How to be a good leader!
Be an advocate! Be supportive! Be understanding! Treat everyone with respect!
It’s really not so complicated, don’t be an asshole.
1. Remember its PROCESS NOT PEOPLE!
Process not people means that something in the process allows the person to make the mistake. For example, if a team member (notice how I call them team member, not subordinate **not an asshole**) fills out the wrong box on a document, and this keeps happening after a conversation with that said team member, it’s not their fault. This means the process does not highlight this specific box to ensure it gets filled out, the process of highlighting the box is called Poke-Yoke or mistake-proofing.
We do not blame people as that doesn’t fix anything, when you fix process, you improve that process making it impossible for mistakes to be made.
2. Don’t be afraid to delegate your specific manager job tasks.
If there is a high performer on your team and they want to be the next you, don’t fight it, embrace it. Show them what you do, delegate your work to them. This helps you reduce your workload so you can manage your team more efficiently while helping them learn what you actually do. Additionally, you can give them some leadership tasks so they can learn and see if leadership is something they actually want.
3. Never stop learning
As a leader it is on you to be curious and always be up to date on management and motivation techniques, if you cannot motivate your team, you should not be a leader.
4. Motivate them
This is the most important part, have your team members compete against each other, give prizes. Show them goals and what is in it for them if they succeed. Without motivation you will not get the production or quality you seek.
5. When giving negative feedback, always do the feedback sandwich.
You should have heard this by now, but I am always surprised by how many managers don’t do this!
When giving negative feedback start with something they do great
THEN give them CONSTRUCTIVE criticism.
(Constructive Criticism is = giving feedback and recommendations on how to correct the problem)
THEN end with something else they do great!
Remember its servant leadership, how can you help them, motivate them to get to your SHARED goals.
If you have raised your voice, or only tell them how bad they are, no matter how good your metrics look, you are a TOXIC manager!
TOXIC managers are good at one thing, helping the top talent walk out the door.
