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Part I - Discover How You
Can Be a Good Manager by Using Feedback to Gauge Your
Success
 In
order to be a good manager you must be open to hearing
feedback, be it constructive criticism or kudos. One of the
primary differences between an effective manager and one
whose team constantly complains about them is their ability
to elicit and respond to their employee's thoughts, opinions
and business input.
So how do you get team members and colleagues to let you
know what's on their mind?
Fortunately, many companies have systems in place to collect
comments from team members, peers, supervisors and
occasionally internal and external customers.
Often known as ‘360 degree feedback', (also referred to as
multi-rater assessment, multi-source assessment or
multi-source feedback) the objective is to assess employee
training and development needs and to provide
competence-related information for succession planning but
not promotions or pay increases
(source BusinessDictionary).
It all sounds very formal but the premise is simple, listen
to what people say and if enough highlight your behavior as
positive, do more of it; if it's negative, seek strategies
for improvement.
Michael is a restaurant manager who discovered during his
360 degree review that his team felt he didn't listen to
their business improvement ideas. They believed he wanted
them to do their work and that was it, despite there being
numerous efficiencies that could easily be implemented
straight away.
Imagine that, having employees who want to improve their
work environment instead of just counting down until 5pm and
jetting out the door? Who wouldn't want to take advantage of
that? Well, according to his staff, Michael.
From that feedback he acknowledged that he may be a "bit of
a control freak."
"I realized the reason I didn't want to listen to their
suggestions was because I feared that by allowing my staff
to do stuff other than their main job their primary duties
wouldn't get done.
What I didn't understand was that I was pretty lucky to have
people who had initiative and by stifling it I was making
them feel as though I didn't value their opinion."
In fact, Michael had uncovered why some of his previous
staff had left and were now implementing their great ideas
at a competitor restaurant!
By responsibly accepting his feedback he set up a
fortnightly meeting to discuss new ideas and how and when
they would be implemented.
In his next 360 review he rated off the charts on
collaboration. His team were much happier, and felt
actively involved in decision making (another key
attribute of a good manager) and the business.
To discover more tips on
becoming an effective manager
and the
tools that will skyrocket you into your first management,
supervisor or team leader role by learning techniques for
feedback, communication, dealing with difficult people,
killer interview scripts, showcasing your skills, making
your first week in your new job the best it can be and much,
much more.
CLICK HERE FOR PART II
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