Managing employees isn't easy. However, every good manager understands that employees are a company's most valuable asset. Therefore, guiding, nurturing, and supporting them while maintaining strength and authority is vital to a business's long-term success.
Managing a team of people starts with investing in yourself and learning essential leadership skills. Focusing on becoming a good leader, someone your employees trust has their best interests at heart while ensuring the company's goals are met is part of being the best manager you can be.
Many ancient thought leaders believed that one must master one's self before seeking to lead others. An example is the Chinese philosopher Lao Tsu who wrote, "Mastering others is strength; mastering oneself is true power."
After yourself, though, how do you manage teams of diverse people? Well, first, realize that you don't have to reinvent the wheel. There are tried and true principles and practices that you can utilize to manage individuals in a wide range of circumstances.
These practices can help you navigate situations where there's immense stress, where you need to encourage your team, where communication must be clear, and at times when you need to be able to provide constructive criticism without crushing the recipient.
Applying the five tips, we'll be talking about in a moment can help you to develop a team of highly resilient individuals. Remember that no matter what situation or circumstance under which you must manage people, as Plato said, "excellence is not a gift, but a skill that takes practice."
5 Tips For Effective Management
The overall success of a company is brought about by many factors. An organization's leadership and management skills contribute to a business's success or downfall. Here are five tips to make sure success is your result.
Communicate Freely and Often
Creating an atmosphere of open and honest communication among employees is essential if you want business operations to thrive. Making sure that you regularly communicate with those you manage without micromanaging is an excellent way to get to know your employees.
Recall that people buy from those they know, like, and trust.
In the same way, those you manage are more likely to want to follow your leadership when they get to know you as a person, understand that you genuinely care about them as people and that they can trust you not to abuse your position of power.
There's also research from Gallup's State of the American Manager report, which showed that employees who regularly met with their managers for one-on-one meetings were three times more likely to engage at work.
What were other key takeaways found in that report? Well, in addition to meeting regularly with employees, managers should meet with them frequently. A best practice would be to have one-on-one meetings at least once per week.
Meetings like these are an excellent time to talk directly with employees about company projects, tasks, and goals. They are also the perfect opportunity for you to listen to your employees' ideas and concerns.
As stated previously, though, you want to foster communication that's open and honest without going into the realm of micromanaging. Having too many meetings too often can be seen as heavy-handed and may cause employees to believe you don't trust them to do their jobs.
Striking an effective balance is critical.
Support Employee Career Development
Everyone benefits when you support the careers of your employees. Most people today want the opportunity for growth and advancement. If they feel that they can't climb the ladder in your organization or like they're stagnating for too long, they'll leave. Worse, they may go to a competitor.
To prevent that from happening, you'll want to help ambitious employees create a plan for advancement. Set goals that are challenging but that are not impossible to accomplish. More importantly, when goals are reached, ensure that you generously reward employees. Incentives that are not punitive are a great thing.
Some options you could offer in terms of career development are things such as training sessions and job shadowing (allowing an employee to tag along and watch how things are done). You can get them thinking by asking how they would improve the company, make it more efficient, who they would create business deals with, and why. You could also offer lateral career moves so that employees have the opportunity to explore working in another role and gain additional experience.
Manage Performance Expectations
Always set clear expectations concerning an employee's performance. When you do, you'll be able to help employees improve. It goes back to open and frequent communication.
Now, there are all kinds of performance review systems out there. Your company may use 360-degree feedback, collaborative goal setting, or an employee ranking system. Regardless of the specific system you use, a performance management tool can encourage career growth and make managing a team just a bit easier.
Ensure Balanced Feedback & Celebrate Successes
Giving employees the kind of balanced feedback they deserve isn't always easy. However, many managers neglect to provide positive feedback and instead focus on the negatives. Of course, doing so can create an atmosphere where employees feel like they can't do anything right. In circumstances like that, employee morale can fall significantly, and you can trace it back to the one-sided, negative feedback the manager provided.
It's a common mistake, especially among new managers. Don't let that be you!
Another common mistake is forgetting to celebrate employee successes. Remember that in addition to positive feedback, employee recognition is vital for engagement and overall morale. When people go above and beyond, recognizing that fact is an excellent way to ensure they know you value them and their efforts. It lets them know they're appreciated.
You could give recognition for a job well-done by giving them shout-outs on social media, recognizing and praising them publicly during staff meetings, or providing an award. There many ways you could honor employees for their accomplishments.
Provide a Good Working Environment
Another great tip to help you better manage your employees is to provide a good working environment. It's important to recall that a positive environment can improve employee job satisfaction and help provide motivation.
Suppose you happen to work in an office. In that case, part of creating a positive environment may mean working with company executives to design a workspace that's suited to employees' physical, psychological, and cognitive characteristics.
For example, well positioned computer screens and adjustable standing desks like Flexispot's Home Office Height Adjustable Standing Desk Frame EC1(EG1) can help promote the emotional well-being of employees while also promoting focus and alleviating pain.
Remember that your employees won't be able to do their best work in an office where they're forced to sit all day, every day, for hours on end. When employees have the option to sit or stand and still be as productive as you need them to be, it's a win-win for everyone.
Keep in mind that Flexispot's EG1's impressive features can also help your employees in a few other ways.
Adjustable Height
The EG1 is totally customizable when it comes to its height. This feature can be incredibly useful if more than one individual uses the desk during different shifts. Going from 71 to 121cm with the desk's basic two button up and down keypad, you can adjust the height and stop the EG1 at any height you choose.
Moreover, you can talk your boss into incorporating EG1s into your office since, in addition to the benefits mentioned previously, you can match the desktop's color to that of the office with no problem.
An Environmentally Friendly Desktop
As mentioned above, you can choose the color of the EG1 desktop. However, another significant benefit is the fact that the desktop is made from chipboard and medium-density fibreboard, which is totally sustainable!
For The Manager's Office
Remember that part of managing others is managing one's self. That means the manager's office should be just as conducive to productivity as the office of those managed. A super way to do that is to use an adjustable standing desk, such as the Flexispot Standing Desk 2-Stage Rectangular Desk Frame EN1(EF1) that offers a few premium features that fit a manager's higher position in the company.
While similar in design and structure to the EG1 (it also ranges in height from 71-121cm), it comes with an advanced, all-in-one keypad. Additionally, the desk has three fully programmable presets that allow you to save your favorite heights when sitting or standing.
Conclusion
At the end of the day, managing others is about working with people to attain organizational goals. Your employees are going to look to you for inspiration and guidance. It's also part of your job to help ensure that your employees have the best possible environment in which to do their work.
A FlexiSpot standing desk is an incredible tool you have at your disposal that can help increase employee productivity and boost overall performance. In fact, a study conducted by Texas A&M University found that those who used standing desks were at least 46% more productive than employees who sat at standard desks!
