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Hiring wrong managers can upset team morale
People who can run the show are crucial for any business. Hiring a wrong manager can hurt your business much more than hiring a wrong employee. At the end of the day, it is the manager who is going to envision, lead, manage and guide an entire team of employees.
Admittedly, the right skills and domain knowledge are necessary to execute business goals and for building effective teams. It is equally necessary to have efficient managers leading your team if you’re going to convince investors to fund your dream, and managers are the face of your organisation as far as investors are concerned.
So, what makes for ideal manager material? One of the best managers I know took his place on the sales counter and personally sold vacuum cleaners for his company. He needn’t have done it. He could have sat in the air-conditioned comfort of his cabin and lectured gullible new recruits on the fine art of salesmanship. But he decided to roll up his sleeves and lead by example. On the other end of the spectrum, there are managers who are unwilling to dirty their hands and believe their only job is to baby sit a facility. That is not managing. An ideal manager is not simply a caretaker but an active participant in your business.
When hiring a manager one of the most important things to consider is whether the person fits into the organisational culture and milieu.
Only a few things disrupt a team as much as a leader who is a misfit. No matter how talented, when you bring in managers who don’t share the values and vision of the people they lead, they end up incurring the resentment of the rank and file.
A good manager should be a self-starter. All organisations expect their employees to be positive, upbeat and proactive. It is even more important for a manager to be self-directed because he has a whole team of employees looking up to him, possibly emulating his ideals. A manager who requires minimal guidance or supervision and who can deal with issues on his own is undoubtedly a valuable asset to any organisation.
A good manager should be a good decision maker and a problem solver. These qualities take on great significance because a manager is not only expected to resolve his own problems and conflicts, but also those working under him.
Many talented workers make poor managers because of their inability or reluctance to pass on their skills to others. A person with the ability, patience and willingness to teach employees what they need to know makes an efficient manager even if he is not spectacularly talented. In fact, efficient managers encourage employees to take on greater responsibility, because it frees them (the managers) to tackle new, more challenging tasks.
If one does not enjoy interacting with people, it’ll be hard to manage them well. Great communication skills are no longer desirable, but essential for being an effective manager. A good manager must be able to relate to your employees, work well in a group and have great people skills. He should also be action oriented and approachable, willing to get down to the brass tacks and pitch in with the rest of the team when the occasion demands. In other words, he should be a great team player.
Managing is not as much about technical ability as it is about being able to get the best out of other people. So organisations tend to give greater priority to planning, relationship building and other ‘soft skills’ when hiring managers compared to domain expertise and technical skills.
After all, managers are hired, not to do the work- but to get it done.
BINDU SRIDHAR
faqs@cnkonline.com
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