HOW TO BECOME A GOOD MANAGER?!

On the job – Also known as OTJ training, this is when a person learns by doing a task, like an accounting clerk going through a past accounts receivable list and coming back to you with the outcomes.

• One on one – Mentorship and time spent training an employee one-on-one can be very important, although time consuming. This can also be delegated to a senior team member to help on one-on-one trainings.
• Team trainings – Things like new software or new procedures are appropriate for training the whole group at once. You might come up with some role play, a PowerPoint, or a new order of operations document of them as a part of doing the training as a team.
• Formal training program – As a manager, only you will know if creating a formal training program, like a training manual, makes sense for your team. While a large undertaking, it can have a huge amount of value if you’ve noticed or heard that training is a big gap to why the work isn’t getting done (or done right).

Function 2: Organize Your Team (And Their Work)

• Project management software can be a great option to sort tasks set deadlines, and clearly structure who is doing what.
• Create a schedule of team and individual meetings. Weekly is usually a good option, but some teams have meetings daily when group organization is more critical (think 15-30 minutes tops!).
• Group chat software, like Slack, can also help since you can create channels for certain groups and track tasks in there.

Function 3: Communication

• Having an employee write up form in order to document those tough conversations (and to help guide you through them)
• Implementing a performance review system, progressive discipline policy, or company handbook that has both (if one doesn’t exist already)
• Ask your team about how they prefer to communicate- does a weekly email with company news make sense or would they rather talk about it in the meeting? Ask them where they feel “out of the loop” and try to close those gaps.
• Work with a business coach or coaching firm to improve your interpersonal communication style or approach

Function 4: Motivate Your Team

• Create a team competition of some kind that encourages cooperation; vary the reward each week to keep everyone engaged
• Use traditional performance management techniques and set goals
• Have a team “praise board” where you can write public kudos to team members who are doing a great job
• Have a team mascot, like a big stuffed animal, that can serve as a passed award so that everyone knows who is doing a great job.
• Try one of our 25 employee recognition ideas

-Sergey Rastegaev