How to Become a Better Manager

/in /by

StrategyDriven Professional Development Article |Become a Better Manager|How to Become a Better ManagerOne of the most important aspects of business is management, yet this can be one of the most tricky and stressful responsibilities for entrepreneurs. Leadership isn’t a trait that comes naturally to everyone, and it may need to be worked on to succeed if you’re going to be undertaking a managerial role. However, failing to show good management traits can have a profound impact on the productivity of the workforce, leading to poor results and lower profits. In this guide, we’re going to look at some of the key ways you can become a better manager and improve your company’s performance:

Motivate your team

One of the most important traits that any leader should have is the ability to motivate their team. Keeping your employees driven and on task is key to your business’s future success. Failing to motivate your employees could lead to tasks being left incomplete and efficiency levels significantly reduced. It can be difficult to know exactly what needs to be done to motivate your team as every individual is different, however, many aspects should be considered. Firstly, allow your employees to voice their opinions freely without judgment. This gives them an insight into the fact that they have a sense of power within the workplace, as opposed to being micromanaged and shut down when they wish to express their concerns.

Secondly, allow your employees to take on additional responsibilities should they wish to. You may not realize it, but if your employees have been working on the same tasks day in and day out, they may be bored to tears and on the lookout for new opportunities. With this in mind, consider how and where they may be able to utilize their skills in other aspects of the business.

Thirdly, being generous with employee benefits is sure to make your employees feel appreciated and are rewarded for their efforts. Due to the high demands for skilled workers in a variety of sectors, it is easy for your employees to job hop when offered a new opportunity elsewhere, so always ensure you’re offering your workforce the very best benefits to retain your very best talent.

Create a positive work environment

A miserable workplace can make going to work a chore for employees so your responsibility as a manager is to create a more positive environment to keep your staff happy and less stressed. Employees can become completely dispirited if there is friction or negativity in the air. Therefore, whenever you notice any drama or issues occurring, it would be in your best interests to resolve them as soon as possible.

As a manager, you should ensure that you are checking in with your employees frequently to address any problems or concerns they may have. You could introduce an ‘open door’ policy through which employees have the freedom to knock on your office door and have a chat whenever they require. These steps for putting your employees’ happiness as a priority will not only improve productivity on a day-to-day basis but could also improve your bottom line.

Give and receive feedback

Many professionals want to get the best out of their employees, but fail to communicate their thoughts concerning their performance, simply out of concern of causing upset or damaging their professional relationship. However, ignoring the fact that things are going wrong and declining the chance to inform your employees can be a detrimental mistake. All employees need regular feedback to understand what they are doing well and where there is room for improvement and should give them a sense of direction on where to focus their efforts during the working day.

When giving feedback, ensure your comments are direct and are backed up with solid evidence. In doing so, your employees will understand exactly how to improve and in which areas they have surpassed expectations.

In addition to providing feedback, it would also be a good idea to allow your employees to have their say on your position as the manager. In doing so, it can help you gain a clearer understanding of how your team perceive you, as well as which management strategies need to be adapted to suit their needs.

Demonstrate effective leadership

It goes without saying that any good manager should have the ability to lead their team by offering support and advice where they see fit. Motivating your workforce to achieve is one thing, but if you aren’t providing any sense of direction, your team will be unaware of how to make use of their time.

Your main role should be overseeing your team’s duties using your leadership qualities without accidentally micromanaging. Employees feel more in control and confident when they have a manager nearby to turn to for assistance. Leadership skills don’t come naturally to every individual, so you may need to learn the basics of what it takes to be a good leader. You can boost your leadership skills by enrolling on a business masters course at Saint Bonaventure University.

Get to know your team on a personal level

How well do you really know your team? Many managers make the mistake of hiring their employees without really getting to know their staff on a more personal level. Whether you have hundreds of employees or just a handful in your organization, you must show interest and aim to understand them both in the workplace and when it comes to their personal needs.

While socializing has been proven difficult over the past 12 months as a result of COVID-19, it has become the norm to have a face-to-face meeting with new employees working remotely, even if it’s simply over Zoom. In doing so, it proves that you’re keen to get to know them much more closely as opposed to a simple email or phone call.

Although you have to remain professional as the manager, there’s nothing wrong with aiming to become friends with your staff; providing everyone is treated in the same manner so that you cannot be reprimanded for showing favoritism.

Be consistent with strategies

In order for your team to constantly perform and deliver, there needs to be the element of consistency from you, by following a certain amount of set processes. Employees take direction from your instructions to ensure tasks are completed by the deadlines, so everyone within the workforce should take this stance when it comes to guidelines.
Be appreciative of their efforts

When you’re trying to become a better manager, you need to pay more attention to how you treat your employees. While your job is to ensure that everyone is on task, you should never take your team’s efforts for granted. When managing a large group, it’s common for individual efforts to go unnoticed – especially if they are more subdued and unconfident individual.

