Mapping Out The Seven Steps To Successful Management

Create a map and pursue success. Don’t wait for it to find you.

#1. Make people matter.

The heart of making people matter is enjoying them. After that, become a maximiser. Overcome arrogant tendencies to adopt a fixer-focus. Know team members’ strengths, weaknesses, aptitudes and passions. People want to spend time with managers who care about people.

#2. Define success

One of the most neglected questions in management is: “What does success look like?” The second response to the question is more important than the first.
Typically, successes is first defined in terms of results. The second response is behaviours. What behaviours produce desired results?

#3. Establish and clarify goals and milestones.

Successful managers define the path to success.

#4. Make excellence a priority.

Don’t allow people to perform below their potential. Your teammates deserve the opportunity to live up to their talent. Excellence includes candid conversations about reaching higher and mutual accountability.

#5. Provide forward-facing feedback with optimism.

Honour hard work. Celebrate progress. Discuss wasted effort. Explore new strategies when performance disappoints. Powerful feedback is the result of defining success in terms of behaviours.
Define the feedback relationship together. Explore at least three topics.
What type of feedback do you desire? How might feedback be given most effectively? How frequently should feedback be given?
Frequent brief feedback is better than infrequent long. Twice a month is a starting point. Successful performance conversations happen more than once a year.

#6. Advance the careers of others.

People love to be around managers who create opportunities for others. How can you help others get to where they want to go?

#7. Get off your high horse.

Make expectations apply as much to you as others. Don’t simply point the way. Become a “with” manager.
What aspects of the manager’s success are most useful? What might you add to the 7-step plan to management success?

Daniel Goleman is co-director of the Consortium for Research on Emotional Intelligence in organisations at Rutgers University, co-author of Primal Leadership: Leading with Emotional Intelligence, and author of The Brain and Emotional Intelligence: New Insights and Leadership: Selected Writings. His latest book is A Force For Good: The Dalai Lama’s Vision for Our World. To connect with him, write to editor@leaderonomics.com.

Republished with permission.