LESSON 1 - HOW TO BE A GREAT MANAGER THROUGH STRONG LEADERSHIP - Employee Interaction

Five key points to Strong Leadership (thus a Great Manager)

Being known as a strong leader is easy to obtain when you know in your heart you are doing the right thing for the “good of all.”  

Here are five key points, which are the pillars to being a successful leader, that you should absorb into your psyche: 

1.  Develop trust and credibility.  When people trust you, they will be more inclined to follow you.  If they follow you, and you have all the pieces of the puzzle in place as described throughout this course, you will succeed.  A leader builds trust by considering the “good of all” when making decisions. Leaders do not abuse their power, but build trust by using it properly.  Trust fosters collaboration, which contributes to openly sharing information, which then creates a solid team who supports each other.  Trust is based on the respect and expectations of a leader who cares and acts with compassion in a most positive way.  With trust there is:   

• Honesty 

• Integrity 

• Compassion 

• Fairness 

• Good relationships 

  

Incorporating these five traits will help guide you on the right path to strong leadership. 

2.  Share the vision with absolute clarity.  Leaders need to share the vision of what they want their department to achieve.  For example, a leader might share a vision like, “We will be a world class customer service organization that provides the benchmark for customer satisfaction.”  To get others to see and understand your vision, you need to motivate and inspire with the same enthusiasm and positivity you have inside you.

    

It is vital, however, that your team understands the vision, and is 100% clear on the objectives.  You are striving for a better and secure future, while eliminating the common work related fears.  People with a shared vision are more productive and have a greater sense of achievement.  Inspire them to follow the processes and procedures you will put in place to achieve the vision. 

  

You also need to listen to what they are saying.  Doing all the talking does not let them participate in the vision quest with their ideas.   

  

A way to see the dream come true is by charting successes, as well as failures.  If the employees always know where they stand, they will know what part they played in achieving the vision.

3.  Be there to help them succeed - Coaching, mentoring, communicating, and listening.  Great interpersonal skills are vital for a successful leader.  You don’t lead by hiding behind your desk.  Be out there and find the strengths and talents of your employees, and place them where they can shine.  They need to know how their strengths serve the objectives.  Show them the respect they deserve, and you have their interests at heart.

    

The bottom line is that they need to know that you will be there to help them succeed.  You can do this by: 

  

• Coaching.  Try and help them improve their skills to do their job better.  Give them feedback on their performance with observations and give good advice.  Use specific statements rather than general comments, whether good or bad. 

• Mentoring.  Help them understand what you are all about, guide them for a better chance of promotion, and have them learn about other aspects and functions of the business. 

• Communicating.  Clearly share your visions and goals, encourage individuals and groups, praise when praise is due, and take the time for one-on-one meetings.  

• Listening.  Let them share ideas, concerns, and know you are approachable and caring.   

  

The most important aspect here is that you are always looking at ways to help develop your employees’ unique skills, both individually and as a group, for a better future including possible growth in the company.  This is a win for the company as well.  The company will gain more productive employees, not to mention you will look good in upper managements eyes. 

4.  Make the decisions and be held accountable. With the skills developed throughout this course, you will mostly make the right decisions and guide your department into the right direction.  You need to: 

• Sift the data for facts and relevance.  

• Look closely at the issue at hand while never losing sight of the big picture. 

• Talk to subject experts if needed.  

• Don’t make a decision too quickly unless necessary.  

• Think about the cost-benefit for both short-term and long-term.  

• Once a decision is made, do not be wishy-washy or unsure about yourself.  You will be seen as a person who can be easily persuaded with little confidence.  

  

You as a leader are expected to take some chances and you might make some risky decisions.  In saying that, as people expect to be held accountable in their job performance, they also expect you to be held accountable as their leader.  If you fail or deny any wrong doing on your part, or place blame on someone else, you will lose credibility and not be seen as an effective leader.

  

You also need to know when it is better to follow, rather than lead, by trusting your employees’ suggestions.  Leaders realize they can’t know all the answers, and earn respect when they seek advice of others when needed.    