Failing to recognize your employees’ achievements can be a major disaster long-term. Not only will they put their foot on the brake when it comes to efficiency, but they may also look for job roles elsewhere if they believe they’re not valued.

Don’t be afraid of new approaches and techniques

The way businesses are being run is changing by the day, therefore, managers must always stay in the loop when it comes to new trends and working styles. Some managers tend to take the cautious route in fear that the risk will flop; after all, if this were to happen, they will be the ones suffering the consequences. Yet, failing to carry out new approaches means that your business will stay stuck as opposed to progressing.

Taking controlled risks is the only way your business can reach its full potential and is how some of the biggest brand names in the world have got to their position today. Don’t overlook the ideas of your staff when it comes to your business’ development. They are the ones ultimately working on the front line and have a clear understanding of how things are going and what should be done better. Listening to your employees and taking a leap of faith with their ideas may not only work in your favor but is also a proven factor in employee retention.

Being the manager of a business is no easy task. Unless you have been a manager previously, it can take time to adjust to the responsibility of the position and be one of most difficult professional roles you will ever experience. Nevertheless, once you notice that your efforts are delivering impressive results, it will certainly give you that feel-good factor and perhaps strive to do even better. If you have never managed a team before, knowing how to conduct yourself and the policies to introduce to your team can be a challenge, yet it is simply a learning curve that will develop and improve over time. Hopefully this blog has given you some helpful hints to take on board as a new manager and give your team the very best chance of success.

How Can You Progress In Your Career?

/in /by

StrategyDriven Professional Development Article |Career Progress|How Can You Progress In Your Career?When it comes to your career, you’ll often want to know that you’re doing everything that you can to get to where you want to be. Because we all have goals. And it’s always good to make sure that you know what you want to achieve. Yet, you don’t always know exactly what you have to do to get there. Even when you know where you want to end up.

It doesn’t matter if you have a corporate career, are an entrepreneur, or fall anywhere between, you will always be able to progress. You just have to take a look at where you want to be and sort of reverse engineer things. And there will always be certain steps you can take to get to where you want to be. So let’s take a look.

Create An Action Plan

First off, you might need a plan. Think about your goals and where you want to be. Then reverse engineer. Work back through the roles, the promotions, the different levels you need to be at. Then start to think about what you need to do to progress through each and roughly how long it will take.

Focus On Your Qualifications

If you don’t already have the qualifications you need to be able to progress to the next level, do this next. Think about whether you need to go back to school or get MBA admissions consulting to help you get in. Because this could be the key to getting to the next level.

There are a lot of things that you can do when it comes to improving and assessing the direction your career is going to be taking. Improving your qualifications is one of the best ways of being able to achieve this moving forward, and there are a lot of ideas that will help you to factor this in as much as possible. You need to think about some of the best ways in which you can enhance your skills and make yourself more of an employment prospect. Showing that you are serious about improving your marketability is really important, and there are so many great factors that will help you achieve this. For instance, something like a masters in marriage and family therapy will help you when it comes to assessing and improving your qualifications, and there are plenty of excellent factors that you need to consider when it comes to making the right decisions here.

Network

You should also think about networking and getting to know people in the industry too. You never know where your contacts can take you. Plus, you can learn so much and it’s always nice to have friends at different levels in your career too.

Do Something On The Side

It can also help you if you start to work on something on the side of this too. Now, you may not feel as if you have the time, but taking on a side hustle can improve your career skills and success. It can help you to learn so much and even help you to advance – in ways you wouldn’t imagine.

Get Creative

Finally, you might want to think about what you can do to get a bit more creative in your career. You know that going above and beyond is important. You know that being impressionable and adaptable and knowledgeable is important. But so does everyone else. So what can you do differently? Think about what you might be able to do to stand out and grow quickly. Can you think of new ideas? Try something out of the box? This could help you to get to where you want to be faster.

Do you think that these steps will help you? Sometimes, even having more of a concrete plan can make such a difference. Think about what you can do to take your career to the next level and actually start to feel like you’re climbing the ladder.

If These Signs Seem Familiar, It Might Be Time To Change Your Job

/in /by

StrategyDriven Professional Development Article |Change Your Job|If These Signs Seem Familiar, It Might Be Time To Change Your JobIt can be difficult to accept that your dream job no longer reflects who you have become as you have got older and grown.

We fasten so much of our personas in our work, and to even consider changing that is extremely difficult.

Acknowledging that things are no longer working is difficult, but staying in a negative place that makes you feel less than great can be even worse.

Most people do not have a career path that is perfect or even linear. We all have times when it seems unfocused and unclear, with no real sense of where we will be in the next year or two.

Here, we look at some signs that you might just be ready to move on and find something else.

