What is a Good Manager?

By Mooniek Seebregts, Master Leadership Coach

I have noticed that there are two different types of managers:              

  • managers who lead and
  • managers who supervise.

A manager who truly leads inspires and develops his team members; a manager who merely supervises focuses on maintaining set work processes.

Simply stated, a good leader’s main focus is the people making up the team and not just the procedures used to get the work done. This distinction can make all the difference in the success of the team, and in reality, the success of the business.

Let’s look at why this is true.
Maintaining work processes is a fairly easy task, and does not require good people- and leadership-skills; it is not the most important element in deciding how effective the work team is.

If the manager aims to have a strong team, she must be a leader who recognizes each team member’s skill-set and maintain a focus on each member’s development and contributions by continually coaching and motivating them.

This manager needs good people- and personal-leadership skills. In my experience, without this kind of manager, the team will have excessive interpersonal drama and high turnover. Both of these things thwart team success and productivity.

These problems are best solved with leadership training to develop mere supervisors into good leaders. Develop your team leaders to coach and motivate each person on the team and you will find those good employees will stay and work hard because they feel challenged and well-led.

When each team member and the manager understand more about what personal leadership entails for each individual, it becomes much easier to work together. Often that requires an observant coach to come in, assess, and supply the lacking skills and awareness.

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Photo: Christina Wocintechchat @ Unsplash