5 Leadership Qualities You Need In Order To Be Great Manager.

Leadership qualities are the qualities you possess to lead your team to the results you want successfully.

In my view, a good manager is also the manager who is best suited to his team or organization. Do you want to become a good manager in your organization? Then look at what it takes. You do this by talking to many employees about what they think are great ways of managing. Also, look at the corporate culture. How are others in the organization doing, and how does this work for them?

It is perhaps even more important to test your leadership style. In other words, to measure whether this produces the desired results. For example, do you notice a difference in your team's productivity when you, as a manager, let go of your employees more or if you manage them more tightly? In this way, you will discover which leadership style is most effective for your team and organization and develop your leadership qualities.

To be able to do this, you obviously need certain leadership qualities. So we will give you a list of skills and characteristics that you can develop. However, keep in mind that these leadership qualities are not predictive. In other words, it is not the case that if you own this, you are automatically a good manager. We urge you to keep thinking for yourself. So use this list as a guide and not as absolute truth. These leadership qualities are based on my experiences and logic.

Being Adaptive.

As we explained a bit above, a manager needs to adapt to the organization's team. In many cases, this will not be that difficult. After all, a manager has often been working in the team and the organization for a longer period of time and will often have already been adjusted to a certain height. The fact that you fit in the team is already a sign that you are adapted to the team.

Adjusting your leadership style requires a little more awareness. The leadership style that most intuitively use may not necessarily be the best leadership style for the team. You can imagine that someone who has been the captain of rugby for a long time, in which team members always listened to her, will also take this management style with her to the accounting firm where she later works. After all, it is a management style that has been ingrained in her behavior since her youth. There is a chance that this way of management does not work at the accountancy firm because these highly educated employees want more freedom so that their motivation remains high.

Do you have many new employees? Then focus a little more on how they should perform the tasks as they probably won't be fully mastered. Do you have a lot of old employees? Let them free and give them responsibility so that motivation remains high. There are countless examples of the different needs of different employees.

So map out your situation and consider in a conscious way which way of leadership suits your team best.

Get your conversation techniques in order.

Good communication skills are perhaps the most important for the manager. This is the only means you can use to send employees. Of course, you can always try with a physical threat, but we fear that this will not work very well in the long term.

Listening is an important part of conversation techniques that we sometimes want to ignore. Many people are more concerned with sending the information than listening. For example, are you working in your head on how you want to formulate and convey your next answer? You are not with your full attention with the other person, and there is a chance that you will miss certain information or not receive it properly. This creates miscommunications that could easily have been prevented.

By listening carefully, you find out what is going on in your team. For example, are there irritations between employees that can lead to a conflict? Is there an employee whose productivity has dropped significantly, and is they complaining about the situation at home?

These are situations that you discover more quickly if you listen carefully. The sooner you find out, the sooner you can intervene. After listening, you keep asking questions, another important part.

You are more effective when you first explore situations before taking any action. In the case of the less productive employee, this can make a big difference. If you do not investigate this situation properly, you may not find out that a bad situation at home causes lower productivity, and you can assume that the employee is simply less motivated for his job. In both cases, you will react differently as a manager. For example, if you (incorrectly) think that the employee is less motivated, you may be a bit stricter for this person. While this only backfires because the real cause is the deteriorated situation at home that might make someone sleep worse.

That is why it is important to work on your conversation techniques to explore these kinds of situations.

Have a clear vision

As a manager, it is important to have a clear vision: whatever leadership style you use, directive, coaching, or everything in between. A vision is, among other things, the goal you have in mind and how this should be done. In this way, you create clarity and focus, important parts in showing your leadership qualities.

When you use a more coaching leadership style, you can set these goals together with your team. As a result, there is a lot of support, and people therefore automatically support the goal. After all, they were there when the goal was set. You can do this with individual goals for employees as well as team goals. The way recommends both.

Imagine organizing a meeting with your team. You then explain to the group what they consider important goals. This sounds exciting because, as a manager, you are relinquishing control. However, the practice has shown that team members often have the same goals as managers. As a manager, you can always make some adjustments, and you have the last word.

If the manager does come with more or less the same goal, why not save the hassle of organizing a meeting? Good question, of course. The reason is that the goal is then not imposed from above. For example, the motivation to work on it is higher among team members.

These kinds of goals must, of course, be measurable, measurable as well as possible with these kinds of subjective subjects, of course. For example, you could say we want customers to rate us with an "8" over the next month. That's an example of a goal that can be measured. Or set a goal that is about the internal affairs of the team itself. We want the fulfillment of agreements to be rated on average with an "8" by team members.

You can set up various measuring points throughout the year where these kinds of figures are tested. Don't put too much emphasis on small differences. These types of measurements, because they are not exact sciences, are very subjective. A drizzly or rainy month can already cause these kinds of figures to go down. So use them as a guide and not as absolute truth.

Also, don't forget to dig into these kinds of figures by using your conversation techniques. Ask for examples and anecdotes. This way, you get practical information that you can use.

Know your teammates through and through.

How can you manage something properly if you do not know what you are controlling? That quickly becomes a difficult story. That is why it is important to know your teammates through and through.

Do you want to motivate teammates, for example? Then you have to know what motivates them. You will only find this out by making use of your communication skills.

Genuine curiosity is the best advice. As we have already elaborated above, you can express that tone by listening carefully and asking questions carefully.

So consciously plan these moments for yourself as a manager to get to know others through and through. So also on a personal level. For example, why not take someone aside to drink a nice cup of coffee. In this way, you see that another, more informal dynamic develops in which the other dares to share more. You cultivate confidence, and that is important.

Work on your confidence

Self-assurance is an advantage when you are a manager. After all, you are the person that others fall back on, and it will sometimes happen that you have to make some decisions. If you are not confident, others will have less respect for you, and in some cases, they may even walk all over you. We shouldn't have that.

Can self-confidence be trained? Not by others. You can work on it yourself. Self-confident people have many of the chemicals serotonin and dopamine in their brains. These substances are created when we achieve successes, both large and small. Successes on a personal or professional level. When your goal is to become a good swimmer or swimmer and improve your personal best in the 100-meter breaststroke, that is a result that activates these substances in your brain, and your confidence will grow.

So work actively on yourself in addition to your professional life. Are you often watching Netflix on the couch? Yes, then you have fewer personal achievements to fall back on that give you self-confidence. Does this mean that you always have to do next-level difficult things? No, definitely not. Making a painting or reading a book are already activities that can trigger our reward system and make us feel confident. For example, how simple is it to learn a language nowadays? All we have to do is start an app and spend time on it.

Sure, lack of self-confidence can be persistent. Nor do we want to pretend that at least simple examples like the above are the magic solution. The message is that it is in your hands. It is changeable even when it is difficult. To actively work on it.