When it comes to team management, there is no one-size-fits-all solution. Different leadership styles may work better in different situations. Even in a manufacturing environment, vastly different management styles can produce equally strong results. A good manager learns to develop an arsenal of management tools to help them get their team to be the best they can possibly be.
Whatever your management style is, here are five of the best tools you should have at your disposal when trying to manage your team effectively:
- Company Culture: A company with a strong company culture tends to engage employees more, making teams more productive and easier to work with. As the team manager, it’s important that you subscribe to and promote the company culture. If you don’t buy into it, your employees won’t, either. If you do, it can serve as a great motivational tool.
- Prioritization: The ability to prioritize is one of the most important tools at your disposal when managing your team. If you don’t have it, your team may lose focus and it will be difficult to get anything done on time. As a manager, you need to know how to identify the most important tasks and projects and focus on getting those done first before moving on down the line to the next issue at hand.
- Positivity: You’ve heard the expression, “lead by example.” This has merit across industries. If you have a positive attitude about the work environment and what you need to get done, your team will, too. If you are always grumpy, barking orders and complaining about how no one can get anything done on time, your employees will follow your lead and adopt a negative attitude that will inevitably prove counterproductive to the company’s success.
- Honesty: It’s important to be positive with your team, but you also have to be honest. If you attempt to deceive your team members, they will know. If you set unrealistic goals and expectations knowingly, it can demoralize them. If you make promises you can’t keep, your employees will lose confidence in you. Be optimistic and positive, but also honest about any challenges or limitations you perceive.
- Emotional Intelligence: Managers of the past often equated emotionality in the workplace with weakness. But more and more managers understand that you can be compassionate without losing effectiveness. By making an effort to understand your employees while still being diligent about making sure they understand and adhere to their responsibilities, you can often get more out of your workers than if you interact with them dispassionately all the time.
Again, different leadership styles may make some of these tools more or less important or easier or harder to implement than others. But if you can find a way to make all of these tools a part of your preferred management style, you have a great opportunity to increase team member engagement, effectiveness and productivity.