Part and parcel of managing and/or owning a business is the knowledge that it would be somewhat unwise to rest on your proverbial laurels and instead you recognize the importance of always striving to be better, in every sense of the word. In the same ways that you would strive for the best for your business and for your employees, you also need to make the same efforts for yourself and the way things are run.
So, with that being said, here for your information are the best, the most effective and the most advantageous ways to become a better business manager.
Article Contents
Strive to Develop Employee Talent
One of the intrinsic reasons why a successful business manager is both respected and listened to by each and every member of their workforce is due to the conscious decision to always provide challenging employee training development programs and other development opportunities.
There is a, perhaps cliched, but entirely accurate statement which is often passed around business conventions, both across the length and breadth of this country and beyond, is that if an individual dedicates a massive ten thousand hours to learning their role, they will automatically be at the top of the field in that discipline.
Practically speaking, unless you intend on imprisoning your employees inside the four office walls (which will bring up a huge set of legal problems in itself), ten thousand hours is indeed somewhat excessive.
However, ensuring you encourage your employees to access training and development programs will make them see how valued and important you see them to be to the smooth and effective running of your company.
There is a wide plethora of ways to engage in strengthening the incentive and training development opportunities you provide to each and every member of your workforce, some of which are surprisingly affordable to implement immediately:
- Start to ask employees questions about where they see themselves in a year, two years and five years or more within the context of working within your company
- Providing your employees with more responsibility, both in terms of their daily roles and responsibilities and also as extra sideline tasks and projects
- Learning how to delegate confidently and more efficiently
- Holding your own employee networking events, either at your office premises themselves of off-site
- Actively assisting with the navigation and development of culture, diversity and politics within the business
- Researching into training courses which your employees can embark upon and successfully fit around their current job roles
- Giving regular feedback in the form of pre-arranged one-to-one meetings
- Handing out assigned and important stretch assignments to certain members of your workforce who show promise and have actively expressed a desire to move up the ladder within your company
Improve Your Education
It would obviously be somewhat arrogant to assume, even if you have been successfully managing your company for a number of years, that you do indeed know absolutely everything there is to know about business management.
The most beneficial and incredibly effective way to improve both your academic knowledge as well as your practical experience in managing a company is to push yourself out of your comfort zone and to embark upon a challenging yet rewarding mba online.
There are a multitude of reasons to embark upon higher education to improve your effectiveness as a manager, including:
- Strengthening your capabilities at business management itself
- Improving your skills at problem-solving, time management, project management, reporting, researching, presenting and leadership
- Investing in your own development and the development of your employees in key areas of your core business model, such as consultancy, finance and accounting, service operations, global business possibilities, supply chains and human resources
- Professional networking opportunities and the possibilities of business collaborations
Never Be Afraid to Deliver Blunt Feedback
Too often, especially in the modern world in which it seems an actual crime to offend another, it can sometimes be tempting as the manager or owner of a business to side-step around important issues and problems and instead deliver more subtle and generic feedback.
However, it is far more beneficial, both for yourself and your employees, as well as the company as a whole, to confront any problems head-on and talk to a member of your workforce who you feel is not performing to the best of their ability in a private meeting.
When having to deliver harsher and more blunt feedback and even criticism to an employee, it would be prudent to remember the following tips:
- Always explain the impact of the behavior or ongoing issue on both your business, yourself as the manager as well as their colleagues and department heads
- Never attempt to sandwich more negative feedback between two throwaway positive statements, as then the impact and meaning of the criticism will be lost and subsequently nothing will change
- Provide meaningful and effective ideas for change that the particular employee can implement immediately to improve their behavior
Maximize Your Time in Meetings
You will no doubt, if you are being entirely honest with yourself, admit to holding more than a few meetings over the past few months or so whereby nothing was actually achieved.
This may well be slightly frustrating for yourself, especially if you were entirely intent on producing effective results from said meeting, but consider for a moment how, frankly, annoying it must be for your employees, especially if they were asked to down tools and set aside specific time to attend.
There is a myriad of ways in which, on your journey to becoming a better business manager, you can maximize meeting time, which include, but are categorically in no way limited to, the following:
- Set the agenda of the meeting beforehand and make sure every employee is aware
- Be sure to acknowledge the ROI versus the actual cost of each and every meeting
- Consider introducing a productivity rating system for each and every meeting going forward
- Ensuring you clarify the overall purpose of each and every meeting
- Decide, ultimately, whether you even need to arrange this meeting or not
- Only invite the specific members of your workforce to the meeting who actually need to be there and who will directly benefit from what is discussed