters. They focus the team on what is best to achieve results in the short term and the long term. They protect the team from the noise and distractions in the wider business.
Great managers that consistently beat targets focus a lot of their energy on making sure the skills and strengths of their team members are used to the maximum.
Great managers consistently focus their teams on delivering results.
in summary
Great managers and leaders focus on making their team great, knowing that a creating a great team is the best way to help themselves.
Managing others is a difficult and complex job. Everyone is different so every team you manage will be different. The 5 principles I have shared today are universal in creating great teams. Humans – throughout history – survived and became successful in groups. In the workplace today, these same group rules and approaches are as effective as they have always been and will be far into the future.
It does take courage to put the team before yourself as a manager in today’s ultra-competitive workplace. Be courageous and become a better manager.
To recap, 5 things that great managers to that okay ones don’t are:
- Great managers put the team before themselves
- They Create a trusting team environment
- Great managers Are comfortable with conflict
- They partner with and value their team members
- They Are Unfailingly Results orientated
If you have any question on “What Great Managers Do That Okay Ones Don’t – Become A Better Manager”, please email me at support@enhance.training and I will get back to you.
To become a better manager there is a lot to work on – both on a professional level as well a personal level. These 5 secrets to become a better manager are all fundamental behaviours and actions rather than tactics or techniques.
They have to come from the heart and from your authentic self. We all have many aspects to ourselves so most managers can relate to each of these fundamental approaches. Great managers become super valuable to the companies in which they work, with all the benefits these bring.