How to Win As a Manager

Influencer: Your strength is your ability to persuade me to decide, to overcome an obstacle, to act out the courage of my convictions.

• You make things happen. I love to work with someone who never loses sight of the end result. Keep reminding me of why you care so much about achieving it and how it will make a difference. Make it meaningful for me.

• You set high expectations. You push me to achieve more than I thought I could. I like to reach high, it makes the accomplishment that much more gratifying. Just please, once you’ve set the bar, keep it stable. A finish line that keeps moving is exhausting and demoralizing.

• Acknowledge my contributions. In a timely fashion, tell me specifically what I did that made a difference. This assures me that you’re focused not only on winning but on celebrating your winners too.

• You can influence in any direction but I love to witness you managing up. You are able to clear roadblocks, get approvals, and capture the attention of the key decision makers. I know you put your neck out for us, and this motivates me to deliver.

• Set the expectations and then step out of the way. You may feel that you know the best way to do things, but let yourself be surprised by the creativity and commitment you get from your team when you let them use their own methods to achieve results.

• Trust that you made solid recruitment decisions. If someone has fallen off their game, take ownership of getting them back on track. You rarely give up on someone and they know it. Once you identify a performance issue with a team member and commit to working through it with them, they’ll fight hard to get back into your good graces.