7 Steps to Improve as a Manager

To Learn Steps to Improve as a Manager, Start with What the Best Coaches Do
The best managers are like coaches. The best coaches know how to best deploy the skills of their team, encourage high performance, and win in a way that makes sense. They must be excellent communicators, connect with individual players, and motivate the team as a whole. In short, the best coaches have high levels of clarity and emotional intelligence.

Improve as a Manager
If you can increase your emotional intelligence as a manager, you increase your ability to understand, connect with, and lead your employees. It may seem daunting, but management development experts know that with self-awareness, determination, and robust practice, you can raise your emotional intelligence bit by bit.

7 Steps to Improve as a Manager
Originating from our new manager training, here are steps to follow for the next week. Once you see real progress, your new behaviors will have a payoff that will keep you going.

1. Know Yourself
   Conduct a manager self-assessment. Be as objective as possible in identifying your strengths and your weaknesses. Try to define the behaviors that draw employees toward you and those that push them away. Be aware of how you come across to others so you can limit your liabilities and accentuate your strengths.

   If you have an opportunity to learn more about how others perceive you through one-on-ones or 360-feedback, take it. Used properly, they can only help improve your ability to lead.

2. Consciously Use Your Senses
   When you are more situationally aware, you feel more alive. Don’t just go through your day-to-day activities on autopilot. Tune into your surroundings and “smell the roses.”

   If you can focus on one sense a day, you’ll soon find that you notice more – even at the office. By paying close attention, you will be able to respond and communicate in a more appropriate and effective way.

3. Be Yourself
   Do you try to project an image you think will be more impressive? Don’t. Be your authentic self. It’s amazing how easily people pick up false vibes if you hide behind a mask.

   As it makes sense, step-by-step reveal your true self. As you open up, adjust to people’s reactions. You can decide how much of your genuine personality you want to share.

4. Try on Others’ Shoes
   Empathy is the ability to share another’s thoughts, emotions, or feelings. It derives from being able to imagine what life is like for someone else. If you can empathize with your employees, you will better understand what matters to them, what moves them, and what bothers them.

   Then you can communicate more effectively and begin to break down barriers to earning their trust and cooperation.

5. Keep It Simple
   Direct and clear messages in simple language are most easily understood. Don’t try to impress employees with overblown vocabulary or complicated syntax. Get to the point and the team will respond the same.
6. Actively Listen
   Active listening is very different from simply hearing. To really listen, you need to focus and pay attention to nuance and both verbal and nonverbal cues. Otherwise, you can appear uninterested and aloof.
7. Take Stock
   After your week of trying new ways to better engage with your team, assess your success. Were there some steps that worked better than others? Have you noticed a difference in the way you are perceived? Start at Step One again with a revised assessment and keep at it.

The Bottom Line
The best managers work at improving their relationships and their results. It is an ongoing process that takes determination and effort. But the rewards of increasing your emotional intelligence will be meaningful and long lasting.

To learn more about how to be a better people manager, download Do You Have High Performing Managers? The 4 Management Metrics that Matter Most