Managerial Wisdom...........

[Ryan Heatherson]

Hi Every One,
Having the opportunity to work for a WISE manager is a truly rewarding experience for anyone. There is so much literature on effective leadership and management, but it often appears that "Wise Managers" are a rare breed. Having wisdom is possibly the greatest gift or skill one can have. This article provides a simple down to earth guide that leaders and managers at any level can embrace to build and display managerial wisdom at work.

A wise manager may be characterized as an individual that displays good values, able to provide answers, approachable, uncritical, involved, impartial and comes across as genuine. What each of these means in practice is described below:

1. Values - There are universal values that are relevant in any culture and context, such as integrity, trust, honesty, and respect. A manager needs to ensure that these universal core values are the basis around which decisions are made, actions taken and advise given.

2. Answering - Where answers need to be provided, not only should the manager be able to provide them, but more importantly the answers need to be provided in a manner that encourages adoption and makes the person receiving it feel respected and valued.

3. Approachable - As an individual progresses up the career ladder, a key challenge is to maintain a disposition that communicates a message of kindness, openness and being approachable.

4. Uncritical - A manager that is uncritical is someone that displays an appreciation of another individual's predicament and is forgiving when required, recognizing that to make mistakes is human.

5. Involved - The need to be involved in the daily work of a manager's direct reports is critical. Involvement displays a genuine concern, provides a platform to identify opportunities to coach and support. Managerial involvement needs to go beyond merely giving advise (Providing Lip Service) to actually taking actions that help.

6. Impartial - As humans we all are subject to feelings and emotions. A major challenge of a wise manager is to constantly remind oneself to be impartial when dealing with issues. Focusing on the issues or problem, taking personal feelings about the individual or situation out of the equation and dealing with the facts.

7. Genuine - All six characteristics and actions described above will come to naught if the person on the receiving end feels that it lacks "Genuinity". Ultimately a manager is judged by what they DO versus what they SAY. Thus the age old adage "Practice what you Preach" is key.

These seven key characteristics printed and placed in front of you as a reminder each day to be a wise manager will go a long way in building lasting and valued relationship with the people around you. The more you practice them the more they become second nature and progressively build your managerial wisdom.

Best Regards.........

[wemakeiteasy]

Don't show up as if you know everything already. As much as possible, involve people in the decision making process.

Don't tell people how to do things. Tell them what you want, and give them the freedom to achieve the goal in their own way.

[Jason Ast]

Understand each of your employees goals and work to help them reach those goals.

[beeezo]

A good manager understands the personalities of the people he is managing and learns to delegate to their strengths. This builds a solid team because it increases an individual's success when they are assigned tasks that they have a pre-disposition for performing well. Success is a great motivator and builds confidence so you create a situation for an employee to excel and you as the manager ...look good in the process!