Managers are essential to the organization. After all, they are the ones who lead people to attain business goals. This is why it’s crucial that as a manager, you have the necessary skills to properly guide your team members towards what you (and the company) want to achieve. The good news is that you can always enhance your supervisory and managerial skills. Here are five ways to do so!
5 Ways to Enhance Your Supervisory and Managerial Skills
Share your vision with your team
Your employees are more than just people you pay to execute tasks. They’re also people who’ll help you achieve business goals. To fully engage them, you have to make sure that you share your vision with your team. One of the most common reasons why teams fail is that they have vague purposes. People work better when they know that what they’re doing fits into the puzzle of achieving a goal. This can also help you reengage a disengaged employee.
When your team knows your vision, it allows them to see more where you’re coming from and can help them work with you better. However, make sure that your vision is clear and concise.
Communicate and Engage
To enhance your supervisory and managerial skills, you also have to constantly and effectively communicate and engage with your team members.
Constant and effective communication creates a culture of openness and transparency. As much as you can deliver your message as intended to your team members, they should also be able to do the same. That way, both parties can evaluate whether the information was transmitted correctly. This also reduces the risk of conflict.
And, it’s no secret that employee engagement is the key to employee performance. Aside from improving performance, engaged employees are happy employees. And when employees are happy, they are good for your business.
Be accountable and responsible
To be a better manager and supervisor, you have to be accountable and responsible. A true leader always has humility and is willing to own up to their mistakes. This brings you closer to the people and at the same time, earns the respect of your team. Remember that your best employees leave bosses, not companies. Don’t be the reason why your team members leave just because you can’t be responsible for your choices.
Appreciate, thank, and reward
The best managers and supervisors know how to appreciate, thank, and reward their team members. While often underestimated, there’s no denying that gratitude is powerful. Just saying “thank you” to your employees can be a great motivator for them. A “well done” or “good job” after a successful task–especially if this task has been a source of pressure for your team–can lift their spirits up.
Give praise where it’s rightfully due. And while salary increases and cash bonuses are good ways to show your appreciation, it doesn’t always have to be that way. You can get creative with your rewards such as treating your team members pizza or investing in their development.
Be a good conflict manager
In a diverse organization, it’s inevitable that conflict will happen. And it can be good for your team–to an extent. Failing to manage conflict, however, can be your downfall. Here are some ways you can handle conflict at the workplace:
- Find the source of conflict: what really caused the problem?
- Look beyond the situation: emotions and misunderstandings can often cloud the perception of the parties involved. Look beyond what is happening, what is being said by the parties involved, and be calm when tackling the conflict.
- Sit down with the parties involved, listen, and then ask them for suggestions on how to resolve the situation.
- Find a compromise between the parties involved and make sure that the agreed solution is truly what they agreed with without hidden discontentment and that it’ll be followed.
- Constantly communicate: after implementing the solution, you have to constantly communicate not just with the involved people, but your whole team. How do they currently feel? Is the problem really resolved?
Enhancing your supervisory and managerial skills don’t only affect you, it also affects your team members. Don’t let yourself be the reason why your team member leaves the company.
