How To Be A Good Manager (With Tips)

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Summary. To be a good manager, you need to collaborate with your employees, show them you care, and constantly be working on developing your leadership skills. You should also communicate with them, telling them what your goals and expectations are for them, providing feedback, and asking for feedback in return.

Good managers can make a world of difference in the health and productivity of a team and the company as a whole. However, it takes work to be a good manager.

In this article, we’ll talk through how to be a good manager, what characteristics good managers have, and how you can develop those characteristics. We’ll also show you what good managers don’t do so you can avoid some common leadership pitfalls.

Key Takeaways:

Good managers collaborate and communicate with their teams, supporting rather than controlling them.
Good managers are decisive, empathetic, and communicative.
You can strengthen your management skills by attending classes and conferences, reading books, and getting feedback from your mentor and your employees.

How To Be a Good Manager

Work with your team. Yes, you are an authority figure, but the best managers collaborate with their teams rather than acting like they’re above them.

Ask your team for their ideas and delegate tasks instead of doing it all yourself. This shows your employees that you trust and value them, which boosts engagement and productivity. Plus, you’ll get to tap into the skills and experiences that each individual brings to the table, making your team even more effective.

In addition, don’t hesitate to get your hands dirty and help out with the nitty-gritty of your team’s work (just make sure you don’t take over anyone’s responsibilities).

This will not only help you earn your employees’ respect as someone who knows what they’re talking about, but it will also help you earn their trust – people are more willing to follow when they know their leader won’t ask them to do anything they aren’t willing to do themselves.
Get to know your employees. When you know your employees as individuals, you’re able to manage them better, tapping into their skills and passions and supporting their goals. You’ll also have more empathy for them, which helps you look past the things that annoy you and better understand how to help them grow.

You can get to know your employees better by:
- Taking time for casual chats throughout the day.
- Setting up one-on-ones where you ask intentional questions.
- Creating team bonding events.
- Sharing about yourself (as appropriate) to create trust.
Support your employees’ growth and goals. Good managers don’t just care about their team’s or department’s growth – they care about their individual employees’ growth as well.

Prioritize professional development for your team members, asking them what they want to learn or get better at. Once you find out, help them find the resources they need to do that. If you know what their career goals are, help them develop the skills they’ll need to succeed in reaching those goals.

Employees who are constantly learning and growing are not only great for productivity, but they’re also usually more satisfied with their work, which translates to lower turnover.
Back up your employees. Push to get them what they need, draw boundaries to protect their time and workloads, and back up their decisions whenever possible.

When they do make a mistake, give them a chance to tell their side before you decide how to respond rather than jumping to conclusions or lashing out in the heat of the moment.

Show your employees that you have their backs, and you’ll have a much happier, healthier team.
Communicate goals and expectations. Good managers don’t expect their employees to read their minds – they tell their employees what they need from them and when they need it.

Good managers will usually put long-term goals and expectations in place as well as short-term, project-based ones. This helps employees know what they need to be focusing on overall as well as for a particular project. Otherwise, they’re more likely to be frustrated, directionless, and burnt out.
Give and ask for regular feedback. Annual performance reviews aren’t enough. Give employees feedback as you see an opportunity and schedule more regular, informal reviews. This will allow you to correct and affirm employees more often, nipping bad habits in the bud and giving team members a clear sense of direction.

You should also use these times to ask for feedback from your employees. Managers who ask for feedback, receive it graciously, and implement it are generally much more respected by their employees than those who don’t. In addition, this will also make your feedback easier for them to swallow.
Grow your leadership skills. The best managers know that they don’t know everything and never stop trying to learn as much as possible.

Take classes, read books, and attend conferences that will help you strengthen your leadership skills. Find a leader you admire and ask them to mentor you, which just means you’re inviting them to give you their input and advice.

By intentionally growing your leadership skills, you’ll become a better manager. You’ll also be leading your employees by example and showing them the value of developing their skills.
Create a positive work environment. As a leader, you set your team’s culture. You can’t control how your employees will interact with each other or how they’ll respond to that culture, but you can control how well you establish a positive work environment.

Set the example by giving consistent positive affirmation, initiating fun team activities, and showing you care about each member of your team. Even the way you arrange and decorate the office can go a long way in making a work environment more enjoyable.