If you make a decision that is obviously seen as showing favoritism, or just a lack of judgment, by promoting someone who has bad work ethics, no respect, or below average performance, you will not only lose respect, but also hurt team morale.  

  

Being held accountable is also a positive thing, as you want to be known for the good things that you do.  The same goes for your employees as it makes them feel important and appreciated.  You do, however, need to allow people to sometimes fail or make mistakes during the process of achieving difficult goals.  You do, however, also need to confront them.  By using your management and leadership skills, people will admit their mistakes and accept accountability.  Your skills as leader will also help and coach them to improve.  If you do not already have the nerve and confidence to confront people, you will eventually, as the contents of this course should lift your confidence and ego immensely.  

  

Make sure your decisions are always ethically sound.  Do not ask or expect your team to get the results unethically or use a “no matter what it takes” approach. 

5.  Keep it all under control and headed in the right direction.  The objective of every leader should come with the mindset of striving for “mission accomplished.”  You, as leader and manager, need to focus on what’s most important related to the vision and goals of the organization.  You need to eliminate chaos and be known as a person with authority who can make the right decisions.  You might have 5 projects going on at once, but focusing more on the least important when the most important is in need of help will destroy your vision and miss your goals.  Make sure you get your team to focus on the most important and critical tasks to achieve the goals related to your vision.  By delegating tasks to the right people, fulfillment of the vision will become more likely.

   

Everyone needs to have the same focus and direction you have.  A sense of community within the team, with a common goal, is key.  If you waver and change your mind and direction continually, you will lose trust.  Consistency is key to maintaining control and keep things going in the right direction.  

  

These “five key points” are the core competencies to strong leadership.  We will continue on this path later in this lesson with 101 tips, tricks and secrets to success in Leadership and Management. 

Great Leaders are never 100% satisfied and know how to find the balance

One of the key elements in effective leadership is to never become complacent with the business model, no matter how sound and well crafted.  Even if the department seems to be running well enough on autopilot, the fact is nothing is ever truly fixed, finished, or completed because every aspect of business is a work in progress.  The most successful leaders continually look to improve their department’s performance.  They continue to learn and find self-improvement, do things better, keep spreading information throughout their organization, and improving the skills and abilities of their employees.

One of the most dangerous traps a new manager faces is once they made an immediate improvement; they think they’ve basically fixed the problem.  They are satisfied with their immediate contribution.  The short-term fix looks good in everyone’s eyes, however, without continuous nurturing, the cracks will start to appear.  Minor flaws in the processes and procedures start appearing, and employees start to become negatively anxious.  The clear vision you shared with your team in the beginning starts to become hazy.

A common misperception at this point is to think that in order to make sure the cracks do not appear, you need to seek personal perfection.  This usually leads to having more of a dictatorship approach to leadership, which will inevitably fail.  You need to collaborate, not dictate.   Abandon the idea that you have to know it all right now, as there will always be more to learn.  Shift your focus from individual perfection to organizational excellence.

The good news is that as long as you plan, coach, and facilitate team contribution and performance, you will build an excellent organization.  By encouraging ideas, suggestions, criticisms, and feedback, you and your employees will have a much better chance at fixing the cracks.  Better yet, if you start your management approach with this mindset, the cracks will never appear in the first place.
You need to balance the skills and capabilities of your employees.  Give people the freedom to make mistakes, but make sure they learn, regroup, and try again.  Don’t ignore the mistakes; just don’t bring out the sword.

Effective leadership demands a delicate balance between sensitivity and authority.  Most managers fail to establish a sufficient balance to make the equation work.  When they give too much free rein towards employee empowerment, the plane tilts too far.  The manager will sooner or later end up having to counter balance with exceeded authority, which then tilts too far in the opposite direction.  People need to operate within a framework of boundaries and ground rules.  These boundaries and ground rules need to be made aware of right from the beginning.  Leaders do have to lead and be authority figures, but have the wisdom of relating to people less as a boss, and more as a mentor and collaborator.  Finding that happy medium is the true sign of an inspired and effective leader.


