There is no shortage of stories about managers over the internet: bad and good. Get any group of people together and they will have a story to tell. You’re sure to hear some awful stories and some really pleasant ones.

“The best manager I ever had”, a not so common phrase most of us have heard.

What does this phrase mean? What sets a great manager different from an average one? There is a lot being talked about the qualities of a great manager but little has been said about what happens that allows managers to win their devotion. What do great managers actually do?

Great Managers vs. Average Managers

Let’s see what separates a great manager from an average one and is it possible to simply be a great manager?

1. No Strings attached — Praise ’Em All

“Praise is not just a reaction to good performance. It’s a cause of it.”

Praise gives people the motivation to continue doing the caliber of work desired from them. Buckingham through his data said that one thing good managers do to get the best out of their people is — use praise, believe it or not.

To make praise a part of your management style, consider recognizing your employees.

• Recognize employees that go the extra mile
• Have happier employees that appreciate being acknowledged
• Use a “kudos” systems to give out perks

Giving thanks to employees is a great way to honor them. And thanks to apps like ProofHub, it makes it easy to praise the team in a creative way.

ProofHub Announcements can prove to be an effective way to motivate employees. Appreciate a job well done to celebrate achievements or even give birthday greetings at one place. What else you can do?

1. Add announcements

Make announcements to recognize the team’s achievements.

2. Subscribe people to announcements

Choose whom you want to show it and subscribe to them.

3. @Mention people

Mention someone to address them, grab their attention or loop them in an announcement.

4. Attach files

Attach supporting images, files, document.

5. Set time duration

Select for how long you need the announcement to be seen.

7. Use emojis

Use emojis to express without words.

“Team motivation going out of hand? Try announcement board in ProofHub.”

While holding back praise or recognizing employees will make people feel a bit unseen. They may get into negative self-talk or try to at least evoke a reaction. So if you want to keep this negativity away from your employees, recognize them for their efforts because that’s how great managers do!

2. More gets done when work is fun: employee engagement

Employee engagement is a form of emotion at work that makes employees bring a real version of themselves to the workplace. A great manager is one who understands the concept of “employee engagement”. It has been in the picture earlier that employee engagement is in the domain of human resources but increasingly companies are trusting the managers to be the cause of the change. And that’s because of the close working relationship! While a manager finds when one of their employees is disengaged; they also have the power to get someone back on track.

According to Gallup, “managers account for at least 70% of the variance in employee engagement” when scaling business units.

Are you the one who keeps employees engaged? Chances are, not. But this is something managers (and only managers) have to do. How the Way We Talk Can Change The Way We Work describes employee engagement as being “your whole self” at work. It’s the “above” and the “beyond” efforts that employees bring to the workplace. So, get it done.

Bonus: Celebrate!

Are you having fun yet? This is a part of employee engagement, we think is important to honor individual efforts and keep work fun. #CelebrateWithProofHub is an effective way to increase engagement and strengthen bonds on your team. It’s simple, and it works.

3. Wellness at work: Team environment showing concern for the success

Your employees are not robots. They look for concern and they want respect. That’s how you get a high-functioning team. Make them feel safe and supported first, and that’s what great managers do. Peer-to-peer recognition, team support, an environment that welcomes contribution will bloom a high-value team.

Starbucks is a great example that understands the value their employees bring to the business. Starbucks’ focus on its employees has not gone overlooked. In fact, 87% of customers’ attachment towards Starbucks is encouraged by how the company treats its workers. They mainly focus on bringing employee-friendly policies, for example, supporting their staff by paying tuition for university and online programs and many more. Also, Starbucks managers refer to their team members as “partners” instead of employees.

Precisely great managers actively nurture a team for having a supportive, inclusive culture.

4. Kanban system for project management

Kanban is getting a lot of buzz these days as a project management method for teams of all sizes. When employees aren’t provided with the right system, they are forced to rely on what is quickly available to them. Therefore, Kanban.

Modern Kanban boards help teams visualize tasks, see who’s working on what, relieve the workload for over-stressed managers to create a collaborative workflow for team members and where the work stands in a workflow in the form of boards. Managers who have to focus more on the Just In Time (JIT) output, use Kanban for their best workflows.

Why ProofHub?

We choose ProofHub Kanban boards to support teams to focus on the throughput for the queries. This brings the focus more on the efficiency of the process.

“Does your team need a powerful project management tool? Try ProofHub.”

5. They genuinely make it OK to fail

Remember, people leave managers, not companies. So if you’re certain about keeping your best people around, be the best you can. Make “Fail harder. Fail faster.” a central principle of modern business management.

The freedom to take risks allows teams to ship projects faster, help employees feel more confident in their roles, and take on new responsibilities without the fear. However, pointing fingers is a hard habit to break on many teams. Stating that it’s ok to fail, doesn’t make it so. And when managers do it, it’s a big thing. It builds a culture for employees to accomplish great things. When there are areas that need healing, it’s a manager’s job to communicate that to their team members. Instead of degrading team members for failure, praise individuals who take creative risks.

Conclusion

Many managers are in the shaded area of being average. They are not exceptionally great but aren’t performing good enough to keep employees happy.

Comment here, what have your great managers done to be successful? And if you are a manager, what have you done that made a change in the way your team works with you for the good?

If you enjoyed this…

Read the other articles:

1. Is employee engagement falling short in your workplace? Read on
2. Tips to keep employees engaged at work
3. 3 Thoughtful Ways to Welcome New Employees the Right Way
4. Employee Empowerment: The Right Way to Do It
5. A manager’s guide to team management
6. The Mindset Shift: How to become a good new manager

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