What are your best practices as a manager?

 

What are your best practices as a manager?

I’d love to know one thing YOU do that you believe is a difference maker on your team.

There are a ton of ideas out there.

Maybe even too many.

I find that for many folks managing people they get a bit lost in all of the content available.

Everyone has to put their own spin on it, so even the same ideas can become repackaged and confusing as a result.

For the next couple of weeks, I thought I would distill down the key factors that lead to management success.

Nothing sexy.

Nothing too fancy.

Just the basics.

I’ve often been accused of over simplifying things.

My response “People tend to like things to be complex because then they are harder to fix, do, and solve.”

So, in the interest of simplicity, let’s start with the first basic element to management success.

 

Set Expectations.

Make sure that everyone on your team knows what it means to be on your team.

Expectations are driven by your values.

Expectations are not found in a policy manual or the Employee Handbook.

Expectations are non-negotiable behaviors that apply to everyone on the team.

Examples of expectations:

• Focus on solutions and innovation
• Take responsibility for your work and your impact on others
• Demonstrate respect with all internal and external colleagues and clients
• When in doubt, do more

In order to set expectations, you must do the following:

1. Identify them for yourself
2. Set up a meeting with the team and have them share their mutual expectations of one another and of you as their leader
3. Create a mutually agreed upon, working document outlining your expectations
4. Publish the expectations in a manner in which everyone can see them
5. Give them attention regularly (don’t just make this a lunch-n-learn workshop and then forget about it)
6. Continually reevaluate those expectations and update as necessary

Expectations are the foundation for all high performing teams.

Without expectations teams

• Become bound by rules
• Focused on limits
• May have diminished critical thinking
• Lack peer accountability for behaviors
• Lack overall culture of accountability

Take a moment and reflect on your expectations and ask yourself when the last time was that you not only communicated your expectations, but also acknowledged team members for doing well by them.