Management books are filled with information about managing people. Experts of all types are available to help you learn how to improve your management skills. Seminars abound on the techniques for becoming a better boss. You can spend a lot of time and a small fortune on such things.
And yet, there is a simple thing you can do that will get the best performance from each person that costs nothing and takes only a few minutes. Ask each person how they want to be managed and listen to what they say. Then do your best to give them what they want.
Each person is unique and does best when that is taken into account. Most importantly, each person is not a clone of you and in all likelihood would like to be managed in ways that differ from how you like to be managed. There are people who share some traits and in all probability some of your reports share some of your traits…but rarely will someone share all your traits and most will be quite divergent in the best way to manage them.
Some will love to get lots of advice and work best with well defined rules and procedures while others like more freedom to act without tight strictures. Acting like both these types will perform best with the same management is fooling yourself and leads to less effective performance.
Think how much better your organization will perform if each and every manager asks their reports how they like to be managed, what irritates them in managers, what inspires them…and then is managed with this in mind. Throughout the organization everyone is treated in ways that lead them to their best performance.
Before you get worried, I am not talking about throwing out all the rules and procedures. I definitely want my nuclear plant operators and airline pilots to go through their safety checklists and follow operating rules and emergency procedures. Managing effectively sits above following these rules and procedures.
Being a superior manager means being able to encourage each person to rise above the rote procedures and excel at following them while keeping their brain turned on to notice those things that enable them to perform even better than the procedures predict. Superior managers are able to reach each person in ways that lead them to perform at heights even they did not know they could achieve. Superior managers are able to build organizations where the exceptional becomes normal.
Exceptional managers know how to speak in ways that lead each person to feel the message is focused on them…because it is. In response, they are motivated to not just try their best but to do their best…always.
Become exceptional. Ask…and listen.