If you can develop these four skills, you will become a far more effective leader, as you will better be able to address problems, recognize change, control yourself, and help others to manage their responses as well. It will be like currency in its value, and something that is worth taking the time to develop.
Creativity can turn routine tasks into fun adventures- It can be boring to do the same thing day in and day out, even if it is something you really love. Routine tasks start to feel routine after a while. This is not surprising, but allowing employees to use creativity can turn the routine and mundane into the exciting and adventurous. This does not lead to chaos or loss of control, it leads to a happier workforce, and a more satisfied customer.
Creativity will relieve boredom and create enthusiasm- If you have a vision and goals for your company, it is always a good idea to help employees feel enthusiastic about the endeavor. If creativity can do this, why not let it?
Creativity allows you to make richer contributions in the workplace- In other words, when you allow your staff the power of creativity, they take on greater responsibility, and make greater contributions.
As a manager it is important to understand the obstacles that inhibit creativity in the workplace, so you can overcome them.
The inability to free oneself of problems can really inhibit creative juices and stand in the way of employees working through their issues.
Being in a rush can also inhibit creativity because employees don’t slow down and consider other approaches. Creative thinking does not thrive in a busy mind.
In order to allow your employees the creativity they need to really excel in the workplace, start by not overburdening them. Keep tasks specific and manageable so as not to overburden the mind. It is important to recognize that sometimes a new way of doing things appears to conflict with existing principles, but in reality, they can be more efficient. It is also important to put a stop to inefficient ways of thinking. If you catch an employee using phrases like, “I am just not creative” then as a manager, it is your job to start working on things like changing the way employees view themselves. Help them to see themselves in a more positive light and it will take a positive effect on your work environment.
Seek knowledge- A good manager continues to learn and expand their knowledge base every day. Continual learning and self-improvement is necessary. If you want to become a better manager, look for a way to keep learning daily. Ask yourself if you could improve on your communication, your technical knowledge, etc.
Get organized- Managing people requires organization. Organize your time, organize your work schedule, your goals, etc. Create a workflow schedule. Create a plan. Make sure that you stay on top of things. Work with lists, a planner, a digital schedule, or whatever it takes for you to be organized.
Be teachable and open- Good managers are not afraid to take some advice and input from employees. They are open and teachable. They are okay with feedback. They except it in a respectful and constructive way. While it is good to take feedback and be teachable, a good manager knows when to be the one to lay down the law. Improve yourself by being more teachable and open.
Value your employees- It is important for a manager to know their worth, in addition, they need to know the worth of those that work for them. Learn to identify your own strengths and capitalize on them, and identify the strengths of those that work for you, and capitalize on those as well.
Be industrious- A good manager is industrious. They spend their time efficiently, and are always seeking out ways to use their time well. In other words, a good manager does not spend time on FaceBook or chatting with friends while they should be working. They instead look for ways to help the people they manage, and stay industrious.
Get enough sleep- A good manager practices patience. In order to patiently manage the ups and downs of working, you need to get the rest your body needs each night. Between eight and ten hours a night is best.
Eat right and take care of your health- Again, the better your health is, and the better off you are for managing. When you do not feel well, it is easier to get upset and let emotions rule in your management.
Look for the best in others- remember that you want others to see the best in you, and assume the best, so make sure that you do the same for others.
If you can learn to take care of yourself, you will find that managing the company, managing the major and minor problems, keeping customers and employees happy, etc. all comes more naturally. You will be more efficient, and happier during the process. It is like the parent who finds it is far easier to be patient with the needs of their little one when they get plenty of sleep at night. Take care of you, and you will be a better manager as a result.
2. Be willing to listen as well as speak. One of the biggest mistakes a business manager can make is speaking at his employees, rather than engaging them in conversations and listening with an open mind. Be willing to listen, take what they say into consideration BEFORE speaking.
3. Rejoice with them. If you can celebrate success with them they will be far more willing to listen to you when you have to speak with them about failure. As a manager, speaking should remain upbeat and remind them of the good times, so that they can get back to them.