Great leaders embrace the process of discovery by never giving up the quest for information.  They control their destiny so that no one else controls it for them.  They are never 100% satisfied as there is always room for improvement.  Keeping a sharp focus, all the time, and never drifting from the big picture, is key to great leadership.  Another key is to embrace and manage critical opposites in every facet of business whether it is balancing the focus towards shareholders vs. employees, authoritarian rule vs. ungoverned freedom, or employee expectations vs. employee capabilities.

101 Tips, Tricks & Secrets to Success in Leadership and Management

In the following sections, we will discuss 101 insightful secrets and key principles that will help get you started right away to a successful management career.  These valuable management and leadership skills are part of the everyday life of a successful manager.  They are not in any particular order of importance, as they are all extremely valuable.  Some of these tips will be mentioned again in other pertaining lessons within the course.

These 101 “management through leadership tips” are broken up into four parts:

Part 1 - Employee Interaction, which deals with communication skills.

Part 2 - Professional Advice, which gives some tips on running a department.

Part 3 - Personal Advice, which is focused on inner-self qualities.

Part 4 - Words of Wisdom, which contains some gems to incorporate into your leadership style.

Always try to keep these important tips, tricks and secrets to success in mind throughout your management career.  These tips will help you on your road to success.

Part 1 - Employee Interaction - Tips 1 through 27

1.     Get them excited about a better future.  As a leader, you need to rally the troops as a whole to find at least one common goal for all, and then focus a shared vision around that commonality.  There might be a lot of ways to inspire, but in the same token, different people have different opinions on a better future.  Where some might be inspired, some will miss the point.  Find the one goal in which they can all rally behind, and they will truly be able to share in the same vision as yours.  They will see you as an inspiring leader, which will make them even closer to you.  The common goal might be a key metric for company growth, or satisfaction results that shows they are providing world-class customer service, etc.  By keeping them all focused and inspired on at least one common key metric, you will have a more unified and better performing team to obtain that goal.  You want your employees to have faith in the future by eliminating the possible fears we all have in common.  By making them feel secure about the company, providing a clear and shared hope for the future, keeping everything under control, being someone they can count on, and someone they respect who respects them back, you will be seen as an effective leader.

2.     Make sure your employees listen to you.  If they are not listening, they will not follow.  If they are not following, then you are not leading.  You need to establish the fact that when you talk, you expect their full-undivided attention.  If you are losing their attention, stop what you are doing or saying, and let them know you need them to focus on what is being said or shown.  It doesn’t have to be awkward, just say it as a matter of fact, in a normal tone of voice, and get back to business.  Once it has been established that you will not tolerate being ignored, it will stop happening.

3.     You define, and then let your employees conquer, the goals and expectations.  It is more important to define the outcome you desire, rather than the steps on how to get there.  If you hired and/or trained your staff right, then they should be able to accomplish this through teamwork and pride.  Let them know that they are smart and bright, and that you have the confidence that they can achieve the expectations and goals.  They just need to utilize the skills they already possess.  Also make sure the goals are truly attainable and reachable with a realistic timeline.  If you ask for the near impossible in an unrealistic timeframe, you will not only miss the goal, but lose the respect from your team.

4.     Make it a point to personally meet with everyone in your department.  If possible, take a person to lunch each day until you have gone through your whole department.  At least meet with them one-on-one for 15 minutes or so.  If your department or company is just too big (i.e. over 100 employees), then you might want to have a couple of small, but still very personal group meetings or lunches.  Also make it a point to meet with your fellow managers.  Get their ideas and feedback which will not only break the ice, it will make them feel good about themselves.  This in turn will make them like you more.  You might learn some valuable information as well.

5.     Motivating a group differs from that of motivating an individual.  Part of being a great leader is to know your employees’ strengths and weaknesses.  What inspires one person differs from another.  Once you know what makes each person tick, you can capitalize on it by inspiring in a way that finds the positive, which will make them feel good about themselves.  At the same time, you are earning respect and more credibility in their eyes.  We will discuss more about motivating in lesson 3.

