How to Be a Good Manager
By Andy Heath
I have never been a manager, but I have worked for a LOT of different people at varying levels of competence in the field of management. That said, I think I can give you some good ideas about the productivity the best managers have gotten out of me and the damage the worst managers have done to me and to the departments they managed. In case you're wondering how you can be bad manager, check back in two days, as that is the post that will come up next.
The first manager I had out of college was named Mary Ellen – yes, that is her real name. She was wonderful. She gave me all the tools I needed to do my job and she was always there to answer questions and kept me in the loop on processes. To be honest, I did not appreciate what a phenomenal manager she was and ended up leaving the company out of anger at her – one of the many, many, many mistakes I have made in my humble life. Just to give you a few more good things about her, she paid for me to have a membership in the Society for Human Resources Management, she paid for me to take a class at the Tennessee Foreign Language Institute, and she allowed me education in Microsoft Access. She was always there to listen, and she always listened to my ideas, even if she did not implement them. She was wonderful. I still regret not staying at that company, at least for another year or so, but that is how we learn, I suppose.
When I left that job, I went to work for Barbara, one of the meanest women God ever put breath into. But she was also a phenomenal manager – courtesy is not a prerequisite for being a good manager – though it does help. I tell people that Barbara was a good manager because I always knew where I stood with her. Plus, she taught me a lot of technical skills in Access and Excel, and she taught me to use my brain, a skill I had not yet acquired. I also wish I had continued working with Barbara for a little while longer, but then again, we live and learn.
I think the qualities that these two good managers have in common are that they were willing to listen, they always let their employees know where they stood with them, and they took opportunities to teach their employees new skills, be they hard skills or soft skills.
One of the skills the Mary Ellen taught me was the concept of the "pillow punch" which I later read about – not by that name of course – in a book called How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie. The pillow punch involves giving someone bad news but doing so in such a way that makes it an easier pill to swallow. A few months ago I heard a speaker that discussed giving people bad news in the following way.
First, find the common ground. Get them to say, "Yes, that's right, I'm with you." Second, tell them what's in it for them, and there is almost always something that's in it for them. Third, give them the bottom line. At that point, you can tell them the bad news. Then Barbara taught me to think of things from a business perspective. She always had me start with the objective in mind and to work from that objective. She taught me how to look at a business problem and work toward a solution. I really appreciated these lessons very much and still use them to this day.
To be honest, I have not had any manager that met with these two women's competence since. It is sad in a way that the best managers I have yet had were also the first two I had. I would like to have someone like that again at some point, if I continue in the working world, but to be honest it's highly unlikely that I will ever be able to work with such people again. They were one in a million.
The next article I post in two days will talk about bad managers, and I have had so many more of them than good managers. I have also had some average managers, but if you're going to have a level of competence, who wants to be average? I guess I probably won't write an article on how to be average because most people already are.
But to recap, if you want to be a good manager, listen to your employees. Teach them the skills that you possess so they can take them with them to the next job if they do not stay with you. And as an optional component, be courteous.
