How to be a great manager

You could ask a hundred people, “What makes a great manager?” and get a hundred different responses. We can all agree on what makes a bad manager though, and as the 2020 Global Culture Report by the O.C. Tanner Institute confirms, there are familiar traits across all industries. So how do you, as a manager, go about addressing the issues that workers feel are holding them back, stifling creativity and making them dissatisfied with their jobs?

What’s our goal?
One of the most effective ways of connecting employees with their organisation’s core values is by ensuring everyone is buying into the company mission. A strong, clearly worded and easily understood corporate vision gives employees something to strive for and a common purpose. An effective manager will communicate the vision in their words and their actions, ensuring their team understands and can follow by example. Yet, while most corporations make a point of stating the company mission in corporate literature for customers and shareholders, how many are effectively communicating that mission internally, where arguably it is most needed?

No occasion to reinforce the shared company vision should be overlooked.
Company newsletters can spotlight employees, management or even suppliers who have gone the extra mile to fulfil company goals, and Schoop can help you communicate this throughout your organisation. Our newsletters arrive directly to your employee’s pocket via their Schoop app, bolstering your ‘in this together’ commitment via rich text, image or video. A corporate mission statement shouldn’t just be empty words, and Schoop can highlight and reward efforts to bring the words to life. A good manager should be constantly on the look-out for opportunities to highlight great work practices, share innovative ideas suggested by their members of their team or just the chance to say thanks to an employee who consistently goes above and beyond their daily duties.

Talk is cheap – and effective
One of the most startling statistics to come out of the O.C. Tanner Institute’s report is that only 46% of employees believed their bosses knew what they did at work. This reveals a fundamental lack of communication between management and employee, leading to demotivation and a disengaged workforce. This can be amplified in these days of home-working or in a dispersed workforce who are often out of the office.

If an employee feels overlooked, they will begin to drift off and before you know it, they’ve checked out, found somewhere where they will feel valued, and your organisation is starting the lengthy – and costly – process of rehiring for a member of staff who could have been retained had they felt appreciated in the first place.

The report urges that:

‘To create a better overall employee experience, organizations need to … focus on high-impact, daily micro-experiences. These experiences connect employees to the cultural norms, values, and behaviours that add up to a thriving workplace culture. That culture, in turn, creates a strong, sustained influence on engagement levels, productivity, innovation, and many other core metrics of success.’

It is these ‘micro-experiences’ that are so valuable in making a whole out of a disparate collection of people, but how does your organisation carry this out in practice, where each individual has their unique intrinsic motivations? Marcus Buckingham, author and researcher, writes in the Harvard Business Review that ‘average managers play checkers, while great managers play chess.’ What this means in practice is that good managers appreciate that taking the time to get to know their charges will pay dividends as they recognise the unique strengths and weaknesses that make up their team. 

Annual corporate surveys were the blunt instrument traditionally employed to understand employee motivations, however, apart from seeing a workforce as a homogenous mass, it was also far too general and out-of-date by the time results were collated. Schoop’s Forms and Surveys feature takes the pulse of your workforce in the moment, while our Push Notifications can deliver praise and highlight a job well done throughout the team. Small efforts by managers in recognition of a job well done go a long way. We may not remember our exact salary in years to come, but we all have memories of praise bestowed by a manager for a job well done.

Management style as a part of workplace culture is coming more and more under the spotlight, especially as the younger generation with their vocal requirements for enlightened workspaces become the dominant group, along with their calls that employers see them as individuals. 

Schoop has a range of features that engage employees and when used in conjunction with a joined-up employee engagement policy, can see your best and your brightest retained as well as a creating a happy and fulfilling organisation for all. What are you waiting for? Click on this link to find out how Schoop can help you attract the best employees.