2022 SOFT SKILLS GUIDE

Course 3: Leadership

Soft Skills Guide Leadership and Management - How to Become a Rock Star Manager – 7 Steps Course: Leadership > Curriculum: Leadership Skills Being a “Rock Star” manager means the following: You achieve great results through inspiring and leading your team. You're respected and appreciated by your superiors and your team. Ultimately, you will be on the fast track for promotion and senior management. Becoming a “rockstar” manager doesn’t happen overnight. It takes time and practice, but it’s worth it. Here are seven steps you can take to become a “rock star” manager . Prioritize people's development and not just results. As a manager, you have a lot of pressure to deliver results. It’s almost instinctive to resort to a ends-justifies-the-means mentality. Resist! You may be able to brute force yourself and your team through one project or two, but it will break down in the long run. People work for companies primarily for two reasons: 1) because they need the money, and 2) because they want to learn something. If you manage with both the assigned work and the incentives in mind, you will create a more committed team member. Start caring about your team members as individuals. If you have a new team or team members, start with one-on-one coffees early. This will give you a chance to understand their career / learning aspirations and concerns as well as get to know their personal circumstances if they're willing to share. Your goal is to create an open communication channel early with each of your team members, so each feels comfortable coming to you if there are issues. If you care about their success, then they will also care about yours. Set direction and clear expectations up front. A team looks to its manager to provide direction and vision for how to accomplish something. Even if you're insecure on the inside, you need to sound confident to your team. So take the time to plan out how to accomplish a project. Choose a direction when several seem plausible. If you don’t, your team will be in limbo until you do. Once you do, then communicate clearly what you expect each team members’ role and responsibilities to be. Leave room for them to question and clarify. This way, you and your team can be on the same page working towards the same goals. Delegate issues are not just tasks. There's nothing like a sense of ownership will elevate a person’s commitment. A team member will not be motivated or feel ownership if they're only told to set up meetings or take notes. These are tasks that implicitly say, "I don’t trust you to do more." Try to break the larger issues you need to solve into smaller ones and delegate each of those to your team according to your assessments of their readiness. This way, each can help you figure out how to solve the smaller issues and feel motivated that they are contributing to the solution. Micro-manage initially. This may sound counterintuitive, but it works well when you're managing a new person who just joined your team. I warn each person I manage that I plan to micro-manager them initially so they're not surprised. I also communicate that the reason I do it is that I want to find out as quickly as possible what their capabilities are. You can never really tell from resumes, interviews, or other people’s referrals. I use the first few weeks to gauge this with a new team member. I'll delegate them something, check in with them often, see if their progress is on track, and also see how they manage me. The more someone proactively communicates to me before I ask, the sooner I can pull back from micromanaging them. Provide constructive feedback often. Giving feedback every six months is not enough and giving feedback every day is too much. I recommend giving feedback every time there's something significant to share – either positive or negative. If someone did a stellar job on something, tell them why you thought so. If someone seems to be struggling on something and you have more than one example of it, then maybe it’s time to share it. Be constructive: you're trying to help them improve, not make them feel bad. Give them examples of what happened and what could have happened so they know how to improve. Give support and generous credit. Sometimes, being a great manager is about stepping back and letting your team go on autopilot. Once you can reach this mode, you're golden. Then your job is to provide support when a team member brings up an issue and tells you what help they need from you to solve it. Once the project is done, be generous and give the credit to your team. You cannot do it without them.

How to Become a Rock Star Manager – 7 Steps

Being a “Rock Star” manager means the following:

  • You achieve great results through inspiring and leading your team.
  • You’re respected and appreciated by your superiors and your team.
  • Ultimately, you will be on the fast track for promotion and senior management.

Becoming a “rockstar” manager doesn’t happen overnight. It takes time and practice, but it’s worth it. Here are seven steps you can take to become a “rock star” manager .

  1. Prioritize people’s development and not just results. As a manager, you have a lot of pressure to deliver results. It’s almost instinctive to resort to a ends-justifies-the-means mentality. Resist! You may be able to brute force yourself and your team through one project or two, but it will break down in the long run. People work for companies primarily for two reasons: 1) because they need the money, and 2) because they want to learn something. If you manage with both the assigned work and the incentives in mind, you will create a more committed team member.
  2. Start caring about your team members as individuals. If you have a new team or team members, start with one-on-one coffees early. This will give you a chance to understand their career / learning aspirations and concerns as well as get to know their personal circumstances if they’re willing to share. Your goal is to create an open communication channel early with each of your team members, so each feels comfortable coming to you if there are issues. If you care about their success, then they will also care about yours.
  3. Set direction and clear expectations up front. A team looks to its manager to provide direction and vision for how to accomplish something. Even if you’re insecure on the inside, you need to sound confident to your team. So take the time to plan out how to accomplish a project. Choose a direction when several seem plausible. If you don’t, your team will be in limbo until you do. Once you do, then communicate clearly what you expect each team members’ role and responsibilities to be. Leave room for them to question and clarify. This way, you and your team can be on the same page working towards the same goals.
  4. Delegate issues are not just tasks. There’s nothing like a sense of ownership will elevate a person’s commitment. A team member will not be motivated or feel ownership if they’re only told to set up meetings or take notes. These are tasks that implicitly say, “I don’t trust you to do more.” Try to break the larger issues you need to solve into smaller ones and delegate each of those to your team according to your assessments of their readiness. This way, each can help you figure out how to solve the smaller issues and feel motivated that they are contributing to the solution.
  5. Micro-manage initially. This may sound counterintuitive, but it works well when you’re managing a new person who just joined your team. I warn each person I manage that I plan to micro-manager them initially so they’re not surprised. I also communicate that the reason I do it is that I want to find out as quickly as possible what their capabilities are. You can never really tell from resumes, interviews, or other people’s referrals. I use the first few weeks to gauge this with a new team member. I’ll delegate them something, check in with them often, see if their progress is on track, and also see how they manage me. The more someone proactively communicates to me before I ask, the sooner I can pull back from micromanaging them.
  6. Provide constructive feedback often. Giving feedback every six months is not enough and giving feedback every day is too much. I recommend giving feedback every time there’s something significant to share – either positive or negative. If someone did a stellar job on something, tell them why you thought so. If someone seems to be struggling on something and you have more than one example of it, then maybe it’s time to share it. Be constructive: you’re trying to help them improve, not make them feel bad. Give them examples of what happened and what could have happened so they know how to improve.

Give support and generous credit. Sometimes, being a great manager is about stepping back and letting your team go on autopilot. Once you can reach this mode, you’re golden. Then your job is to provide support when a team member brings up an issue and tells you what help they need from you to solve it. Once the project is done, be generous and give the credit to your team. You cannot do it without them.