Timely Topics — Past Archives

Effective Managers

Are open to suggestions. Realize that some of the people you now supervise may have more experience than you, so make the most of it. Appreciate their efforts: the better your employees look, the better you look.

Solve problems quickly. Procrastination only makes problems worse. Employees may view you as uncertain of your responsibilities and authority if you put off addressing a problem.

Don’t reprimand employees in public. Take time to listen to your employee’s side of the story in private.

Provide support. Try to be aware when an employee needs emotional support. Remember that people have lives outside of work.

Don’t gossip or make disparaging remarks. And don’t be tempted to discuss management matters with your employees.

Articulate an appealing vision. Vision provides a sense of continuity by linking the present with the future. Vision provides a map of where your organization is going.

Make self-sacrifices that illustrate your belief in the vision.

Communicate high performance expectations and express confidence that employees can attain them.

Communicate often. Make a commitment to communicate with your employees to keep them informed about the organization. Create an environment in which employees are safe to speak up, to tell the truth, and to take risks.

Develop analytic skills. Successful managers possess skills that enable them to analyze a problem in order to develop a workable solution.

Know how to make decisions. Learn how to recognize and define problems and opportunities.

Learn from their mistakes. If you do make a mistake, recognize it, admit it, and reverse it as quickly as possible.

Feel comfortable with delegation. A manager can easily get bogged down with work that could be delegated—this is not an effective use of time. High priority work may be neglected unless a manager can effectively use delegation.