One of my career coaching clients recently interviewed for a sales executive position. The client’s company and job were attractive, but according to my client, the executive he interviewed with—and would work for—was “robotic, humorless and devoid of warmth.”
Wow. If that’s not an excellent way to drive away top talent, I don’t know what is.
Are you a manager of choice?
Being a sought-after manager and mentor is one of the most effective ways to attract and keep the very best people at your company. It costs nothing, it doesn’t go away when Google and Facebook change their algorithms, and you keep it with you for your entire career.
What makes a good manager? Here are some universally valued qualities:
• You’re a champion for your people—a manager who fights for them, has their backs, and pushes back on senior management (diplomatically) when it’s necessary and right to do so.
• You coach and train your people to higher levels of performance. You help them figure things out and solve problems on a regular basis. You don’t interfere or meddle, but you’re there when people need you. And you make them think and perform better.
• You’re competent. You’ve done their jobs (or, at the very least, thoroughly understand what they entail) and know how to impart your knowledge to others.
• You compensate fairly, even generously. You review your people’s compensation on a regular basis to ensure equity and fairness.
• You delegate—not just responsibility, but the necessary authority. You give people objectives and goals, not just tasks. You don’t second-guess their decisions just because they’re not the same ones you would make. You let people make mistakes, knowing you’ve made plenty of them yourself and that that is how people learn.
• You’re a fine person. You’re honest, trustworthy, and straightforward.
• You include employees in important decisions, projects, and presentations.
• You impart a sense of mission and purpose. You connect what people are doing to something greater than themselves.
• You have a track record of promoting from within. You help people move up and sometimes even move out, when it’s the right thing for them. You let your people shine in front of senior management and bring their names up when better jobs open up in other parts of the organization. You don’t hoard talent.
• You liberally dole out public praise and credit as appropriate, keeping yourself in the background.
I don’t mean to say any of these are easy, because they’re not. Being a good manager of people is a difficult, high-level skill—but if you are able to do it well, you will never find yourself short of good people eager to work for you and learn from you.
Unlike robotic, humorless managers who are devoid of warmth—they’re on their own (sometimes quite literally).
Written by Don Maher https://www.linkedin.com/in/donaldmaher/