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Not Easy Being a Manager, but It's Worth It

It is not easy being a manager because you're always being squeezed in between.

 First you have to take care of your subordinates and yet take care of the company's bottom-line.

 As a Manager, you are assumed to have the know-how and you're expected to know everything.

 Unlike your subordinates, it is not easy to measure a manager's performance because much of what he does is of long term in nature and cannot see short term results. Like training and development of staff.

 Often it is during special situations that you will know whether your manager can perform or not. Like in solving difficult problems, getting new business and responding to crisis.

 But you know it's worth it to be a manager because at the end of the day, it is the manager that get things done and provide answers to the bosses.

 So the question is how can we be a more effective manager?  Effectiveness means not just doing things right but doing the right things.  There are 10 things that a manager must do right:
  1. Leading people, which is to get people to do things willingly and happily
  2. Delegation, so that the manager has time for management work and not the actual work
  3. Communication, especially with the bosses and the outside world. The manager has to paint the right picture and cannot just say what he likes
  4. Motivating people, for without motivation people will perform at a lower level
  5. Controlling, through systems and not control people
  6. Problem Solving, which essentially is not creating another problem
  7. Decision making, the manager has to make hard decisions and cannot be seen as indecisive
  8. Selling, that's right, selling his ideas so that people buy into them, not force ideas on people
  9. Strategizing and Planning, for without strategies and plans, the whole organization will be left to ruins
  10. Leaving behind a legacy.  The manager has to ensure that the organization can do well without him, that means he must leave behind a legacy, not leave behind a string of problems.  
By Andy Ng, whose newest course How to Be an Effective Manager is on 10 February 2015 Tuesday 9 am to 5 pm.  Details are at here.  Related articles:
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