One thing new entrepreneurs and business owners will find out quickly is that employee management is a bit challenging. This is amplified if you are a newly appointed manager now responsible for a team, and not solely your daily workflow. You essentially have multiple workflows to manage and this can certainly be daunting at first.
Let’s face it, not everyone will be easy to work with, but you still need to ensure that workflows are streamlined and moving in the right direction. How can you do this? By managing your team more effectively.
The following essentials to stellar employee management can serve as your quick guide to making management slightly easier. Let’s dive in!
1. Open Those Communication Channels
Communication is the foundation for any good management process. When employees are in the loop about current and upcoming projects and deadlines, they feel like they are part of a bigger process. This can stimulate ownership and increase workflow and team morale.
Communicate with your team on a regular basis, whether it is via a company messenger tool, or a weekly meeting where you explain what’s happening and field questions and concerns. The main aim is to keep communication flowing while increasing employee confidence about their important role in the company.
2. Don’t Be a Robot Manager
Look, you are not a robot that can do everything and never have a moment of struggle. The reason businesses have departments and teams is to ensure that the best employees in a specific field can collaborate and help each other succeed. This is not only for subordinates, it is also for managers. If you are struggling with something, don’t be afraid to be human and lean on your team for support.
3. Step Up and Make Decisions
There is no way around it, you will need to make difficult decisions as manager. This is part of the job, but it doesn’t need to be as challenging as you think. It’s important to make decisions for your team and make those decisions in a decisive manner.
“Too many leaders avoid making tough calls,” Ron Carucci of Harvard Business Review explained. “In an effort not to upset others or lose status in the eyes of their followers, they concoct sophisticated justifications for putting off difficult decisions, and the delay often does far more damage than whatever fall out they were trying to avoid.”
If you make a decision, stick to it. Sometimes including your employees during the decision making process can be helpful as well, showing them that their opinions matter when it comes to the business.
4. Have Automated Systems in Place
Technology is amazing, and leveraging the innovation of today in order to make you a better manager is almost a necessity. This makes having automated systems in place a must for managers. There are plenty of automated tools to choose from as well.
You can use a project management tool to better communicate and increase employee productivity. There’s leave of absence administration outsourcing platforms you can utilize to ensure admin tasks are streamlined and employees are happy. The list goes on and on. Automate and be an innovative manager.
5. Learn How to Manage Conflict
There is always conflict in the workplace. It is unavoidable. However, how you manage employee conflict is certainly under your control. You definitely never want to ignore it. If you are unsure how to manage conflict among employees, lean on your HR department or senior level management for guidance. Just be sure to do it soon, because conflict will arise the most if you’re unprepared.
6. Be a Motivator
If you are not motivating your team, you are not being an effective manager. Motivation is important, and there are definitely different kinds of motivation. Fear is not a motivator anymore, so forget that one. Being the easy going, pushover motivator is also not going to work. This makes striking a balance between strong and fair important.
Be positive when at work, regardless of how you may be feeling, because negative energy will spread like the plague in the workplace. Also reward others who are motivated and do as much team building as possible.
Are You Ready to Be a Stellar Manager?
The above management essentials are only the start. There are certainly plenty of other tips and tricks to learn in order to be a senior level manager. Some of it you can research and implement, and some of it is simply trial and error. It’s also important to create a few management idiosyncrasies of your own and not be so traditional. The workplace is changing, and managers will need to adapt.