15 Ways to Be An Awesome Manager

While great leadership mostly consists of simple things, many leaders forget about implementing them. The following 15 leadership tips are just the tip of the iceberg. Theory alone is not enough here—active practice is needed here, just like everything else in life.

1. Be humane

Never forget that you are managing real people, with their own struggles and stories.

2. Learn to manage

Directing people is not something that comes to many of us naturally. As a leader, you will need to defend the interests of your company. Therefore, a leader should read books about management, psychology, the structure of thinking, hiring people, negotiations, marketing, project management, and economics.

3. Understand what you are managing

Authority can only be won by expertise. You have to understand the things you manage, and this applies to leaders at any level. Without an understanding of what you manage, you will not be able to properly assess the timing, risks, or costs.

4. Admit your own and others' mistakes

You won’t deceive anyone by trying to dodge the bullet. Public recognition of your faults has a truly magical effect. Your team will gain a clear understanding that it is not scary to make mistakes and that mistakes are absolutely normal. Once they understand that making mistakes doesn't mean ridicule, they become more courageous in their work, take responsibility, and take risks more often — all this, in the long run, gives strong competitive advantages to you and your company.

5. Let people correct their own mistake

There's no need to show how "genius" you are at the cost of exposing one of the employees in a bad light. Instead, it is better to write to that person directly and tell them where they made a mistake. Discuss the solution, and let them correct it on their own behalf. This will make their work much better in the long run.

6. Protect your people

You have to be the shield that takes all the impact. No one in the world should have the right to influence your team past you. If someone wants to criticize your employees, let them do it to you, and you will figure out what to do within your company.

7. Be honest and talk about the future

Always say it like it is. If there are plans to change something, tell about them in advance, and do not put people before the fact.

If the company has plans to reduce staff — do not be silent about it. It is better to say later that the plans did not come true than to put people before the fact. If the company plans to raise everyone's wages, tell them too. It builds trust and increases retention. Not to mention the culture in teams with transparent leadership is always better.

The team should be aware of what is happening to the company and it is better if they learn it from you.

8. Within the team, everyone should have a fair salary

Sometimes you can't make an employee's salary the highest on the market. There will always be a company that pays more and a person who earns more. But people need to see that for your company their salary is fair, so they feel like they have enough value for you and your company.

Use this technique: Imagine one day all salaries in the company become public. Will you be ashamed in front of someone from your team? If so, their salary needs to be fixed.

9. Take all the blame

As a leader, you are responsible for everything that happens. Once there's a mistake, you have to take all the blame, and only after that can you decide what you need to do internally within the team.

For people on the outside, it doesn’t matter who truly was responsible, but people on the inside need to feel protected and cared for.

10. Trust your employees

Your employees are paid specialists, whom you hired because of their knowledge and skills — so trust them. No need to double-check their work and no need to micromanage what they do. Along with that, no need to arrange meetings that don’t decide anything. Daily status meetings for 1.5 hours are a clear sign of a low level of trust. One 10-minute Zoom call or Jira conversation is enough.

11. The team must be able to work without you

Making yourself irreplaceable feels great, but it doesn’t lead to great results. Processes should be built in such a way that the team can work without you and be perfectly fine. You know you've achieved this when you have not been disturbed during two weeks of vacation.

12. The team should not have irreplaceable people

This is not just about you, it's about everyone. Anything can happen to people. Rotate tasks can be a great solution. Yes, one may be slower and worse at this task than the other, but now one more employee will understand how to complete that task should there ever be a need.

In the same way, find a person who could perform your functions too: Entrust them with part of your tasks and teach them. Your replacement must always be ready. In many ways, it may be the only way for you to move up.

13. Respect boundaries

Do not claim the personal time and space of your employees. Do not actively campaign for any team building. People will want to socialize outside of work anyway, and they will do so without your "let's go today". Vacation is a sacred time. If someone needs to regularly call a person on vacation — you did something wrong.

14. Collect feedback

Periodically ask the team what they like or dislike and what they would want to change. You can do it one on one, you can do it collectively or you can do it anonymously. Preferably, all of the above: Maybe some people on your team are shy or cautious, but they would still want to be heard.

15. Keep in touch even after the employee leaves

You can start a new company, or maybe a new spot will open up. If they are no longer in your company, this is not a reason to stop communicating, sometimes even the opposite. Try to keep in touch, it is possible that in the future you will need some of them once again. And, you never know when someone may be disappointed in their new employer and feel ashamed to ask you to try to go back.