It’d sure be nice if we were all born with some kind of wonderful intuitive knowledge about being an effective manager. As it turns out, though, operating as an effective manager is its own kind of art form. Knowing the ins and outs of exceptional manager etiquette is as important as having the necessary specialized skills to excel in one of those tough careers for people who work with their hands. There are just specific boxes you have to check if you want to make sure you’re making the most positive impact that you can at your managerial job. Let’s take a look at some of those handy tips you can put in your back pocket for becoming a more effective manager.
Take full ownership of the process.
Your team’s ability to meet various objectives laid out by your company is as consistent as your commitment to staying on top of every responsibility within your job. Maybe one of these responsibilities is making sure that you’ve handled those W-2 envelopes. Those tax season deadlines can creep up on a company out of nowhere. Or, maybe your team has a big quarterly sales goal in place that’ll require continual and open communication between every team member.
As an effective manager, you’ll need to proactively work on finding the most efficient routes toward hitting those sales goals. This isn’t as simple as just stating the goal and a path you’ve found to meet the goal. It’ll also require you to define leading and lagging measures of the goal. Those leading measures are usually the most actionable for your team. If your team’s working toward a goal of $10 million in sales for the second quarter, then a lagging measure could be the number of customers acquired during that process. A leading measure would be anything that ends up impacting customer acquisition.
Try out OKR software.
In this day and age, with so many teams being forced to adopt a work from home model, it’s harder than ever to hold each team member accountable and maintain productivity levels. On top of that, the challenge of keeping up a healthy company morale level is a real one for many managers these days. Because of this, the value of turning toward a dynamic resource like OKR software can’t be emphasized enough.
OKR stands for “Objectives and Key Results.” You’ll learn a handful of helpful practices during OKR training. You’ll learn how to set clear objectives that communicate three to five things you’re interested in your team accomplishing and why they matter. On top of that, you’ll inspire each member of your team with the newfound purpose that comes from clarity on what the team is trying to achieve. These objectives can be short-term or long-term. You’ll also learn about laying down four to six measurable quarter outcomes for your team to achieve. These are the best possible results, not always the most probable, so keep expectations within the team realistic. Ultimately, what you can expect after OKR training and putting in place an OKR system for your team, is for productivity levels to increase and to learn what you’re team is really capable of.
Don’t rush the hiring process.
You should look at the hiring process like it’s your own kind of recruitment experience. You’re basically a coach who has been tasked with assembling a talented team of motivated individuals that all lift each other up with their respective, impressive skills. You always want to hire as smart as possible. An effective way to accomplish this smart hiring process is to set up a scoreboard of deliverables (four to five should work) that clearly identify the outcomes you want your team to accomplish. Some of these deliverables could be business growth, margin expansion, or improving your company’s operational efficiency. Select the candidates who match most of your deliverables.
We’ve touched on a few of the key tips you should note as you progress through your exciting and rewarding journey to become a more effective manager. Maybe this list has awakened in you unexpected realizations about how you can best optimize your team’s performance. Maybe you were caught up in a cycle of rushing the hiring process, and you’re just now realizing that you’ve been welcoming in new additions to the team that really should’ve been on different career paths in the first place. That’s okay. This is a learning process for everyone. What matters is that you’re investing the time and energy to become the best manager that you can be.