You are no longer engaged

If you have halted or reduced spending your discretionary work time doing things that may strengthen your work performance or other elements of your company, such as working on a shared project or a fundraiser supported by your company, you may not be as interested in your job as you once were.

Everything feels routine and boring

Routine work consists of simply going through the motions, with tasks running on cruise control. Working on a new project that once excited you but has now lost its emotional luster is an example. If you dislike routine work, a job change may be in order. You need a job that excites you – maybe teaching with Teach for America jobs, for example – no two days will ever be the same in that line of work.

Your colleagues are outperforming you

If your coworkers are getting more in terms of recognition and praise from your boss, or are standing out from you much more than they used to, it can be understandably discouraging. If you feel like you are not putting in the effort to get praised or your hard work is simply going unnoticed or unappreciated, it may be a sign that a change is in order.

You are no longer focused on your job

This essentially means that you are spending more time thinking about activities while you are at work than the work itself. This is not unusual, and while you will often have thoughts about activities at home or outside of work, if they become a fixation, you may want to consider changing careers or jobs. This usually occurs when you begin asking a lot of repetitive questions or you begin to find new things hard to understand.

Your progression has halted

When your opportunity to climb up the ranks stops or slows, or you realize that your depth of knowledge or experience is diminishing, it is reasonable to contemplate moving on. If you find yourself reporting to people who were once your colleagues, or even worse, if you hired them to work for you, it is time to move on.

Sometimes we are too near to the signs to notice them, or the signs appear little by little. We all become familiar or complacent with our jobs at some point. If this contentment causes you more discomfort than happiness then it is time to start to think about a change.

Are You Certified?: The Benefits Of Certification In Business

/in /by

StrategyDriven Professional Development Article |Business Certification|Are You Certified?: The Benefits Of Certification In BusinessThere are many different types of certification in business. These include food hygiene certificates, environmental certificates, fair trade certificates and financial security certificates, which are often given out by professional organizations. There are also various forms of individual certification which may be obtained by taking a course.

Some of this certification is mandatory if you want to work in a certain line of business, while other certification is voluntary. A lot of business owners can be hesitant about applying for voluntary certification – it can be expensive and may require putting in a lot of work in order to meet standards. However, such certification can often be worthwhile in the long run. Below are just some of the advantages to getting certified.

Develop your skills and knowledge

Many people become certified in a certain subject so that they can pursue a career in a specific industry. When starting your own company, you don’t have to prove to an employer that you have certain credentials – you are the boss. However, such credentials can still be important for helping you to develop necessary skills and knowledge.

For example, a course in leadership could help to earn you a leadership certificate. Such a course could help you to build valuable skills and knowledge on how to lead employees if you’re thinking of recruiting your first staff. This can help you to become a better leader.

Consider what skills and knowledge you could benefit from learning and look into courses. This could include university courses or short courses.

Give your company an improvement goal

Certification forces you to meet certain standards. It can motivate you to improve your business, making it more efficient and more ethical.

Many people want to grow and improve their business, but are unable to motivate themselves to make the necessary changes. Certification gives you something to aim for. It can often become a fun challenge for hotels to earn that extra star rating, for an investment firm to achieve GIPS compliance or for a farm to achieve organic certification.

Build trust among the people you work with

One of the biggest perks of pursuing certification is that it can improve trust among the people you work with. This can lead to more productive and successful relationships. Some of the people who may become more trusting include:

  • Customers: Many customers are more trusting of a business that is certified. Certification proves that you are able to meet certain standards and that you are therefore more likely to achieve good results than an uncertified company. Some customers will deliberately look out for trust badges, qualifications and awards before choosing a company to work with. Consequently, you could notice an increase in customers after becoming certified – it can become a valuable part of your marketing.
  • Employees: Employees are likely to be more proud working for a company that has certification. Pride in a company can lead to greater productivity. You may also find that more candidates are encouraged to apply for vacancies, helping to give you more options when hiring new staff.
  • Investors: Some investors will only put their money into a company if it is reputable and ethical. Certification can make investors more trusting of your business – it shows that you are already respected and less likely to be involved in a costly scandal.
  • Suppliers: You may even find that some suppliers are hesitant about working with a company that isn’t certified. Obtaining certification could allow you to gain the trust of more suppliers and give you more choice as to which companies you work with.

11 Personal Factors That Determine Business Success

/in /by

StrategyDriven Professional Development Article |Determine Business Success|11 Personal Factors That Determine Business SuccessThere’s no shortage of things that influence how successful a business will be. Much of it has to do with the strength of the idea and the execution of those ideas. However, it’s also important to remember that they’re not the only things that influence business success. It’s a complicated aspect of life that everything from politics to world events can influence. One of the biggest influences is personal. It’s about the person who’s leading the company.

In this blog, we’re going to run through a bunch of personal factors that you should keep an eye on because they might just impact the future of your business.

