7 Tips to Becoming an Extraordinary Manager

How do you get your people to perform? By being the best manager that ever happened to them. The very top leaders drive bottom-line results for a company because they work hard to improve the lives of their employees.

Being a boss is hard. Being an extraordinary boss is even harder. But, it’s work with a high return on investment.

To be an extraordinary manager, you must commit to daily behaviors that create and foster your employee’s engagement. Engaged employees are more productive and motivated – they produce higher quality work, take fewer sick days, and stay with your company longer.

The impact of employee engagement

Gallup has been measuring the impact of employee engagement in an ongoing multi-year study. Their research includes over 25 million employees across geographies and industries.

In Gallup’s study, business units that ranked in the top 25% of their organizations for employee engagement showed:

• 22% higher profitability


• 21% higher productivity


• 10% higher customer satisfaction


• 37% lower absenteeism


• 48% fewer safety incidents


• 41% fewer quality incidents (defects)

And in order to facilitate an environment with employees who are truly engaged, you need to get intentional about creating an amazing company culture. The good news is that there are many things you can put into place to develop an environment where people are genuinely happy and productive.

Here are 7 tips to being an extraordinary manager:

1. Remember your company’s big picture – Exceptional managers have a strategic mindset. You ensure that the activities of your department are firmly aligned with broader initiatives. Identify the strengths of your team and then leverage these to accomplish specific goals. Align your team by helping them work together effectively and letting them know how their work contributes to the big picture. By supporting your employees, you help them succeed thus driving overall performance.


2. Manage people, not commodities – The people who work for you are not merely cogs in a machine to drive production. They are individuals who have their own dreams, goals, and drivers. And if you add more resources to support them, your people will thrive. Do everything you can to nurture purpose, learning, and a sense of accomplishment in your team and your people will pay you back with their commitment and high performance.


3. Empower people to make decisions. Remarkable manageres know their role is to expedite people’s ability to do their jobs. They give them the tools and techniques to expand their thinking and solve issues with big ideas. Create an environment where creativity and problem solving is part of daily conversations. Enable employees with the power to improve their departments and team. Your company will thrive when you develop leaders who rise from the inside.


4. Recognize people’s contributions – Your employees create, build, sell, support, and produce the things that your customers buy. Recognize your people for their contributions – both large and small. It can be as small as a few words like, “Nice job, Jane.” Or, it can be a more formal recognition by publicly acknowledging a team member at a meeting or company event. When people feel appreciated for their efforts, they become happier and more engaged.


5. Mentor your team – Extraordinary leaders provide coaching to get employees past hurdles. You can integrate learning and development as a core component of each job position. Apportion time and dollars toward personal growth so that all of your employees become stronger in their abilities. Set up regular weekly 30-minute check-ins with your people to help them celebrate wins and overcome stucks. Ask them “How can I support you?” And on a regular basis, help staff understand how their actions contribute to the overall company mission, vision and profitability.


6. Set collaborative goals and review progress. Teresa M. Amabile and Steven J. Kramer surveyed hundreds of workers in a variety of settings across a multiyear study. The number one thing employees said they needed to feel happy at their job was to see that they are making progress. As a leader, you can help people by setting meaningful goals for your department and for their position. Then involve your people in determining how they will accomplish their objectives. Give them a way to measure their activities and endpoints that demonstrate successes.

Being an extraordinary manager entails inspiring your employees to reach for greatness. Commit to putting the above behaviors and systems in place and your employees will become more engaged and loyal. They will do their work with pride and increase their dedication to your business and customers.

Remarkable leadership is easily within your reach and you can begin to bolster your team’s performance immediately. As a result of creating a supportive workplace with employees who are engaged in their company, your business will grow. And people will respect you for your ability to be a remarkable leader.

Did I miss anything? Leave a comment below to share other tips to becoming an extraordinary manager.

Source: B2C_Business

7 Tips to Becoming an Extraordinary Manager