Whether this new managerial position simply landed on your lap or you impressed the right people with your skills and experience, planning about your success early can do your career a lot of good. You may not be aware of it, but managing people is one of the hardest part of your job. So, the efforts that you put as you start your new role will spell the fate of your career.

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How you handle your team should be on the top of your list, aside from doing your regular work. First you should know that regardless of the kind of management strategies you will engage in, the end-goal is for you and your team members to learn from each other throughout your relationship. And because you are the manager, you are responsible for establishing that give and take relationship.

If you and your team are not joining efforts to learn and grow together, then there is a huge need to reassess your priorities. With tough luck, you will have employees who are smarter than you and who know their jobs better than you do. However, do not see this as a threat but instead take this as an opportunity. After all, your success as a manager will be based on the quality of work done by your teams.

A lot of supervisors do not realize the importance of learning from their employees. Most of the time, they give more importance to authority and control over recognizing what could be gained from a mutual and a continual learning process. By sharing the learning experience, it will be much easier to nurture the relationship build on respect. Work relationships built on respect lead to great performance.

Therefore, your strategic focus should be on the quality of your communications and accessibility as a manager.

One way is to implement and teach effective communication. How good you are as a leader depends on how effective your communication is with your team. The phrase “proper communication” might sound easy, but in reality it is not. It is more than just the spoken word; it is about expressing and accurate message through tone and body language and to understand the real message that you are getting in return as well. Constant open communication, active listening, the ability to adapt your style with different sets of audiences, and the steps that you take to make sure that everyone is on the same page is essential. If you spend time nurturing your communication skills as a manager, everyone will reap the benefits.

Interested in communications and management? You might also like this article on leadership tips for new managers.

By Ray Miller

This is the fourth article in a six part series which discusses the Qualities of Leadership. It builds on what was covered previously so if you haven’t read the previous articles, be forewarned.

In this article we will discuss in greater detail the next two of the qualities of leadership: Influential and Decisive

A Leader is Influential

Unless a person can influence others to follow their vision, they’re not a leader. Leaders have that something extra that gets others to buy into their ideas and jump aboard.

Most times a leader’s vision for the future means changing the status quo. It means asking others to abandon the comfortableness of their current position and take the leap of faith that the leader’s vision will lead to a better state. The ability to persuade coworkers, management, and customers is absolutely paramount to a leader’s success. How does a leader influence others? First the leader must anticipate resistance to change. That means appreciating the motivations and anxieties of those around him/her. To methodically defuse those anxieties the leader must first understand why someone is resistant or hesitant about an idea.

The leader must provide empirical evidence that his/her recommendation will in fact lead to improvement. Emotional arguments alone will rarely persuade others.

To the leader, the answer could be as obvious as a finger in the eye but that means nothing unless others are convinced. When resistance occurs a leader must listen and respond with empathy to the concerns. The leader must wait patiently as the group he/she is trying to influence arrives mentally at the same conclusion the leader is advocating. The leader’s motivation should be to improve the good of the company or department. If anyone suspects the leader is out to promote his/her own interests then influence is lost.

The leader must be flexible enough in his/her own thinking so as to alter his/her own plan of action so issues of resistance are minimized. While the leader sees change as a means to improvement others may be threatened because change suggests that the way they’ve always done things has been wrong. A leader’s ego allows others to save face (at least publicly). By anticipating resistance, providing empirical justification for the change, listening to concerns and offering supportive alternatives a leader has laid the foundation for influencing others. Critical to a leader’s ability to influence is their honesty and integrity. If they don’t have a track record of honesty and fair play those around them ill lose trust. Without trust influence is lost.

Here are a few examples of Influential Leadership Behaviors.

1. A leader can effectively and convincingly communicate the benefit their idea will have for the company or organization.
2. A leader listens effectively to concerns and issues and ensures they are addressed in order to build a true win-win relationship for all parties.
3. A leader addresses resistance to change and accepts change openly
4. A leader communicates his or her idea in a way that is genuine and credible and does not come across as manipulative or self serving.
5. A leader provides empirical support (data, concrete evidence) for his/her position or idea.
6. A leader successfully builds and maintains relationships with individuals outside his/her sphere of responsibility.

