5 Qualities of a good manager

Many of you in the management arena will have one desire from your usual run-of-the-mill ambitions – to be a good manager. Rather, to be the best manager there ever was. Is this easy? Certainly not! To become a really successful manager, you have to have time and patient. You need not to go to the best business school to learn how to be an efficient manager. Management experts like to say that the best managers are born managers. But in fact management is the process that can be learned if you have a dream or vision for your organization.

1. Acknowledge your staff:

So how do you go for being a good manager to a great one? Start by acknowledging your colleagues, no matter how low down on the food chain they might be. A smile, a word of thanks or a little praise all go a long way in making your staff love and support you. So the next time, a staff member does something that grabs your attention, reward it. 

2. Don’t blast them:

There will be mistakes and slip-ups. People are human after all. But when annoyed, keep your cool as long as you are in public. It is never okay to humiliate someone. What you need to do is to create a work environment that has a positive attitude towards mistakes. Mistakes are the stepping stones to success and chances are that if you are not erring, you are not stretching yourself as much as you can. Make your group feel that making mistakes is not something to be ashamed of. 

3. Admit your mistakes:

The first to doing this is to admit your own mistake. Don’t project yourself as infallible. Your colleagues must be able to see a person who is as human and as prone to err as they are. 

4. The approachable:

This means being approachable. Be friendly and natural with your team. Treat them as people and not as vassals. Know who they are and what makes them tick. 

5. Listen to them:

When team members do open up to you, listen to them with full attention and empathy. If it is a bad time for you, then be honest about it rather than just pretending to be all ears. Ask them to come back another time to follow up yourself. Make sure you show people that you are willing to listen to what they have to say, that they are important and worthy of your time. Have a request? Ask politely and clearly, and it will work wonders. 

At the end of the day, a manager is only as good as how s/he behaves with the people around him/her.