The Traits of a Good Manager

There is no one definition of a “good” manager – people with a wide variety of skill sets and personality traits can be excellent leaders. There are a few traits that every good manager has, however:

Decisive. As a manager, you’re going to have to make a lot of decisions. While you shouldn’t be rash or careless in your decision-making, you do need to be able to make a decision and stick to it. No one respects or trusts a wishy-washy leader.
Communicative. The key to being a good manager is being a good communicator. That means having strong listening skills as well as knowing how to get your point across clearly to a diverse audience.
Empathetic. In order to lead your employees well, you have to care about them and be able to put yourself in their shoes. This requires taking the time to get to know each individual so that you can understand what challenges they’re facing and what they’re passionate about.
Coaching. Good leaders coach their employees as they solve problems instead of solving the problems for them. As a manager, you should be developing your employees and giving them the support and information they need to be successful, not telling them what to do every step of the way.
Resilience. Managing is tough, and you need to be able to handle harsh words, stressful situations, and difficult decisions.

You should, of course, express and process your emotions, but you also need to be consistent in the way you treat the people around you and keep showing up for them as a calm and productive leader – no matter how you’re feeling.

Bad Management Habits to Avoid

Micromanaging. Managers that are too involved in their employees’ work are doing more harm than good. Micromanaging shows employees that you don’t trust them, and it squelches creativity.

While you’ll have to step in on occasion, try to avoid getting involved when it’s just a matter of preference or individual style and won’t impact the end result of the project or task.
Only giving negative feedback. When employees only hear what they do wrong, they’ll get discouraged and become more focused on not messing up than on becoming more effective and creative.

This not only harms productivity but also damages employee morale, which usually results in higher turnover.
Not giving any feedback. While slightly better than only giving negative feedback, not giving your employees any feedback will result in confusion and lower productivity just the same.

Unless you tell employees what they’re doing well and where they need to grow, they’re just going to keep doing the same thing or wander aimlessly through their tasks. This can be frustrating to them and you, not to mention damaging to your team’s quality of work.
Not asking for feedback. Employees who feel that the door is open for them to express their frustrations, ideas, and opinions to their leaders are far more likely to have constructive conversations than let bitterness and frustration fester.

They’ll also probably trust you more easily since they know you value their insight and don’t think you know everything.
Avoiding difficult conversations. Your job as a manager is to help your team navigate sticky situations, and many times that requires having some difficult conversations. If you avoid those, your employees won’t be able to trust you. You’ll also not solve the problem, which means it’ll likely just get bigger.

How to Strengthen Your Management Skills

Attend conferences and classes. There is no shortage of conferences and classes designed to help you improve your management skills. Your company may even pay for you to attend these sessions, so ask what your options are.
Read books. Books can be an excellent (and inexpensive) way to learn leadership tips and grow your skills. Ask a leader you admire which books or authors they’d recommend you start with.
Find a mentor. Having someone you trust and admire whom you can go to with questions is invaluable as a manager. When you find someone like that, ask them to give you feedback and input whenever they think you need it.
Act on employee feedback. When your employees give you the feedback you ask for, don’t ignore it. Bring it to your mentor to make sure it isn’t just a one-off, disgruntled employee’s opinion, and then change your actions based on that feedback.

After all, what better way is there to learn where you need to grow than from the people you’re leading?

Good Manager FAQ

What makes a good manager?

A good manager:
- Works with their team
- Gets to know their employees.
- Supports their employees’ growth and goals.
- Backs up their employees.
- Communicates their goals and expectations.
- Gives and asks for regular feedback.
- Grows their leadership skills.
- Creates a positive work environment.
What qualities should a leader not have?

Qualities a leader should not have include:
- A tendency to micromanage.
- A lack of enthusiasm.
- Resistance to feedback.
- Nitpickiness.
- Negativity toward employee performances.
- Avoidance of difficult conversations.
- Apathy.
- Indecisiveness.
- Poor communication.
How can I be a successful manager?

You can be a successful manager by caring about your employees and communicating well with them, as well as always working on growing your leadership skills. Tell your workers what they’re doing well, what you appreciate about them, and what you need from them.

As you do that, show them you care by listening to their feedback, getting to know them, and asking about their needs and goals. Finally, constantly be working to improve yourself and supporting your employees in doing the same.

Final Thoughts

Being a good manager takes hard work, but it’s more than doable. A good place to start is to admit you don’t know everything and then ask your employees for their feedback and ideas. Show them you value them by getting to know each individual and trusting them to do their jobs.

Sure, you’ll need to guide them along the way, but when you tap into your team’s strengths and work to develop those, you’ll be far more effective than you would be if you just did it all yourself.

References

Harvard Business School Online – 7 Effective Ways to Become a Better Manager

Process Improvement

Author

Caitlin Mazur

Caitlin Mazur is a freelance writer at Zippia where she has written 140+ articles that have reached over 1 mil viewers as of June 2023. Caitlin is passionate about helping Zippia’s readers land the jobs of their dreams by offering content that discusses job-seeking advice based on experience and extensive research.