The Secret of being a great manager: Top 10 tips

If you are thinking about starting up your own business and are going to manage a team of people, we compiled some great knowledge to form these top 10 management tips.

1. Be Enthusiastic
The best way to succeed as a manager is to be upbeat and enthusiastic. You may not have everyone on board and agree with you, you may not know the answer to everything they ask but if you are highly positive and let them know together you will find a solution to any problem that arises you will be fine. The best thing about being upbeat and enthusiastic is that is infectious, no one wants to have a negative person leading them. Motivation is key to a successful business, not in the old fashioned punish if you don’t do well way but with praise and challenging them. Hopefully they will rise to the challenge and perform well for you.

2. Trust
Great managers do not get where they are using certain business techniques or by making themselves busy, it is because employees work well for people they can trust. They like managers to show competence and be concerned for them. Your employees will work well when they feel their opinions are heard, if they know what is required from them and that they know that decisions are made with them in mind.

3. Listen
Employees are motivated when their managers listen to them. Good listening skills need to be learnt and do not come naturally. The key tip is to create good listeners out of your employees, you should lead by example and be a great listener yourself. You will find people have some great knowledge and that if you take the time to listen you will find out some great ideas.

4. Do not judge unfairly/be understanding
The key to making good decisions is to weigh up the pros and cons and take balanced risks. You need to make the best decision with the information you have at the time. This applies to dealing with your employees as well. You should never make rash decisions with your team and criticise someone’s idea too much as they will then resent you. You should learn to accept other people’s ideas and learn to work as a team together.

5. Warmth
Warmth is a factor a lot of managers overlook and is a great leadership quality to have, most people confuse it with being soft but it really just means being considerate to your employees and showing empathy when it is needed.

6. Delegate
A lot of your team’s potential will be wasted unless you recognise talents and skills and delegate. You should trust your employees with various roles and this will lead to you having fewer things to worry about and show that you trust your team with important jobs.

7. Learn
No one is perfect or the finished article, so a key tip is to learn new things that will help you improve. Great leaders will research, talk to others and listen and find out new ideas they can incorporate into their business and team. No management technique and style will be perfect, and if your team or situation changes, you need to adapt and learn how to best deal with this new challenge.

8. Set goals
Great managers set goals not only for their team but also themselves. The sign of a bad manager is someone who is happy to plod along and not grow. To be a good manager you need to invest time in personal development. Set you and your team financial and personal goals and keep track of them and review them as necessary.

9. Lead by example
This is a common point that a lot of people will have heard before but is very important. Don’t ask your employees to do something you wouldn’t be prepared to do yourself. If they believe if needs be you would do what you are asking them to do, they are much more likely to respect you a do a good job.

10. Tough but fair
A lot of these points cover being nice and respecting your employees, but you can’t be popular all the time. You will occasionally have to make some tough decisions that will not be popular with your team. Hopefully they will understand that why you have made certain decisions and if you feel the need to, you should take the time to explain your reasoning.
Hopefully these tips will help you think about your management style and develop how you deal with your employees. These tips are helpful if you have recently taken up a franchise opportunity and will be heading up a new team of people.

This article was written on behalf of Martin & Co Lettings Franchise who offer franchise opportunity