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Traits

TRAITS OF A GOOD MANAGER


It was once thought that good management was somewhat like taking command in a field of battle. The manager would bark out his orders, and they would be followed unquestioningly. If employees grumbled, they generally grumbled to themselves. In today’s workplace, however, management by intimidation is no longer the way to get employees to be productive. Rather, a manger needs, among other things, to be sensitive to employees and to know what gets them moving and motivated. Doing this, rather than ordering around, can help boost productivity and improve morale.
First of all, a good manager needs to assume that everyone in the workplace is there because they want to be there (otherwise they’d be elsewhere). As such, the manager should treat employees as though they are there willingly.
The good manager also needs to assume that everyone is there to do a good job – there are few people in the workplace who want to intentionally screw up a job (meaning that mistakes should be considered as learned opportunities, rather than a reason for a chewing out – we’ll deal with constructive criticism later on in this paper).
Beyond that, however, the good manager needs to know why employees are at the particular job they’re doing. For some, it’s the money. For others, it’s the job security. Some people are there because they sincerely like the jobs they’re doing and can’t think of anything they’d rather do. It’s up to a good manager to know all of these things and to use them when trying to encourage higher production from the workforce.
In addition, a good manager needs to know basic skills. These include human resources skills (we’ll examine this a little later in this paper); administrative skills to carry out work routines and to plan ahead for progress (Cribbin, 2002). Finally, a manger knows him or herself (Cribbin, 2002). He or she knows his/her assets and works hard to use them (Cribbin, 2002). The good manager is also aware of his/her...