What Makes a Good Manager and Are You Ready to Take the Leap?

Just got a promotion or want to step into a managerial role soon? Research indicates that 82% of managers aren’t cut out for the job and cost businesses billions of dollars each year. But by following our advice you don’t have to be like them. Avoid getting caught unprepared by learning what makes a good manager and how you can become one.

The truth is, not everyone possesses the attributes needed to be a good manager, and not all companies are ready to invest in the appropriate coaching the role requires. A report by The Predictive Index indicates that 63% of employees with a bad manager ponder leaving their company within the following 12 months. The skills that managers often lack the most, according to their subordinates, include:

• effective communication
• ability to drive team morale
• providing and asking for feedback
• confidence
• delegation

What Makes a Good Manager: People Management Skills

If you want to learn how to manage people and be considered a good manager, the first thing you must do is work on your people management skills. The following list includes manager skills you should strive to master most.

Communication

According to an online survey by Interact Studio and Harris Poll, 69% of managers feel uncomfortable communicating with their employees. This statistic goes hand in hand with the fact that “poor or lack of communication” is one of the things employees complain about the most regarding their managers. In particular, remote employees often feel left out of the loop, especially when part of the team works from the office.

Giving and Receiving Feedback

Studies show most employees believe they don’t receive enough feedback from their managers, but also that a large number of America’s business leaders feel uncomfortable giving direct feedback to employees. Around 40% of employees only meet with their managers 1:1 once a month or less.

Bad managers often rely solely on team meetings only to strategize, re-prioritize tasks and give feedback, while good managers also include 1:1 sessions as well as other strategies like internal surveys to give and receive feedback. What makes a good boss is also a commitment to providing honest feedback, constructive criticism, and praise for work well done to each team member.

Confidence

Numerous studies and experts agree on a correlation between one’s confidence and performance, and that leading by example is fundamental for all good managers. When you lack confidence, you also influence your team to follow the same behavior and consequently underperform. Keep in mind that confidence and arrogance are two separate things, stay close to the first and away from the second.

Delegation

Knowing how to delegate work to your employees is a great management skill that, when mastered correctly, allows your whole team to be more productive and avoids you doing all the work. If you are a bit of a perfectionist, you might have a harder time delegating work to others, but you need to eventually let go and realize that doing so is part of what makes a good manager.

When delegating work to your team make sure to:

• Give clear instructions, ask and answer questions to make sure they understand.
• Provide them with the tools needed to complete the tasks.
• Assign the right tasks to the right people by considering people’s strengths.
• Check-in regularly and have a plan b for if the person is not able to complete the task.

Team Building

Often described as developing and promoting relationships, in truth team building involves more than just that. Mastering this skill requires you to excel in other people management skills as well, such as clear communication and frequent and effective feedback.

Increase engagement, motivation, and retention in your team by:

• giving them challenging tasks
• allowing them time and support to improve their skills
• recognizing them for contributing to the team and the company’s success
• making them feel part of the work community
• rewarding them for work well done

General Behavior

As claimed by the Work Institute’s Retention Report, a manager’s behavior is the third most frequent reason why employees leave their job, following career development and work-life balance. In numbers, this means that 12 out of 100 employees quit their job due to their manager’s poor conduct, such as:

• unprofessionalism
• fairness
• employee treatment
• lack of support
• lack of management competence

What Makes a Good Manager: The Management Style

There are countless types of management styles and your goal as a good manager is to adopt one, or more, that work for you and your team. We’ve outlined some of the most common below.

Authoritative or Transactional

Authoritative or transactional managers are all about results. Their methods are often efficient over the short term. Managers with this style have a strong presence, leadership and management skills, which can sometimes result in hovering and micromanaging employees, taking away their flexibility and discouraging collaboration. Adopting an authoritative or transactional style is often beneficial to overcome a management crisis, build, or rebuild a team structure, and set clear strategies and new goals.

Transformational

Transformational managers are often charismatic visionaries, perfect for companies and teams in need of change. They are also great motivators, know how to inspire and push their team to grow and reach their goals, and aren’t afraid of taking risks. Adopting a transformational style is great when you need to focus on the big picture and look for new methods to solve problems and get over a slow growth period.

Bureaucratic

Bureaucratic managers do everything by the book, are precise and meticulous. They largely make decisions based on data gathering and analysis. However, they often lack creativity and stay away from innovation, which in the long term, and particularly in certain industries, can be a downside. Assuming a bureaucratic style helps maintain steady growth and stability - ideal for highly regulated industries where strictly following the rules is a must.

