Qualities of a good manager According to Bill Gates Bill Gates recently wrote in The New York Times about 10 qualities that make a good manager. The following ideas from his piece may help you refine your management skills. 1. Put thought into your choice of industry. Make it one you enjoy. It’s hard to be productive in a field you don’t have genuine enthusiasm for. 2. Recognize when an employee needs to be fired. No matter how well managed, a mediocre team produces mediocre results. Don’t keep employees on the job because they’re not terrible at what they do - replace the employee or move him or her to a set of responsibilities where they can succeed. At Christmas most parents spend more money on their children than they did on the honeymoon that started it all. 3. Create an environment that encourages productivity. You can maximize productivity using several different approaches, such as giving everybody his or her own office, moving everybody into a large open space, or offering financial incentives. The most successful techniques depend on the context and a combination of approaches is usually necessary. 4. Make sure your definition of success is clear. Employees need to know what constitutes success so they can measure their achievements and work accordingly. Also, goals must be realistic - unachievable goals undermine an organization. 5. You must be personable and a good communicator. You need to have a wide range of relationships - not necessarily personal friendships - with a fair number of people within your organization. Employees should feel free to tell you what’s going on - both good and bad - and give you feedback about what people are thinking about the company. 6. Help employees do their jobs better than you can. Ensure the success of your employees by helping them to develop their skills. If you can increase their responsibilities, it will free up more of your time to tackle new or undone tasks. If you’re worried that your company won’t have other challenges for you, talk to your boss - there’s no shortage of jobs for good managers. 7. Keep morale in mind. Remind employees of the importance of what they’re working on - its importance to the company and to its customers. When you achieve great results, make sure everybody shares in the credit. 8. Don’t just delegate, do something. A respected manager needs to tackle his or her own projects, in addition to dolling out responsibility. Take on one of the less attractive tasks and use it as an example of how your employees should meet challenges. 9. Make firm decisions. You don’t have to decide everything the moment it comes to your attention. Consider things carefully and make a solid decision so that you don’t have to revisit the issue. You can reconsider the issue. You can reconsider decisions, just so long as you don’t make a habit of it. 10. Let employees know whom to please. Maybe it’s you, maybe it’s your boss, and maybe its someone who works for you - just make sure your employees are aware. If different people have different priorities, employees need to know which drummer to march to.
Posted on: Thu, 26 Jun 2014 07:17:06 +0000
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