6.     When motivating,  focus on the employee’s strengths and accomplishments.  You can use past examples of achieved goals, customer compliments, etc.  Leave the weakness out, and only bring it up at a later time if there is a disciplinary action.  Also, again find out what makes each employee tick.  Some are more motivated by the way you present a challenge.  Some are more motivated by recognition either publicly or privately.  Some are more motivated at different times of the day, week or month such as month-end sales.  Some are more motivated by needing constant reassurance, yet some are more motivated by just letting them work independently.  You need to know your employees to get the most out of motivation.  One thing to keep in mind, you should never try to motivate  by using threats.  It might get short-term results, but you will pay for it in the long run, and most likely lose some good employees.

7.     Find the strong points and unlock the employee’s potential.  When your developing an employee, point them in the right direction that will truly help their career in what they would like to do.   For example, promoting a great employee to customer service supervisor, when their strengths are more technical engineering related, might not be the best idea for both of you.  Let them shine, and make sure they know that you are spreading the good word about them.  That you are sharing their ideas, contributions, successes, and customer compliments with upper management.  Never steal their glory or thunder.  You will already look good because you have a great employee that you manage and are mentoring.  That is enough of an award in itself.  It will also show your fellow managers and upper management that you truly are a team player who wants everyone to succeed, and not one to hold all the cards…

8.     Keep your employees close, but your best employees even closer.  Of course, as a leader, you want to make sure your employees are close to you. But lets face it, there are always a few people in your department that truly make a difference that you want even closer.  You might have someone whose skills and talents are beyond all others and are just supreme, or you might have someone who is just so customer focused that you know you can always trust that person to provide the greatest customer service, etc.  These key individuals can make a big difference to the overall big picture.  It shouldn’t be that way, but that is just the way it is.  You do not want to lose these key players, unless, it is for possible promotion outside of your department but still within the company.  These individuals should get extra good personal treatment such as praise and raises.  Just watch the fine line of showing favoritism.

9.     Be personable, and show you care about your employees as a person.  One of the most effective ways to have people want to follow you as a leader is to make them feel like you truly care about them.  Ask about their interests and genuinely be curious about their lives.  Many employees who feel you are uncaring or unfair are more willing to cheat on their expected workload and think they can get away with it.  They will feel like they are just a number, so what does it matter what they do?  If they feel they are being managed by someone who is trustworthy and acts with integrity, and at the same time cares about people as well as the business, they will feel like they are a true part of the company.  They will see you as a leader to follow and will perform better.

10.   Open communication and honesty with the team.   Be yourself while always maintaining a professional persona.  People deal with situations, good or bad, when they feel you are being honest in a professional yet personable way.  This will also create a good union-company relationship if applicable.  Encourage input and opinions.  Be open for debate.  Also, always suggest that an employee, or group of employees, talk to you first with any grievances before going to HR or upper management.  Most of the time the issue will be worked out right then and there.  Human Resources will love you for it as well.

11.   Continually communicate.  Always keep the communication line open whether in person, chat, phone call, or e-mail.  There will be times when you are so busy that you will forget to talk to your staff.  Don’t be so involved in your own projects that you end up ignoring the hard work performed by your staff.  If you do not talk to your employees, you might be looked at as not trying or caring.  We will discuss more about communication skills in lesson 7.

12.   Sometimes make them find the answer.  Giving your team the responsibility to find the answers, even if they have to struggle a bit, challenges and shows trust in the team.  You might be able to do it quickly, but what about the next time a situation pops up?  Don’t get caught in the trap of doing everything yourself.  It’s stressful for both you and your team.  Instead of finding the answer for them right away, you should instead ask questions like, “What would you do?”  They will learn by committing mistakes, and that should be the time you coach them.  They will learn and build confidence over time.  You should always be there to look after them, but not do it for them.  This also goes for tasks you delegate, but somehow comes back to you.  Try not to let this happen.

13.   Make your employees believe that you are in awe of their skills and that their work is challenging.  The more self-assured a person is, the better they will perform.  You are making them feel good about themselves by letting them know that you recognize the difficulty in their tasks.  Show them you recognize their strengths, and then even challenge them more.  You get more productivity, and they do not feel like their job is meaningless.