4. Do not be judgmental. Being judgmental is going to send the employee in to the defensive mode. When that mode is entered, learning ceases. If you want your employees to learn from mistakes, and look at them as opportunities for growth, you have to leave off the judgment, just state facts, and help them see the opportunities for growth.
5. Care about your employees. Show that you care. You can do this through your words and actions. Speak using visual cues as well as verbal. Touching their shoulder, or looking them in the eye when speaking can covey that you care.
6. Lift or elevate them to a higher state. Do not tear them down, rather help them to reach their potential. It is a lot easier to listen to and take advice from someone who you know is trying to help you reach your potential.
7. Use kind and encouraging words. Remain positively focused. If you can turn negative situations into a positive chance to reinforce learning and growth, reminding employees to work hard, and being firm, but doing it in an encouraging way, you will see far greater success.
This can be a difficult task as it is the job of a manager to keep everyone in line. However, remember that it is often a matter of focus. Look at problems as opportunities for growth. When you approach them this way, focusing on the positive, and being firm in your corrections, but showing that you care and value your employees, you will find that they respond far better.
Self-motivating moments often occur in the following areas:
1. Where people feel competent.
2. Where people feel a sense of self-control.
3. Where there is deep meaning or purpose.
4. Where people are allowed to utilize their strengths.
5. Where conditions are challenging and important.
6. Where there is autonomy, accountability, and high involvement.
As a manager, the best way to create these naturally rewarding moments is to recognize when they occur, and do what you can to implement them in your daily work force. For example, people experience self-motivating moments when they feel competent. As a manager you can learn from this and help people to feel prepared for and competent in the tasks they are assigned. Trainings, proper placement of personnel and helpful resources can aid to this.
People often feel these self-motivating moments when they are in control. Giving employees responsibilities and letting them find their own solutions is a great way to do this. Be an example to them, and encourage them, but allow them to control the how, where, and when of what they are doing.
Help employees understand that not every task is fun, exciting, or even enjoyable, but paint the bigger picture for them. Help them see the meaning or purpose behind the tasks and they will find much more joy in doing them. Think about the times in your life that you felt the most satisfied or fulfilled in your work. How can you help recreate those feelings in those that you manage?
Employee placement is a huge part of helping your employees find self-motivating situations. When employees are allowed to utilize their strengths, and bring their best food forward, they are going to shine. Do not ask someone who feels uncomfortable using the computer to create a spreadsheet, it will lead to feelings of failure. Instead, let someone whose strength is this do it. This does not mean you should not train others to use programs, or improve, etc. but by allowing people to utilize their strengths, you improve morale.
Make it fun, challenging, and rewarding. Hold employees accountable, and you will see that self-motivation is the natural result.
Consistency- Consistency is very similar to reliability but not quite the same. A relationship of manager trust is established when a manager is consistent. When they exercise the same actions, set expectations, and consistently respond the same way, an employee knows what they can and cannot do. If they present an idea and it gets demolished by a manager, they are going to be afraid to every present an idea again. However, a manager that consistently takes others ideas into consideration before doing any kind of deliberation will have employees who trust that they can share their ideas.
Focus- Trust is most often established when a manager is focused on the vision for the company. Employees will be able to see that because of the focus, the manager’s actions will be consistent with what it takes to reach a vision or goal. Focus and consistency are critical elements in the recipe for leadership and business management success. But in addition to that, focus helps establish trust because it helps make motivations and intentions transparent. When motivations and intentions are transparent, it is easy for employees to trust because they have a clearer understanding of actions and consequences.
Great business managers and leaders work hard to develop relationships of trust with their employees. They do this by being consistent and reliable in their actions, beliefs, and goals, and by expecting the same from those that they manage. It is important to note that just like in a personal relationship, if management trust is broken, it will take far longer to repair it. Trust is needed in order to achieve the desired results for a company, as without it, managers would have difficulty getting their staff to do as asked without explanation or more.
]]>Mental practice of positive self talk- Teach yourself and others to practice positive self talk. Like that little engine, talking positively can bring about positive results. Consider the following:
1. Talk positively to yourself. Words like, “I can” are extremely useful.
2. Mentally picture yourself accomplishing the task. Visualization is very useful. It helps focus the mind, and helps you believe in yourself too.
