What is the difference between an average manager and a great manager? Some leaders find out at the beginning of their career, others find their way later. However, most follow in the footsteps of other average managers. Forbes compiled five key changes that make great leaders out of good managers:
1. Profit versus purpose
Carrying out the work just for profit may be temporarily successful. In the long term, this solution is not sustainable. The driving force of a great manager is primarily the meaning and purpose of the job they are doing. The best leaders recognize the purpose, shared values, and vision of the business early on and lead their teams to achieving their goals.
2. People are paramount
A manager without people is not a manager. If you are constantly dealing only with only scales and process controls, you are just an average manager. A great leader primarily analyzes his own style of leadership. Do not look at your employees as tools developed to work, but as capital that should be used.
3. Continuing education
Managers who pass through the office assuming they know everything fool no one but themselves. Remember that even you can learn a lot from your employees, not only they from you. A great leader constantly educates, is aware of the processes, culture, atmosphere in the company and his own emotions. Thus he is able to get perspective and avoids the pitfalls which he meets every day.
4. The solution is in simplicity
Although today's modern world is complex and interconnected, this complexity slows down innovation and hampers progress. The best managers are working to simplify complex processes and daily operations because they understand that solutions and profit are in simplicity.
5. Personal approach
The average manager is seen only as a team leader who remains aloof. But a great leader is perceived by employees as an empathetic and friendly human being. It is not a weakness to show your employees that you are also human and to demonstrate a personal approach.
Nowadays, anyone can be a manager and lead a team, but not everyone leads his team well. Which of the preceding qualities are you missing?
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