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Becoming a manager, namely someone who leads a team, can happen to many people at some point in their career. However, not many of them become managers for life and, in today's fast-paced world, only a small minority are successful long-term in management. Here are five basic pieces of advice any manager who wants to achieve such success should follow.
In order to be successful, a manager must earn the trust of their superiors, colleagues and (most importantly) subordinates. They can only do this by being consistent in the long term. That means sticking to firm principles, openly communicating expectations, not changing plans suddenly and without reason, and delivering a consistently high quality performance. This is the only way a manager can earn the trust of their team, who are then able to reach their maximum potential.
As LinkedIn Pulse states, a manager must provide support to their team in both good times and, above all, in times of crisis. Thus, a good team leader has to show mental resilience over the long term: they cannot collapse after every partial setback they or their team encounter. They must also be able to help subordinates cope mentally with stress and problems, which are to some extent part of any job.
In the past, the image of the ideal manager was someone who always knew best how things were done and would not delegate work to subordinates because they themselves would do the job best of all. Today, this is no longer valid. It is generally accepted the best manager is someone who is tolerant of other people, different approaches and different opinions. A manager should also be able to find the strengths of people they manage and support these, even if they do not always coincide with the priorities or practices of the manager themselves.
Delegating work sounds like the easiest thing in the world: simply choose a task and hand it over to someone else. But being able to delegate work effectively is in fact a very complex process. You have to enthuse the person in question for the task, explain precisely what is required and the expected outcome. And, last but not least, you must not micromanage them, but allow them some space to do things their own way. Therefore, the ability to delegate work is one of the key qualities a long-term successful manager must exhibit.
A successful manager must be transparent and able to accept responsibility for things that go wrong. If a manager avoids accountability in the long run, both subordinates and superiors will soon find out, and the manager will lose all respect from both groups.
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