14.   Praise when praise is due.  Everyone likes to be complimented and receive a good pat on the back.  When goals have been exceeded, exceptional work has been done, or employees went beyond the call of duty to ensure customer satisfaction, be sure to praise your employees.  There is a difference between praise and saying thank you.  You thank your employees for the hard work they have done, but you praise when exceptional work has been done.  Praising the team for a true accomplishment goes a lot farther than praising for every completed task.  It shows you have the leadership trait to recognize meaningful projects.  We will discuss more about praising and recognizing in lesson 3.

15.   Do not be scared of your employees’ success.  You want to see your employees shine with confidence and build their skills, even if you start feeling like they are surpassing you.  You want to continually build up their self-assurance to utilize their strengths.  The more they grow, the more you grow.  It is a compliment to you when praise is given to your group or one of your team members.  A successful employee usually means the manager must be doing something right, and upper management recognizes that fact.  The only way you can be surpassed is if you lose the individual and teams respect by holding them down.  Loss of respect turns into a lack of confidence in you as a leader.  The last thing you want is a “coup d’état” type of mentality amongst your team.

16.   Get the most out of recognition.  The saying, “Different strokes for different folks,” comes into play here.  Some people prefer public recognition, so you can praise them in front of their peers, whereas others are more inclined to private recognition and praise.  Also, giving recognition to an employee’s true strength and passion goes much further than praise for something they are not passionate about.  For example, one person might be more technically inclined who will get more out of technically related praise, whereas another might be more focused on providing excellent customer service who will get more out of praise due to a customer compliment, yet they are both in the same group.  You need to find the right buttons to push to get the most out of recognition and praise.  Again, this goes back to knowing what makes them tick.  Something else to keep in mind, do not praise an individual in public when it was a team effort.  It can destroy team morale.

17.   Learn what makes them learn.  Part of sharing the vision as a leader, and making sure everyone performs their job functions correctly as a manager, requires that they understand just what it is you are trying to relate.  You can’t assume that a blanket statement or process will be fully understood by all.  Each person learns a little differently than others.  Some people get more by looking at visual examples, while others like watching others do it.  Some like a hands on approach, while others like to analyze the data.  As a leader, you need to make sure the whole team understands what you are trying to share.  As a manager, you would want to know how each individual learns best.  A leader would visually show ideas and visions in charts or slide presentations, have the team participate with ideas based on your vision, and document for those who want to dig a little deeper into your vision.  A manager might want to take a hands on approach with those who are better at doing it rather than reading about it, give documentation to those who are more comfortable by analyzing and applying the information to the project themselves, use a visual step-by-step approach to those who get more out of visual learning, or just have them watch others do it.  You need to use whatever method works best, both from a leaders and managers point of view, even if it is in a few different formats.  This will ensure that the goals of the overall vision will be achieved.  In short, you might need to adapt your style and figure out how to work well with the competencies of your team members, rather than always expecting that they adapt to you.

18.   Always keep an “open door” policy.   Your employees need to know that they can talk to you at any time.  You need to have this open door policy no matter the person or issue.  Whenever an employee approaches you, you always have to be ready to feel sympathetic and show you care.  Show them you are willing to help.  It might be about money, a conflict with another employee, or a personal issue.  No matter the situation, make sure they know you are listening.  You don’t necessarily need to come up with any magic solution at the time, but make sure you get back with them as soon as possible.  Even if it is not what they want to hear, they will know you tried and took their concerns seriously.  Most of the time it is just an opportunity to let them vent, however, you come out looking good.  This is because you did not shrug it off or made them feel stupid for talking to you in the first place.  Look them in the eyes while they are talking, and do not work on e-mail or answer a call unless absolutely necessary.  If you need to interrupt them, make sure you let them know the urgency of the immediate situation.  You would politely ask them to either wait a few minutes, or come back in around 15 minutes.  The main point is not making them feel you do not care.  If, however, this person is a constant bother to you, you will at one point need to let them know that these continuous problems need to stop.  You will have to draw the line.  You might suggest a meeting  with human resources, which might scare them off in presenting future complaints.  No one wants to be known as a complainer.

