Not every leader needs to be a manager, but everyone who is a manager should be a leader.
Unfortunately, being a manager doesn’t automatically make you a leader. Most organisations either don’t fully understand or have a limited understanding of leadership.
I summarised 5 strategic goals every new manager must understand to lead their teams effectively.
- Be self-aware and lead by example: To display the desired behavioural changes, you must showcase them first. Managers demand many things from their teams but fail to do them themselves. Do not expect others to do something you wouldn’t do yourself.
- Be transparent: You don’t always have to appear strong and motivated in front of your teams. Instead, be transparent. Share openly when you lack motivation or make mistakes. Show your team members that everyone is human, including yourself.
- Build the right team and constantly strengthen it. This is often overlooked. To manage people effectively, you must continuously uncover their abilities and talents and make the right hiring decisions. This is where you should invest most of your effort.
- Craft a strategy and provide direction: As Seneca said, “If a man knows not to which port he sails, no wind is favourable.” Without clear goals, any tailwinds become useless.
- Set business goals and remove obstacles: Differentiate between business outputs and goals. Ask them to deliver business goals, and your team will be more creative in finding solutions. Managers constantly develop ideas for outputs and micro-manage. Don’t do that. Your role is to clear the obstacles they encounter to reach those goals.
Emre Guney 