Managers, please share your experience with me

[anchor31]

I''m taking a Leadership and Management class online. My experience with management is very limited and what I''m learning from the readings is helpful, but I thought maybe I could learn more from real people... So tell me, how did you develop your own management style? What resources did you use? What sort of manager do you aspire to be? What do you think is an appropriate management style for your workplace? What goals do you set for yourself and the organization you work for? How do you know you are achieving these goals? Please share any information/anecdotes/resources that you think could help me understand more about what makes a good manager.

Thank you very much for your insight!

 

[D&T]

I’ve been in management in three different industries, and I find that my management style is do as I do which is lead by example. I also like to try and train my employees to know exactly how I do things and so that someday that they can aspire to take over my role and I move into another role or position either upwards in the same company or elsewhere. I don’t like management style (speaking of my DH’s workplace) that hoards responsibilities and feel that they have to keep their duties a secret as well as feel that their job is at stake if so and so knows how to do my job, ex: DH does something wrong, ok takes to lead person. Lead person checks and fix, DH ask “what did I do wrong?” can I learn to fix it next time? What can I help improve next? Lead person “oh you did this. I’ll fix it” thanks the end. In this example, there is no growth imo. I also feel that a good manager helps develop their employees to always aspire to grow in their career, it makes me feel good that I help take part in their career path so to speak. For example I got a call about 9 months after I left a management position, my assistant manager at the time found a Manager position at another hotel and he called me to thank me for helping learn all he can.
I also feel that a good manager is not a micromanager, and lets his employees develop a sense of time management skills on their own as well as develop their own sense of urgency given the deadline and let them think freely on how to assess a task instead of giving exact direction on how to complete it (hope that makes sense) My current boss gives me a project, and gives me free range on how to complete the task, if I run into road blocks… I ask.
Being able to work well with many different personalities traits is also key in keeping the peace and keeping the workflow efficient.
Some of this was learning how NOT to be a manager from my previous managers, and some of this I learned from great managers in the past as well as from my graduate studies.
Hopefully this makes sense, sorry if I rambled on.

 

[iheartscience]

Ditto D&T on every word, but I'll reiterate and add a few things. I've been a manager in a few different industries for about 10 years. My current position is the first job I've had in a long time where I'm not supervising people, although I end up doing it anyway! What can I say-I'm a natural leader/bossy, whichever you prefer!

I've never taken a class on management-I've just learned how to manage by doing it, and I learned how NOT to manage by having bad managers.

I think the most important thing of all is to lead by example, always. If you don't you're undermining yourself. Of course you're only human and you'll make mistakes, but if you expect your employees to show up on time, do things a certain way, etc., you better do it right yourself.

Another important skill to learn is delegation. It took me a while to learn how to delegate because I'm very detail-oriented and it is usually more well-done if I do it myself. However, you have to allow your employees to learn, and if it's not up to your standards, point out calmly what the issues are and let them fix it themselves. But at the same time, you have to pick your battles, just like any other relationship.

What else...ditto D&T again on the micromanagement. There's nothing more obnoxious than working for a micromanager. I think the best thing to do is set clear expectations for your employees and let them go at it. And when they're not meeting your expectations, let them know what they're doing wrong-don't just wait until employee review time. Communication really is key!

I also think it's extremely important to have all policies and procedures typed up and easily available. If you change a policy or a procedure, make sure to e-mail every employee about the change and then update it. My current manager loves to change procedures and only tell whomever is present about it, so half the staff is typically out of the loop on new policies and procedures until they find out from a coworker. Lately I've just been taking charge and e-mailing everyone about a policy change myself, and CCing my manager on it. I work for a relatively new department and pretty much nothing is spelled out clearly, which drives me crazy.

Oh-don't play favorites, ever. Of course there are going to be employees you like better than others (for me it's always the best employees!) but you can't let it show. When it seems like you're best friends with an employee (or if you really are best friends with an employee) it can cause a lot of resentment among the other staff, to the point where they think you won't care if your BFF employee is doing something really wrong, and they won't tell you. It happened at a previous job of mine-the owner just loved this one guy who was horrible and lazy, and spent all day on the internet. He seriously did NOTHING all day but play online. Because the owner and this guy seemed so buddy buddy, no one ever said anything about the guy's work habits. No one until me, that is! He got fired and I got his job once the owner started paying attention to how bad he was.

 

[anchor31]

Thank you very much for your input, D&T and thing2of2!