You may have had a successful year in your management or ownership position, achieving your goals and developing a vision that was, at least for the most part, consistently adhered to. Or, perhaps you’ve encountered multiple challenges this year, which led to hard-won but essential-to-know lessons.
All of these difficulties and considerations are possible, but no matter if you’re a manager who experienced a good year or a bad year, one thing is often agreed – you can always do better. Taking a healthy approach to management means focusing on what you can do better.Â
Even if you’re doing everything right, it’s good to know what your blind spots are. After all, you’re not just trying to keep a business, enterprise, or initiative running, you’re managing the livelihoods of many people at once.
So, how might a concerned manager think about refining their approach for the new year? It’s not always clear where to even begin.
Never fear, because in this post, we’ll help you get started in your planning:
- Become More Accommodating
One of the duties of good management is learning when to say no, and when to put your foot down. After all, we’ve all seen a manager who, desperate to be liked, will subvert the disciplinary requirements or let employees get away with too much. These managers may be “liked” to the extent they allow employees to do what they want, but that’s not the same thing as regard born from respect.Â
So, perhaps you’ve been quite good at that as of late. That being said, it’s important to balance such an approach with being accommodating. Perhaps an employee raised an issue with you this year and you wish you handled it better.Â
Or, perhaps you had to say goodbye to a good staff member because their personal needs meant they couldn’t keep up with the job. This might teach you that despite their need to stay at home most of the week, using services like a hosted desktop can allow them to contribute the value they did before. Accommodating others can strengthen your team, as long as it’s implemented correctly.
- Challenge Yourself
It’s particularly easy to fall into a management style. This can permeate your approach to the point where you notice you speak with the same kind of explanatory cadence in every brief you give. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with that necessarily, only it may show that you’ve become comfortable in your approach.
That’s why it’s good to shock yourself out of those cobwebs. But how? Well, volunteering for a team project might help you focus on something outside the span of work, like developing a new department or taking hold of some of the recruitment necessities in the business. You may also decide to go for your promotion and manage a wider set of people. Either way, try to focus on something novel, and you’ll see how your enthusiasm grows.Â
- Feedback Sessions
Ultimately management is about making decisions, and if you were to adopt every single point of view you were ever given, you would feel paralyzed from making those forward-facing choices. Yet it can also be worthwhile to reformat how you take feedback, and how you use the lessons of 2023 to guide you for the next year.
It’s good to bake this into your schedule. Implementing regular 1-2-1 chats with those you’re responsible for can not only help you learn more about the ground operations going on, but also who may be struggling, what they need from you as a manager, and the unique challenges being discussed.
Feedback sessions also help you gauge your skill as a manager, and what you need to work on. If two members of the team say they feel a little lost without regular briefings, you can make certain to format a morning brief for every staff member and move on with that consideration in tow. You might also think about what feedback measures didn’t work this year, like rushed ten minute meetings, and seek to spend more time with your people.
Be More Proactive
Being a manager often involves reacting to issues and concerns that crop up around the office. It can feel like you’re putting out fire after fire, especially if you’re also trying to facilitate projects and manage employees. But being proactive can not only make you more effective at your job, but it can make your job easier.
Proactivity means being able to react to a potential problem before it happens. Rather than trying to solve problems while also patching everything up, support the weaker areas of your projects and processes before they collapse.
For example, if you’re managing the supply chain of a business, it’s worth constantly checking for other potential vendors and suppliers. You want to be able to find quality products at reasonable prices and, ideally, that are nearby. Whether you need timber merchants or food supplies, it’s worth keeping a finger on the pulse of local suppliers.
Bonus: How Were You Managed?
Unless you’re at the top of a company, you likely have someone above you. So, how did they treat you? What lessons did you learn from how you were managed? Keeping that in mind will help you focus on a better solution going forward and may even inspire you to avoid certain pitfalls. If you ever rise up in the company, you can use this insight to become a better and more effective leader. Even reflecting on this can make you a better manager, so don’t neglect it.
With this advice, you’re certain to refine your management style for 2024.