What Makes a Great Manager?

Many organisations make the mistake of promoting people who have good technical skills into management positions – without considering the potential candidates’ management qualities, and what makes a good manager of a team.

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This is a surprising oversight. According to a Gallup poll of more than one million US employees, a bad manager is the number one reason that people leave their job. When the cost of replacing a single member of staff is now over £30,000, it’s more important than ever to consider what makes a good manager and leader – and for managers to work on developing those skills.

Think of a time in the past when you worked at your best… what motivated you?

Generally, people are not motivated by money – instead, it’s a time when they were trusted and were given freedom to do their job their own way. The best managers are those who give their staff that freedom, and instead coach the team to enable them to perform at their best – helping their team to find a solution, rather than telling them what the solution should be.

According to Lazslo Bock, at Google the 8 key qualities of a manager (listed in priority order), are:

  1. Be a good coach
  2. Empower your team and don’t micromanage
  3. Express interest in your team members success and well-being
  4. Be productive and results-oriented
  5. Be a good communicator and listen to your team
  6. Help your employees with career development
  7. Have a clear vision and strategy for the team
  8. Have technical skills so you can advise the team

How could you work on these skills?

All of Happy’s Leadership programmes are based on creating workplaces where people feel trusted and enabled to work their best. You will learn how to coach your people to solve their problems. This will lead to greater productivity and better results. 

We have spaces available for our upcoming leadership programmes: Managing for the First Time; Happy Workplace Leadership Programme; Brave Leadership Programme for Women.

Learn the 10 core principles to create a happy and productive workplace in Henry Stewart's book, The Happy Manifesto.

Support your aspiring and current managers to be empowering and confident leaders with Happy

Happy offers leadership programmes at Level 3, Level 5 and Level 7, from new managers/supervisor level all the way up to senior leadership teams and CEOs. These programmes are based on the ideas of trusting your people. They are practical and based on applying what yo’ve learnt. We aim to inspire and ignite change in your organisation, as well as giving you valuable management skills such as business strategy, decision-making, negotiation and project management.

We also offer programmes tailored specifically to people from Global Majority backgrounds. The content is the same, but have been designed to give new and experienced managers the skills they need to navigate organisational culture with a clearer perspective on their own potential, as well as building their confidence and expanding their professional strengths.

Claire Lickman

Claire is Head of Marketing at Happy. She has worked at Happy since 2016, and is responsible for Happy’s marketing strategy, website, social media and more. Claire first heard about Happy in 2012 when she attended a mix of IT and personal development courses. These courses were life-changing and she has been a fan of Happy ever since. She has a personal blog at lecari.co.uk.

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