Five Keys to Great Management

By Joe Love

While growth is a top priority for companies of all sizes, it can be extremely difficult to create and maintain, especially in today's competitive business environment and the overall economic climate. In order to achieve this goal, managers need to be more open to change. They need to have a detailed approach that will allow them to uncover and understand their own shortcomings and correct them.

Many managers go through their career with a rigid sense of how they do their job. They know who they are and where they are going. But often, managers have found success in spite of gaps in their behavior and personal makeup. If managers are going to help their companies uncover, understand and capture growth opportunities they must change the way they manage.

Here are five keys to great management:

1. Managers must be neutral. There's nothing wrong with giving direction in the normal give-and-take of daily business. But it's not appropriate to pass judgment on employees when they voice their opinions to you. For example, when an employee comes up with an idea, don't automatically give an opinion. Instead thank the employee and let him or her know that you hadn't considered that before and that you'll think about it. Once this becomes a habit employees will begin to see you as a much more agreeable and welcoming person. Soon, you will find yourself flooded with great ideas from employees that can propel the company forward.

2. Managers should always be positive. This is another variation of managers being neutral. Many managers are incapable of saying something positive or complimentary to suggestions from employees. In fact one of their favorite phrases is, "Let me explain why that won't work." If you catch yourself saying this or a similar phrase you have a serious flaw and are not motivating your people toward success.

3. Managers need to share information. We are in the age of knowledge workers, information is power. Intentionally withholding information is the opposite of adding value. Yet it has the same purpose, to gain power. Not sharing information rarely achieves the desired effect. In order to have power, you need to inspire loyalty rather than fear and suspicion. Here a few ways managers can share information:

* Make sure you always get back to your employees with valuable information within twenty-four hours.

* Always include all your employees in your discussions or meetings.

* Always delegate tasks to subordinates and take the time to show them how to get it done.

4. Give people the proper recognition, this part of sharing information in that when you don't give the proper recognition to your employees you're not only sowing injustice and treating them unfairly, but you're also depriving them of the emotional payoff that comes with success. Remember, your success as a manager is dependent on the people around you, so it's incumbent on you to make every employee feel that they're part of the team.

5. Managers need to listen. When managers don't listen they are sending out a wide array of negative messages to their employees and in fact this is one of the major reasons for employees leaving their jobs. The ability to make a person feel that he or she is the most important (and only) person in the room is the skill that separates great managers from average ones. The great ones do it all the time.

You also need to express your gratitude with employees by saying "Thank you," and following up with at least once a month to ask for their comments and suggestions. When you do this your employees feel that you're serious about moving the company forward with their help, not because you say so but because of your actions.

Copyright©2009 by Joe Love and JLM & Associates, Inc. All rights reserved worldwide.

Joe Love draws on his 25 years of experience helping both individuals and companies build their businesses, increase profits, and success coaching programs. He is the founder and CEO of JLM & Associates, a consulting and training organization, specializing in career coach training. Through his seminars and lectures, Joe Love addresses thousands of men and women each year, including the executives and staffs of many businesses around the world, on the subjects of leadership, achievement, goals, strategic business planning, and marketing. Joe is the author of three books, Starting Your Own Business, Finding Your Purpose In Life, and The Guerrilla Marketing Workbook.

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Five Keys to Great Management