Why you must take being a good manager seriously

Being a leader at any level and for any number of people is a tremendously important task and this cannot be overstated. It’s so easy to look at your position as a manager and see how it reflects the success of your career and your achievements to date, but people often forget that as a manager you have an innate responsibility to the well-being, development, and progression of your team. There are so many intricacies that come with being a manager, so many so that as a business owner you must be careful with who you appoint into positions of power. It isn’t as simple as managers having more experience, skills, and knowledge and therefore they are better able to oversee projects and members of a team.

Being a manager or a leader means that you almost always decide the figurative ceiling that your people can hit, and being a poor manager almost always equates to untapped and unreached potential.

In this post, we will highlight exactly why being a good manager has to be taken seriously and why it is instrumental to the long term success of any brand or organisation.

You are setting the standard for the next generation.

And the standard for success of the company as a whole. After all, a brand is only as good as the people in it. It is essential that you act as you’d wish your team to act. To show passion and drive, to turn up every day with the right attitude, and above all to treat everyone fairly and with respect. Just because they work at a different seniority level to you, it does not mean that they are devalued as people in any way. Not only are you in charge of shaping the future of your area of the business in terms of the way the people perform and act, but you’re also potentially putting a cap on how well the business can perform as a whole. How you act as a manager will directly impact the future of the brand. Create an ideal of how you’d like your team to perform, to behave, and to act, and ensure that you do those things first. Lead from the front. Lead by example.

How you treat people matters, especially when you are in a position of power.

For those that are career-driven (which are typically the types of people we look for to join our team, especially at a high level) there is so much pride and passion associated with our work that everything that happens during it matters. The highly talented people will throw themselves at their work so much so that having a manager that cares about them is crucial. If they don’t feel appreciated and treated with respect, their productivity and results at work will almost definitely take a hit as a result. Plus, when you are in a position of power you have a duty of care. You have to be mindful of how you act, the things you say, and the way you make people feel. If you are complacent with any of these things, it will be damaging to the relationships that you’ve been so careful about establishing and maintaining with your team. Treat people properly.

You are the voice for your people, often more so than you realise.

Your team will come to you when they have issues, they will come to you when they request a pay rise or holiday, and they will come to you for almost everything else. You are the gateway between them and the directors of your company. It is imperative that you keep communication clear and the relationships with them healthy so that they don’t feel anything but comfortable about coming to you with any issues, requests, or anything else. As soon as people start to feel that they can’t talk to you about any issues they face, they will start to be unhappy and potentially stop asking for things altogether. You want your team to feel they can come to you for anything because, after all, you represent them to the rest of the company. Your voice is for the people first, and it’s louder than you realise.

It is your responsibility to adequately train people to one day take your job.

When you accept the role of manager you must be aware that one day the people that work under you will move into your position. This is a good thing because, with any luck, you’ll have moved up the ranks, too. This means that your job isn’t just about managing other people and ensuring they get projects done on time, or that they aren’t late for work, or that they all work well as a team - you have to teach and train them to do what you do and, if you teach them well enough, do it better. This is vital to take seriously and to treat with caution because it is their future that you have in your hands. If you don’t train and tutor them correctly, they will suffer in the long run. Not you.

You should always be the manager you needed when you were a junior.

You were there once, you understand what it's like, be the example you needed when you started. Treat every encounter with exceptional care. Be there for your team. Show passion and commitment. Learn from the mistakes of your predecessors. Be better than the best manager you’ve seen. It matters. It all matters. You are shaping the future of your company, and the future of the world.

Being a good manager is absolutely necessary.