Want to become a better manager? – Here are our top tips – Part one

Over the next five emails, we are going to take a more in-depth look at leadership.

There has long been a debate about the difference between ‘leadership’ and ‘management’. The ability to create a vision, look ahead, anticipate the market, innovate and develop strategies to deliver the vision are all important leadership skills.

However, core management skills to enable resources and effort to be focused in the most effective way to deliver those plans on the ground are also critical and sometimes overlooked.

In small and medium-sized businesses, more than most, Managers need to be able to combine providing long term direction and leadership with the management approaches that will create the best environment in which to maximise the effectiveness and effort of their teams.

Here are a couple of tips that will help you to become more effective;

1. Clarity
   Ensuring your team know what they’re working towards and their role in delivering this will mean better cohesion of effort, less duplication and increased efficiency. Clear job roles, regular feedback on how people are doing and structured inductions when people are promoted, and when they are new into the business, will all help to galvanise and focus effort.
2. Prioritisation
   As Stephen Covey, author of ‘The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People’ described it “The key is not to prioritise what’s on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities”. Taking time to step back and assess what tasks will really contribute to delivering core objectives, rather than just slavishly focusing on your ‘to-do list, can be a worthwhile investment of time. It will allow you to assess if all the ‘urgent’ items are also ‘important and help you re-focus on the activities that will genuinely drive progress and results.

 

The best leaders and managers surround themselves with the best teams they can. This enables them to focus on what is truly important.

Successfully challenging yourself in these areas can have a transformational effect on your business, and working with somebody in this area can accelerate your development and impact. If you’re interested in learning how our business mentoring service could help you contact….

 

Our team at BHP Consulting all run successful businesses, we understand that businesses are unique, and our approach involves sharing this experience to improve your business. For an initial telephone conversation or face-to-face meeting, click here.