All established organizations have managers and employees who work hand in hand to ensure that the goals and objectives of the company are achieved.
The role of managers in an organization is not defined. This is simply because of the various roles the manager has to play. He has to be a mentor, a boss, a planner, a father figure, a pressure builder and a go getter all in one. Ideal managers should not do the work of their employees however much tempting it could be but rather provide them with a suitable environment, tools, encouragement, and authority to enable them to get the work done.
Managers can play several roles in the way of grooming their employees, and some of them include the following;
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Mentoring
A good manager is one who takes the responsibility of mentoring their employees. In most occasions, employees usually find themselves in difficult circumstances that arise from work-related and social issues. It is at this particular point that a manager shows concern by taking the employees through various aspects that revolve around the situations they are facing.
Practically, the manager is like a mirror to the employees. He/she is the one employees should look up to for guidance whenever possible. If you are a manager who does not have the ability to mentor your staff, then they will hold you in low regard since they will be seeking the same from other reliable people to guide them through their need.
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Embracing teamwork
Teamwork is always the key to success in most organizations. For a manager to build a strong organization, they must find a way of embracing teamwork among their employees.
Teamwork is essential because it helps in bringing out the best of individuals from a group perspective. It is also a suitable way of enhancing harmony within the workforce that ultimately leads to achieving better results unlike singling out and rewarding individual performance, which instead tends to discourage employees.
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Identifying strengths and weaknesses of employees
An ideal manager should be able to determine the areas where each employee delivers best and areas where they need support. The role of managers is to note these key characteristics of an individual and accordingly assign work. If someone is weak in accounts, then there is no use overloading them with accounting things. Instead, understand what they are good at and then assign them the work.
Concentrate on improving both the skilled and efficient employees as well as giving the relatively slower ones an opportunity to excel by coaching and training them accordingly. Doing this will help to improve the overall performance of the each employee as they will become all-rounded with various qualities that will eventually assist in improving individual and organizational success.
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Setting goals and objectives
For any organization to succeed, there is a need for it to have plans and purposes that should be achieved. A manager’s role, in this case, is to ensure that he helps the employees in setting these organizational goals and objectives and finding clear ways of making sure that they are attained.
The best managers are those that embrace inclusivity in the sense that they bring everyone on board when formulating objectives and ways on how best to meet the deadlines for set objectives. After collectively setting the organizational goals, managers then step aside to give the employees room for defining suitable approaches to undertake that will ultimately help in achieving the goals.
In other words, managers give employees the chance to focus and deliver desirable results without necessarily bothering them from time to time.
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Using Effective communication
A good manager should be dynamic in their communication. They should understand when and how to be empathetic by drawing the line between business and relationship. You need to build personal connections with your employees and still be bossy enough to scold them when they do bad.
Communicating information on a timely basis is also vital in helping employees to deliver better results. A manager should ideally, be a good listener, have a sense of humor but also maintain a high level of professionalism in their communications.
Effective communication is two-way; you get the information from the employees and provide feedback accordingly. It also helps in the speedy delivery of tasks as required thus helping you to the goals of the organization.
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Delegating tasks
The role of managers is also to ensure that they delegate duties to the employees based on their skills and abilities. Managers understand the knowledge that their employees have and assign them different responsibilities that they are confident they will be able to accomplish efficiently within the specified time.
Delegation helps in building the skills and knowledge of employees given that they learn more from the tasks assigned as well as practice and consult more in areas they are not familiar with. It also shows that as the manager you have confidence in the employees you are delegating the tasks to thus boosting their spirits at work.
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Providing support and inspiration
All staff is human and thus stands a chance of getting affected psychologically, physically or spiritually. Several aspects within and outside the job environment can influence the level of productivity of employees irrespective of their experience or knowledge in that field. In such cases, managers need to step up and remain vigilant in observing how their employees carry themselves out. They should be able to understand the emotions and state of mind of their employees, find out the challenges they are undergoing and find ways of fixing the problems, whether job-related or not.
Managers should always be ready to provide encouragement to the employees at any given time not only to enable them to deliver at optimum levels but also to feel the empathy. This gives the employees some sense of belonging given that they feel their seniors have compassion towards them.
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Rewarding employees
One of the best ways to motivate employees is to reward them. It is of the particular essence for any organization to ensure that they set up a certain culture that supports and rewards the employees for the efforts they have done. It is the role of managers to decide the right rewards for the employees so that they are groomed in the right direction.
Everyone likes getting recognized in one way or the other, and psychologically, it helps in boosting their performance. If you cannot establish an ideal approach of rewarding employees, then you can be certain that none of them will bother to deliver beyond expectations and if anything, because to them, the job will just be another boring routine.
Managers should provide the opportunity for their employees to make independent decisions and at the same time reward them from time to time for a job well done. It boosts employees’ morale and keeps their spirits high.
