Are you a good manager or a bad manager?
Oxford dictionary definition: “a person responsible for controlling or administering an organization or group of staff”
Many people include the word “manager” in their job title, yet they are far from being a manager. Some do not have any responsibility for staff or sometimes for anything other than themselves, others have staff but micro-manage i.e. they do all the work themselves rather than let their staff carry out their duties.
There are different types of managers, but primarily there are good managers and bad managers.
A bad manager surrounds themselves with sycophants and generally mediocre staff, employees who can and will do the work well but will not be a threat to the bad manager who wishes to appear to be indispensible. This type of manager and management style will stifle a company’s growth and development because the manager is afraid to try something different outside of their comfort zone. The manager may be doing a good job in handling the day to day work and keeping errors or failure rates low, but there is nothing new; mainly because they are always busy, busy doing work that a lesser employee should be doing.
A department run by a bad manager will have staffing issues, either the staff have no real enthusiasm and will spend the day browsing the web, chatting or taking regular smoking/toilet breaks just to get away from the humdrum daily grind, or the department will have a very high turnover rate as the successful employees will leave for a more dynamic and successful company.
When it comes to recruiting new employees the bad manager will reject anyone who they see as a threat to their position, leaving the company poorly served by listless demotivated staff.
A good manager will do as their title states; they will manage the staff reporting to them. They will split the duties between groups of employees each with a good supervisor in charge who is an expert in that part of the work, probably better than the manager. These supervisors then report to the manager whose duties now comprise of managing the supervisors and finding ways to improve the business or methods and reporting direct to the board or MD.
A good manager will surround themselves with good efficient staff, some who may be a lot better at the work than they are but would make poor man managers. A good manager will take a back seat from the day to day duties other than as an overseer and a final problem solver. Good managers will delegate their duties and allow others to take on responsibility for their work.
A good worker does not always make a good manager.
Successful individuals = Successful organisations
