Manager development programs are increasingly focused on helping managers to achieve employee engagement.
One of the hardest things a new manager has to learn is to let go of control and work through their employees. They have to acknowledge that their success as a manager is determined by how well they can work through others – how competent they become at achieving employee engagement.
I frequently ask participants in my manager development programs to identify the characteristics of their best managers and their worst managers.
Consistently, the good managers create conditions that enable employee engagement while the bad managers block such engagement through their actions or omissions. Another group is often identified as “the ugly” – those who do not respect basic employee rights such psychological welfare and physical safety.
The list of good manager characteristics serves as a best practice model for participants in our manager development workshops. I’ve included a compacted list of the traits of the good, the bad and the ugly to help you identify what you should aspire to and what attitudes and behavior to avoid.
The Good Manager (facilitates the engagement of employees):
- strategic and proactive
- inspirational, motivational, energetic and passionate
- clearly defines roles and responsibilities
- interprets and shares information
- acknowledges your capacity to perform your role
- takes an interest in you as a person and understands your skills
- encourages, supports and treats mistakes as learning opportunities
- backs employees and is not a “yes” person
- acknowledges and rewards good work
The Bad Manager (frustrates the engagement of employees):
- no clear direction or follow-through
- unapproachable
- apathetic and lacking enthusiasm
- rewards bad behavior (consciously or unconsciously)
- unwilling to learn
- micro-manager
- lacks interpersonal skills
- allows conflict to build
- disorganized
- insecure and feels threatened by employees’ knowledge and skills
- unaware of issues and offers pseudo-consultation
- fails to take action on agreed initiatives
The Ugly Manager (harms the psychological welfare of employees):
- bully
- credit-taker
- grumpy/moody
- overly ambitious with own agenda
- sells out and blames individual employees or the team
This list of traits of the good, the bad and the ugly managers offers attitudes and behaviors to aspire to (the good) and those that you should avoid (the bad and the ugly).
Add your comment: What inspires you the most about your current manager?
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