A Leader is Decisive

Employees will gravitate towards those who provide clarity and direction. That requires someone to make a decision. Unless that’s done the group stagnates – and looks for a leader.

Individuals are more apt to follow a leader’s aspirations if the leader appears decisive. “Decisive” doesn’t necessarily mean the leader makes quick decisions. It means the leader can structure dialogue with others so as to logically arrive at a consensus. Other times, when a decision can only be made by the leader, he/she is able to convey a rational basis for it. In other cases a leader may not be able to make a particular decision – i.e, an employee suggests an improvement for his department by changing a work process that affects several other departments. In that case, an “employee leader” would help the manager convince appropriate decision makers and do his/her best to persuade that person that the change is worthwhile. The important point is leaders don’t delay or avoid decisions. When a leader makes a decision it will be consistent and logically supportive of business priorities and core values. For instance, if your company determines customers are dissatisfied with service, management shouldn’t balk at spending more to hire, train and retain good service reps. By communication and focusing on specific business priorities and core values (see below) no decision comes out of left field. Sounds obvious, but how often are lofty strategic objectives lost in the trenches. It’s not uncommon for work to stagnate or grind to a halt because no one is willing to make an important decision.

Other times it will appear the leader has facilitated a decision when in fact all he/she has done is allowed a compromise. For instance, suppose team members are arguing over how the yearly budget should be allotted. One group wants to purchase new software another wants to spend it on training. After listening to the parties argue the leader decides a 50-50 split is the easiest solution. Maybe it was the easiest but was it the best? A leader would take the time to understand the business justification for both options. That way the entire group can come to consensus on the best course of action.

Here are a few examples of Decisive Leadership Behaviors.

1. A leader takes time to fully understand all options before making or promoting a decision.
2. A leader makes decisions in a timely manner.
3. A leader makes decisions that are logically consistent with the business priorities and core values of the company or department.
4. A leader makes difficult decisions when no one will and communicates a rationale for the decision.
5. A leader escalates issues when a particular decision is out of his/her jurisdiction.

If you have the time, why not move on to our next article “Qualities of Leadership: Effective Communicator and Core Values”.

Ray Miller is Managing Partner of The Training Bank,  a Training and Consulting firm specializing in Customer Focus, Service Improvement, Leadership and fully customized training solutions. He is also co-author of Management Training by the Book and That’s Customer Focus.

Management and Leadership

Leadership is the ability to create the circumstances that allow the potential of your co-workers to be utilized to the fullest extent possible. Management is the ability to organize things in most efficient and productive way possible.

Being a leader is in many ways  different from being a manager.

Leadership is a relationship, management is a position. The position of a manager is something you are appointed from people above you in the organisation. The relationship of a leader is something you are awarded from people at the same level as you or below you in the organisation.

It is possible for a manager to also be a leader, but a leader is not always a manager. If you are the manager of a community  or team and someone else is awarded the leadership of the group you may be in for a challenging situation .

A manager needs to practice  his or her leadership skills to be able to achieve the best results possible. This includes skills such as hearing, giving and taking feedback, communicating clearly and enriching  trust.

The need for both a manager and a leader

A leader can get by without being a good manager, as well as a manager can achieve good results  without being a good leader, but that is less likely. In any case both skill-sets are needed for productivity and prosperity.

A team without both a leader and manager is a bit like a rowing boat with only one oar. It tends to go round in a circle.

If a good leader is present, but good management is lacking, then problems  will arise because things such as budgets, work-flows and organizational charts will be sub-standard . On the other hand if the team has a good manager, but lacks good leadership, lots of energy will be lost through conflicts that are not handled properly, fear causing the true potential not to be tapped  and misunderstandings about expectations and intentions.

Leadership and management related to group development

A less well developed group of people  tends to appreciate the skill-set of a good manager, being able to clearly point out a direction, putting structures in place and creating  easy to follow work instructions. These are good skills in the first stage of group development.

As the team becomes more mature  and conflicts and confrontations start to be more common this is when a good leader needs to step on the stage in this second stage of group development. This could be the same person as the manager, but it could also be somebody else in the unit  Another name for this is the  informal leader of the group.

As the unit  matures even further to the third stage of group development there tends to be an equal need again for management and leadership.