Your Routine

It’s not just what you do while you’re at the office that counts, but what you do outside of the office too. You’ll likely be pretty good at coming up with routines for when you’re at work. But it’s also important that you have a routine outside of work, too. If your routine isn’t well established, or it’s damaging, then you’ll be unlikely to arrive at work ready to hit the ground running. A chaotic schedule outside the office will create chaos inside the office!

Where You Work

It’s not just how you work that’ll guide the future of your company, but also where you work. There’s a big difference between working at a cramped kitchen table and working in a beautiful office. This is something that we all intuitively know, but it’s actually been backed up by research in recent years. People work better when they like their surroundings! If you’re currently uninspired by your working environment, then it could be time to upgrade your office space. You’ll find that, by doing this, you don’t just work better, but that you also raise your company’s standards.

Soft Skills

You may have a vision for where you want to take your business. But you won’t be the only person involved in that process — there’ll be plenty of others, from staff to contractors to customers and beyond. As such, it’s vitally important that any leader develops the soft skills they need to get where they want to go. Everything becomes much easier when you’re effortlessly able to talk with other people in a friendly manner, for example. Don’t worry if this isn’t something that comes naturally to you — as with most things, it’s something that you can learn.

Energy Levels

It takes a lot of time, effort, and energy to build a successful company. If you lack any of those things, then you’ll find things difficult. So let’s think about energy. Are you continually getting tired and finding it difficult to work at a high level throughout the day? Then it’s likely that something needs to change. There are plenty of tried and tested methods for boosting energy levels. For example, you can improve your sleep, begin exercising (which boosts endurance), and rethink your relationship with coffee; that caffeine hit will be beneficial at first but may cause an energy crash later in the day.

Optimism

There are times when we make our own reality. If you go into things with an optimistic, positive attitude, then you’ll be much more likely to succeed than if you went into it with a negative attitude. Your attitude might seem like a small influencer, but it’s not — especially not when you expand the timeframe over the course of a lifetime. A person with a positive attitude will see and do things that the negative person would not. Of course, you can’t be positive all the time, but if you find yourself slipping into negativity a little, then it’ll be important to rein things back in a little.

Leadership Skills

Business owners learn, at some point or another, that they won’t just be in charge of their own work. They’ll also be in charge of other people’s work. And that means that they’ll need to call upon their leadership skills if everything’s going to run smoothly! There’s a big difference between being a boss and being a leader. Anyone can be a boss. It takes work to become a leader. But it’s work that’s worthwhile conducting because of the massive impact it can have on a business — and, indeed, the impact it can have on the lives of the workforce.

Adaptability

There are some things in life that you can control and some things that you can’t. When you’re running a business, you can do a lot to ensure that your company can work well. But then, you never know what’s going to happen. Any number of external factors could play a role. And when they do, it’ll be the company’s adaptability that determines how well they’re able to continue moving forward. It’s a good idea not to get too locked into one way of doing things. If you’re open and adaptable, then you’ll be able to roll with the punches and find success in a new environment.

Ability to Spot Problems

There’s value in valuing the good things that you do. But in many cases, it’s identifying the things you’re not doing correctly that can have the biggest impact on a company. The good aspects of the organization will naturally reveal themselves. The bad ones can stay lurking in the corner until at some point they reveal themselves — and at that point, it may be much more difficult to undo the damage. It’s a good idea to perform periodic reviews of your company’s operations to check that there’s not some fundamental error that could cause major problems.

Outside of Work

It’s impossible to have a frantic personal life and run a successful business, at least on a long-term basis. They say that you should keep your public and personal lives separate, but that’s never as easy as they make out. There’s a lot of value in working to ensure that you’re physically, mentally, and spiritually well – as well as making life more enjoyable, it’ll allow you to work better. Of course, most people don’t need to radically change their overall health. But even small improvements can make a big difference. For instance, if you’re drinking alcohol a little too regularly, then a short break can do wonders.

Willingness to Learn

You’ll begin your company knowing some things about what it takes to be successful. But the majority of what you know should be learned when you’re running the business. If you make time for — and have a willingness for — learning, then you’ll be putting yourself in a good position for success. There are plenty of highly valuable business blogs, books, podcasts and more out there that can give you the inside scoop on what it takes to find success. However, while all that information is there, it’s up to you to seek out and absorb that information!

The Grind

Finally, let’s talk about the grind. You could know everything about building a successful company, but if you don’t have the capacity to work for long hours and chip away at all the tasks you need to do, then you won’t be successful. The grind is something that you can’t think about or read about in books — you just have to do it. There’ll be times when your business has to be your whole life. Make it so!

Conclusion

And there we have it. The above won’t guarantee success, of course, because there are so many other elements involved. But they will be important steps along your journey towards building a successful company that make everything easier.