One of the most important questions you could ask as a new manager or a struggling manager is “What do successful managers do?”
The answer to this question may vary depending on your current situation. If you are a new manager or about to be a manager, you may want to consider the following questions before you try to understand the one above.
What Is the Role of a Manager?
Simply put, the role of a manager is to make good business decisions while making sure that every employee is doing a good job. Moreover, a manager’s role is to manage the company’s assets and use them to generate profits.
Why Is It Important to Have a Manager?
You may find yourself asking “Why is it important to have a manager?” To answer this question, you need to take the hierarchical structure of the company into account. However, no matter how big or small a company is, the importance of a manager is basically the same.
Let’s say that you have a small business. A small business needs a manager because every group or team needs someone to make the major decisions, organize and delegate, manage the company’s assets, and/or report to.
What Do Successful Managers Do?
Successful managers
- Listen to their employees
- Ask relevant questions and for clarification when they don’t understand
- Communicate clearly and effectively
- Make data-driven decisions
- Take full advantage of their assets
Successful Managers Listen to Their Employees
Successful managers value everyone’s opinion. As a manager, if you listen to your employees and ensure that you understand their points of view, you will be surprised to see how easy it is to come up with the right solution.
Moreover, if each team member knows that you value their thoughts and insights, they will feel more open to sharing insights on how to make the company more successful. Every manager should understand that their employees can see things that managers never see because the employees are the ones interacting with the customers. Therefore, they have a better understanding of customer behavior. So, invite your employees to tell you what they think about the company and what can be improved.
You don’t have to do everything your employees suggest, but you should listen carefully to have a good idea about their feelings and observations. What they will share might be helpful if you consider what they have shared with you. And then, always remember to give credit to everybody when there are positive results. Never take all the credit. Celebrate the big success or achievement if you can.
Successful Managers Ask Relevant Questions and for Clarification
The question you ask may dictate the answer you are looking for. Therefore, you need to ask questions that can help you understand the situation and find the appropriate solution. If you do so, you will be able to discover and understand trends that you would never understand otherwise.
You should ask the right questions to get useful answers. Ask follow-up questions when necessary. Try to understand the context. Never assume or pretend that you understood what they mean when one of your employees says something you were unaware of. Ask for clarification by stating your understanding of what they said.
Successful Managers Make Data-Driven Decisions
Every successful manager knows how to utilize data in their decision-making process. If you want to always have an explanation for your decisions, you need to collect relevant data that you will use to make decisions.
If you don’t know how to interpret data, look for trends, and make predictions based on the data you have collected, you can learn how to do these things by taking online courses. But for now, you just need to know what your weaknesses are and be willing to turn them into strengths.
Successful Managers Communicate Clearly and Effectively
Effective communication is key to team success. The simpler your sentences the better. When sending emails to your employees, avoid using jargon or technical terms, but rather, utilize everyday words, and always invite your team members to ask you questions if they don’t understand.
Successful Managers Take Full Advantage of Their Assets
One of the most important things a successful manager understands is that an asset can be a competitive advantage. Therefore, every successful manager creates long-lasting assets for their companies. Those assets can be a very-skilled employee, a well-trained customer service representative, software, etc.
The way you use your assets to win the competition can tell whether you are a great manager or not. Furthermore, successful managers know how to protect their company’s assets.
Now, the question is have you identified what your company’s assets are? If not, take some time to find out because identifying current assets and creating new ones is the first step to utilizing your assets as a competitive advantage to beat your competitors.
What Are the Qualities of a Great Manager?
- A great manager knows each of their employees at a personal level.
- Great managers pay attention to details and give good feedback.
- A great manager motivates his or her employees.
- Great managers learn from their mistakes and move forward.
- A great manager makes data-driven decisions and gives credit to the whole team when they succeed. But avoid blaming their employees when they don’t reach their goals.
- Great managers build winning teams, and finally,
- A great manager leads the company to success.
What Skills Does a Manager Need to Be Successful?
To be successful, a manager needs the following skills:
- Verbal communication
- Time-management skills
- Decision-making skills
- Assets-management
- Conflict resolution skills
- Data analytics and data visualization skills
- Computer skills
- Public speaking
This list is not exhaustive.
Everything that you just learned in this article means nothing unless you decide to give them a try. If you don’t know where to start, ask yourself these questions: how do my employees see me? Or What kind of manager do I want to be? What is my decision-making process? Which section(s) in this article stood out to me the most?
After answering these questions, you will know where to start and how far you should go.
Share this article with at least one person whom you think needs to learn these things.
Written by:
JEFF ST LOUIS
Freelance Digital Marketer, Jeff is a passionate communicator. He has a Bachelor's degree in Business Marketing, he is Google Ads certified, and the holder of a Hubspot Email Marketing certificate. He is also a published author. He wrote and published five books including a memoir.
