Are You Considered a Good Manager? Learn How to be a Manager Everyone Wants

What makes a good manager isn’t simply telling their teams what to do and exactly how to do it. Tactics that focus on bossing people around and micromanaging should be avoided. Instead, good manager qualities involve learning how to lead your team to be successful and productive, both as individual employees and as a team.

5 Qualities Good Managers Should Have

Being a good manager involves bringing forth leadership qualities that allow for clear expectations, aligning with company goals, and setting a positive example. Here are five necessary qualities a good manager should have.

1. Solid Communication Skills

One of the most important steps in how to be a good manager is learning how to communicate effectively and help your team do the same. Managers must have effective communication to get their expectations and ideas across clearly, and the same holds for their team members.

Aspects of effective communication include understanding tone, body language, your personal style of communication, and each team member’s style of communication. It’s also necessary to communicate well both in writing and verbally.

Pro tip: There are several free communication style assessments you can use with your team, which helps each team member better understand themselves and how to best work with each team member.

2. Capable of Inspiring Others

If you think of some of the great leaders known in the world, one primary reason they are remembered as leaders is the fact that they had or have the ability to inspire others. In addition to other things, inspiring others is necessary to get them to support the company’s vision and foster original thinking and ideas for innovation.

3. Willingness To Collaborate With Team Members

Solid managers know that it’s necessary to work with their teams for collaboration vs. act as if they are above their teams, without the need to get their hands dirty. When a manager works with their teams and puts themselves on the same level, it makes it easier for others to speak up and feel respected — it helps them appreciate that their contributions to the team and organization matter.

4. Foster Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI)

Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) is a common business topic nowadays, and for good reason. Not only is the workforce becoming more diverse, with five generations and minorities gaining traction, but companies that are considered diverse see 2.3 times more cash flow per employee than their counterparts. Additionally, those with diverse management teams see a 19% boost in revenues compared to their counterparts, including those with gender-diverse teams. Aside from the bottom line, fostering DEI initiatives ensures that team members feel seen and heard and supports innovation due to having varying perspectives.

5. Forge Healthy Manager-Employee Relationships

Forging healthy manager-employee relationships leads to increased productivity, morale, collaboration, and innovation, to name a few of the benefits. When managers take the time to create healthy relationships with each of their employees, the employees notice and want to go the extra mile for themselves, the manager, and the business.

Bad vs. Good Management Skills

How to be a good manager also means knowing what to avoid. Here are some tactics managers should avoid.

1. Not giving feedback

Each employee should receive (and deserves) feedback, including feedback that might be less-than-pleasant to share. We all have room for improvement, and if employees don’t know that they have performance issues, how can they improve?

2. Micromanaging

Very few people like to be told how to do their jobs, which means they don’t enjoy being micromanaged. Managers must trust their employees to do their jobs while also allowing them to make mistakes so they can learn from them.

3. Being closed-minded

‍Good managers are open to new ideas and feedback about their own performance and management style. Being closed-minded about such things limits the level of productivity and growth a team can have.

4. Avoiding confrontation

‍Confrontation in life is inevitable, and work is a part of life. Leaders learn how to handle confrontation when it arises to face it head-on instead of avoiding it.

5. Not setting clear goals and objectives

‍It’s difficult for employees to know what to focus on or where to direct their time if they don’t have goals and objectives. It’s the manager’s job to set clear expectations for their teams, which involves sharing goals and objectives that need to be met.

In addition to the above tips, consider taking training courses focused on good manager qualities and what makes a good manager. Such training can support you in how to manage different personality types, including challenging ones, so that you can create a positive work environment and coach your employees.

How to Find Your Next Management-Level Position

Advantis Global is here to support you as you’re considering your next career move, including moving into a management-level position. We work with Fortune 50s to start-ups looking for permanent and contract tech talent. Submit your resume or apply for a job to get connected to a recruiter today.