There is a longstanding debate in academia and the business world over the difference between leadership and management. having worked my way up from a developer to a manager, and I’ve learned a lot along the way. I also have come across that people that have no right to call themselves human let alone manage people. A good manager, is someone who is able to create a positive work environment where employees feel valued, respected, and supported. They are able to set clear expectations, provide feedback, and recognise accomplishments.
good manager are “Leaders”, not a manager. As a leader you are there to empower the people that work for you. You need to give them the tools so they can do their jobs and get out of their way.
We learn by doing. we make mistakes and thats ok. If you make a mistake, the worse thing you can do is hide it. Many work environments have a culture of fear. if you make a mistake your going to get into trouble over it. There are obviously limits here. I once accidentally deleted all the cronjobs on a busy ecommerce site. it gave the warehouse team a 4 hour coffee break. I was ribbed about this mistake for months by my team. Once it happened, I felt the blood drain from my face, I stood up, and told everyone one what I had did. The Team rallied around me to fix it quickly. We were back up and running again in a few hours. It’s not what you do wrong, it’s how you fix it that matters. If you have employees that are so scared of making mistakes like this, they will hide it and cover their tracks.
Trust is important. This video from Simeon Sinek is a great example of this.
I had one manager that would Slack me, what felt like every 5 mins, with a friendly “Hi Mark, how is your day today? How’s Project X coming along, is there anything I can help with?”. This particular manager wasn’t technical. This approach was hated by the entire team I worked for at the time. It was a constant interruption, I would have to stop what I was doing, and explain what I was doing, and why I was doing it. There was always a great deal of critism, have you spoken to X and spoken Y about stuff. None of this was actually helpful. The whole team felt micromanaged and this particualr manager was not popular at all. I hated being managed this way, and swore I’d never be like it. YOu have to have an element of trust. If you don’t trust the person, then there are ways to deal with that, this isn’t it.
Be approachable: Employees should feel comfortable coming to you with questions or concerns.
Be supportive: Be there for your employees when they need you, both professionally and personally.
Be fair: Treat all employees equally and with respect.
Be honest: Be honest with your employees about their performance, both good and bad.
Be open to feedback: Be willing to listen to feedback from your employees and use it to improve your leadership skills.
Be a mentor: Be a role model for your employees and help them develop their skills and careers.