3. Stay concentrated, relaxed, and focused.
4. Mentally practice the activity. This helps you work through kinks.
5. Repeat the mental practice over and over.
6. Smile while practicing so you can simulate enjoying the success.
7. Work on eliminating destructive thought patterns. You can do this by choosing to think of other things. Focus on the positive.
8. Imagine positive outcomes, not negative. This is again a plea to focus on the good, and not expect the worst (plan for it, yes, but don’t expect it).
Stop using doubting language- Doubt language can really hurt your team’s momentum and their belief in abilities. Ask yourself if there is an element of doubt built into your language and what you can do to change that. If you need to, practice phrasing things in a more optimistic language Practice makes perfect, so practice, practice, practice.
Remember to make it fun. Whistle while you work. Sometimes the best thing you can do is simply turn the unpleasant tasks into something more enjoyable by making the best of it. Did you know that making a game of it, or whistling while you work can make work fun. Even the most tedious of tasks can be given greater meaning and become less tiresome if you put a positive spin on them.
Managing with positive language is an effective management strategy because it banks on the idea that if you work hard at making the best of every situation, you will have the best. If you remember that failures and weaknesses are simply opportunities for improvement and growth. And if you help bring out the positive and optimistic side of your employees through positive language, you will be more efficient and happier in the workplace.
Second, once you have recognized your emotions, you have to be able to manage them. This means making a conscious effort to decide to be in control of your emotions. As a manager this may mean not over-reacting to an employee, or trying too hard to control things outside of your control. It might means not being depressed or fearful of failure, but embracing the vision you have for a company, and respond rather react when things do not go as planned. Because the fact is, no matter how organized you are, no matter how qualified you are, no matter how many degrees you have, etc. things will go wrong. Managing the emotions that come as a byproduct will only help you improve as a business manager.
Third, use productive self-talk. This is where you work out any emotional hijacking, such as losing a client, etc. by bypassing it to access the conscious parts of the brain, and talk yourself down from the emotions. Being able to talk yourself down means that instead of reacting emotionally, responding with ration and reason. It is learning to look at obstacles as opportunities for growth. If you lost a client, what can you change so that this does not happen in the future? How can you offer better service in order to retain existing clients? Productive self-talk is learned, and involves focusing on the positive.
It sounds funny that you can manage better by improving your emotional quotient, but the fact is you can’t really separate business from feelings. If someone rejects your company, it can feel like a very personal rejection as well. In addition, people have emotions, and until you can manage yours and understand them, it is hard to manage the varied emotions of a group of employees. Thus, it is important to learn to manage your own emotional quotient, practice makes perfect.
When you manage attentions, you inspire employees because you know exactly what you want and you do not waste their time. A good leader’s intentions are always clear. When you run a company it is crucial that your employees know, not only what is expected of them, but that you have a reason for expecting it. They need to know that you are not going to waste their time, but that you are committed to your vision or goal, and that all directives will help them to reach that vision or goal with you.
The management of attention is achieved through intentions and a set direction or goal. Business managers that learn to successfully manage the attentions of their staff will have people drawn to them. They will see fewer turnovers, and will find that the staff they do have is far more focused and successful as a result. These are all really good things. So, how do you manage attentions better?
1. Know what you want. You have to have a clearly defined set of intentions, thus employees not only know what is expected of them by why.
2. Create a framework that leads to a vision and that the outcome of which is a successful completion of a goal. Every action taken has a place in the steps to reaching your business goals. When an employee does something for the company, no matter how trivial it feels, they need to rest assured that it is an important piece in the puzzle of reaching the outcome desired.
3. Real commitment. You have to show a real focus of commitment to the goals in order to get the rest of your team on board and committed to the same vision. This is achieved by really believing in whatever it is you are doing, and focusing on the vision you have set, creating an environment that fosters free thinking, collaboration, taking responsibility, etc.
Good managers are also good leaders. The same qualities that impact leadership ability impact management. If a manager can lead their team toward a vision, inspire them, encourage them to take responsibility and grow etc. they will achieve success.
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