Collaborative

Collaborative managers love to hear and consider what members of their team have to say. They encourage the team to discuss new ideas, give suggestions, and actively participate in important decision-making. Using a collaborative style can make your team feel more empowered and improve morale and retention. However, the downsides of this style include employees assuming they have a leadership role over others and conflicts in working styles, both of which can stall productivity.

Supportive

A supportive management style is a hybrid of transformational and collaborative. These managers are great leaders who love to mentor and help their team reach their full potential and stay away from micromanaging them. Adopting a supportive style is ideal when you have a team of experts who thrive in a flexible environment but should be avoided with inexperienced employees who need more direction and structure.

How to Manage Different Types of Employees

Not all members of your team may thrive under a certain management style. Hence, part of what makes a good manager is also flexibility to use unique approaches with each member of the team. For example:

• Young Employees: They often have great potential but don’t know how to express it the right way. They still need to perfect their skills and have many lessons yet to learn, so you need to have more patience than usual and provide plenty of feedback. Remember that being young doesn’t mean they don’t have good ideas or that they are slackers, so nurture and coach young workers to greatness and avoid undermining them.
• Older Employees: If you are a young manager working with older employees, be humble and open to learning from them. Of course, it must be clear that you are the boss, and they shouldn’t push you around. But value their experience, allow them to participate in decision-making discussions, and help them stay up-to-date with new tools, technologies, and strategies.
• Remote Employees: Such employees typically either require a high degree of trust and flexibility or thrive only when micromanaged and regularly provided feedback. It’s up to you to understand which management approach is best for each of them. One thing you should pay extra attention to with your remote employees is having a good line of communication and making sure they don’t feel excluded from the team dynamics.
• Free Spirit Employees: Typically, these employees are independent, value their freedom, and don’t respond well to micromanaging, too much bureaucracy, or a lack of autonomy. As long as their working environment and conditions are aligned with their free spirit, they are usually competent employees and provide timely quality work. However, they might underperform or quit if not allowed to have a certain degree of autonomy or if they’re put under too many constraints. With them, we suggest a gentle approach and to implement changes slowly if you need to correct a performance issue.
• Introverted Employees: If you can get them to speak up and take risks, introverts or shy employees can contribute big time to your team. They have great ideas but often don’t expose them, and when they have questions they refrain from asking for help. Don’t overlook your introverted employees, instead engage them in conversations and ask them questions to help build their confidence and open up more to you and the rest of the team.

How to Be a Better Manager: More Tips for What Makes a Good Manager

An open attitude to improve or acquire new skills is also part of what makes a good manager. So, kudos to you for wanting to learn how to be a better manager than you already are. After analyzing the responses to many management surveys, and expert recommendations on what makes a good boss, we’ve assembled the following list of tips and things to do and be aware of to help you become a better manager.

The Importance of Psychological Safety

Studies show that psychological safety plays an important role in high-performing teams. Your employees must feel safe and secure enough in their positions to approach you with their problems and ideas, ask for help, take risks, be vulnerable, and make mistakes. To create and promote psychological safety at work, remind your team that there are no stupid questions or ideas, no shame in asking for help, and failure is an important part of growth.

Get On-the-Job Training

Test the waters and stretch your management skills by volunteering to lead projects in your current job. This can be as simple as asking to lead a small, undesirable project or taking the initiative to organize department members to reach a specific goal. With on-the-job training, you can step up your game, acquire new competencies and skills, and understand if you have what it takes to assume a managerial role.

Find a Good Mentor

A mentor can help you understand if a career in management is right for you and tell you honestly how to improve your management skills. They’ve probably already been through the same or similar issues that you are facing, such as an uncollaborative employee or lack of ideas to motivate your team. A mentor can support your growth and mission of becoming a better manager with useful feedback and advice for your career and can help you identify areas for improvement and development.

Coach with Emotional Intelligence

When you are a manager, coaching your team is part of the job and what makes a good manager is also knowing how to coach with emotional intelligence. That means being aware of your emotions, knowing how to manage them, and how they affect others. You need to also possess great interpersonal skills that allow you to create, manage, and foster strong relationships, as well as leadership skills to inspire and influence others.

Are You Ready to Be a Boss? Find the Perfect Opportunity

Prove that you know what makes a good manager in your next job. Just join Monster to find opportunities that allow you to take that next step. We send you the latest job postings for managers in your preferred industries and locations, so you’ll never miss a chance to apply. And by uploading your optimized resume to your Monster profile, you’ll increase your chances for recruiters to choose you for relevant job proposals.