19.   Always be open, flexible and approachable.  Being laid back and approachable, while at the same time showing you have a desired commitment to achieving results, is truly a successful combination.  Do not come across like an unreasonable, mean, or sarcastic person.  Intimidation might seem like it gives you more power, but it backfires most of the time.  You will lose respect.  People will pretend to like you, but secretly hate you. They will leave the first chance they can get.  Humble yourself with honor, and you will get the best out of your staff.  This only makes your job easier.  Always keep in mind this old saying, “You catch more fly’s with honey than vinegar.”  Be nice, open to new ideas, and show flexibility.  Even the smallest gesture will look big in your employees’ eyes.  Be open to everything, even if you know within the first few seconds that it will never work.

20.   Do not rule by intimidation, but don’t be intimidated either...  Leaders need to have a certain dominance about them and be assertive in both their thinking and ability to deal with others.  However, dominance and intimidation are two separate entities.  Only short-term gain is usually achieved through intimidation and a higher rate of attrition usually occurs.  It is good for a little healthy fear associated with the natural approach to hierarchy and respect for the position, but that is as far as it should go.  If, however, you start to feel intimidated by someone else or with particular events, remember this:  You are reading this paragraph right now for a reason, you desire to excel at your management and leadership skills.  That desire, and what is taught throughout this course, should instill confidence in you to never be, nor show that you are, intimidated by anyone.  Maturity in your management style by empowering, rather than ruling, will show you do not intimidate nor are intimidated.

21.   Develop a collaborative approach.  When your employees are engaged in the vision and goals of the department, they will feel a sense of pride.  Creativity, loyalty, and motivation will grow.  Absenteeism and employee turnover will decrease, while problem solving and productivity will increase.

22.   You have to deal with conflict with confidence.  You will most likely have, at one point in your managerial career, an argumentative troublemaker with a bad attitude.  You will also have employees with poor performance.  You need to react immediately and know when it is time to fire the individual, unless of course you can remedy the situation.  We will discuss more about conflict and firing in lesson 5.

23.   Have effective meetings.  Communicating with upper management and to your staff, as described throughout this course, is extremely important in creating clear-cut direction to achieve the well-defined goals and objectives.  Meeting with staff is of vital importance, however, you need the meetings to follow an agenda and stick to the point to truly be effective.  We will discuss more about holding great meetings in lesson 7.

24.   Stand behind your team.  If you feel justified, and it is within reason, you should always go to battle for your team.  If your team feels passionately about something, you need to show them that you have their best interests at heart.  If someone has a complaint about someone in your department, make sure you deal with the issue and not let another manager or supervisor bypass your authority.  You need to always show that you are an advocate for your team.

25.   Empower your employees.  Give them bigger projects to handle rather than just the simple hour-to-hour assignments.  Once they have tackled a few of the bigger types of projects, both you and your employees will have more confidence in the projects yet to come.

26.   Get the most out of your employees.  In order to do this, you need to give the most of yourself to them.  Continuously ask if there is anything you can do for them.  Be there for them and always let them know you have their back.  Always keep their best interests at heart.  The more you do for them, the more they will follow your lead.


27.   Help people grow their skills and develop their careers.   You do this through training, providing opportunities, and spreading the word through upper management.  This will make you the person people want to work for.  When employees feel they are learning and growing, they work harder and more efficiently.  Don’t let them become bored and stagnant or else they will become sluggish, both personally and professionally.  Challenge and empower your employees with tasks, projects, and assignments.  You will both win, they are improving and you are getting more work done.  Coaching and mentoring your employees, by focusing on the needed strengths for them to learn and grow, is one of the best things you can do as manager and leader.  Build their confidence when they are unsure about themselves, bring them out of their shell when they are shy, and help with reporting and process skills when they are not documentation experts.  By helping your employees learn and grow, you will have more people in which you can delegate tasks.  This in turn gives you more time to focus on other aspects of improving your department, which is another win/win situation.