What Makes a GREAT Manager? (it’s not what you think)

apparently there's a question we can ask ourselves to see whether we would make good people managers in the workplace and that is do you get more satisfaction out of the outcome being achieved or in playing a particular role in getting to that outcome to illustrate imagine you're in the sales team you love chatting with clients and closing deals you enjoy being in the role of a salesperson and because you're so good you're promoted to a manager a week later there's a problem with an internal process sales people are fighting over clients and travel expenses are not being reimbursed as a manager you put down the phone and spend the next month fixing those processes because that leads to a better outcome for your team so is that it there's a special group of people in this world who are just magically able to prioritize the outcome and are destined to become great managers Julie draw xvp on Facebook says no she became a manager at the age of 25 and based on her own experiences and by observing other highly rated managers she concludes that great managers are made not born and in the making of a manager she shares the three Universal ladies our great managers possess and more importantly what they did to get there let's get started quality number

one great managers build trust means different things for different people but if you think about it there are three things we all do when we trust our boss we share problems and challenges we're facing we're not afraid to give them critical feedback and given the chance we would happily work for them again so what are the things great managers do to encourage this behavior and build trust first they're not afraid to show vulnerability Professor brene Brown is an expert in the study of emotions and has famously said vulnerability sounds like truth and feels like courage I remember this one time I asked my manager how to communicate in a nicer way with my colleagues while still being as direct as possible and she told me Jeff I'm still working on this myself but here's what I learned so far her not pretending to know everything made me respect her more and I definitely didn't think oh my God I can't believe she didn't know the answer to this second they give specific recognition advice and feedback act emphasis on the word specific just imagine after a presentation your manager says great job I think it went really well compare this to great job keeping us all engaged with that interactive pull and I think the marketing team really appreciated the call out on slide 7. those extra few words show a manager paid attention and recognize the parts of the presentation we made the additional effort to get right third they prepare for our 101s Julie's premise here is simple managers are very busy people and if they show up to our one-on-ones fully prepared it means they prioritized us above other work interestingly fully prepared does not mean our managers came with all the answers but rather relevant questions that help us decide on next steps broadly speaking these questions can be broken down to three categories identify understand and support and managers should draw from this list of questions depending on the situation I also have an entire video on how to run productive 101s with your manager so check that out after by the way this video is not being sponsored by Julie although that would be cool but it is supported by those of you who subscribe to my paid productivity newsletter Link in the description to learn more quality number

two great managers give great feedback I always thought feedback meant suggestions for improvement and although that's certainly part of it Julie says great feedback inspires us to change our behavior and there are three things great managers do when giving feedback first they set clear expectations at the very beginning and the tip here is for the manager to share ideal outcomes according to a timeline when I first joined the marketing team my manager Greg said in the first three months on the job I expect you'll take ownership of this spreadsheet and help me plan this offline event in six months hopefully you'll be running the weekly status meetings without me it was clear what I needed to do and more importantly I knew how my success would be measured in six months if the weekly meetings went smoothly without Greg in the room I would have succeeded second they make their feedback as specific as possible to drive action instead of saying Jeff your presentation was complicated and we got lost where the word complicated is ambiguous it's better to say you lost the room when you shared seven different designs for the review it would be great to let us vote on three options next time the feedback is crystal clear and it also States specific next steps I can take to improve Pro tip Julie says every time a manager sees their report in action is an opportunity for feedback a short note of Praise or constructive criticism is most effective when the memory is still fresh third they collect 360 degree feedback for maximum objectivity according to Ed Batista of Stanford University our fight or flight Instinct kicks in when we receive critical feedback and that hurts our ability to process what we just heard and react thoughtfully when managers combine their own observations with feedback from our colleagues we feel less threatened because a 360 degree view is more objective and comprehensive Pro tip if your manager gives you feedback you don't necessarily agree with ask them to verify with their teammates actually let me know in the comments if this is something you wish your manager would do more of quality

number three and my personal favorite great managers run amazing meetings according to Julie every meeting needs to have a clear outcome and there are only five outcomes that warrant a meeting first when a decision needs to be made the approach up here is the decision maker needs to be in the room and the people affected by the decision needs to feel that the process was fair second when information needs to be shared only invite the minimum amount of people necessary and it's the speaker's job to keep the audience engaged and entertained third when feedback needs to be given on a project or plan the presentation should include changes since the last check-in problems the reviewer can immediately give input on and end with specific next steps fourth when ideas need to be generated it's actually been proven that people are most creative when they're alone so the key here is to prompt attendees to brainstorm before the meeting and use the meeting time to discuss which ideas can be turned into action and fifth when relationships need to be strengthened the more we learn about our colleagues Hobbies life stories and interests the more we enjoy working with them so Julie argues social events are just as important as formal business meetings in

total Julie actually covers eight qualities all great managers have but I thought these three build trust uh great feedback amazing meetings were the most relevant for the majority of us I'll quickly touch on each remaining aspect in the next seconds even great managers struggle with imposter syndrome and a practical tip is to search for the name of your role model struggles on Google to see how someone you look up to deal with uncertainty and failure they understand the importance of hiring well and a candidate with mixed reviews but vocal supporters usually outperform those with consistently average ratings they know perfect execution is more important than perfect strategy so once you pick a reasonable Direction move quickly to learn what works and what doesn't and make adjustments on the go they're able to dedicate effectively by reminding reports of the purpose not of the task I love this quote by Antoine ding Saint exude Perry that goes if you want to build a ship Don't drum up the men to gather wood instead teach them to yearn for the vast and Endless Sea and finally they walk the quickest way for managers to lose respect and Authority is when they say one thing and do another if you're working professional you might enjoy my collaboration with the Harvard Business review on email etiquette in the workplace see you on the next video in the meantime time have a great one