Everyone has a different idea about what makes a great manager and most people can tell me what their boss does wrong. The Manager has to communicate Executive Management’s objectives to employees and convey their employees concerns to upper management. It’s a squeeze play that can leave even the best of us anxious, vulnerable and lonely. If you are unable to manage these feelings, you can end up dumping on your employees. That may get you the results you want in the short term, and turnover and dissatisfaction in the long run.

Some Managers are more concerned with the content of their work than in developing and coordinating the work of others. Employees run around getting minimal management support while the boss is doing what they think is more interesting or more important.

The best managers can absorb the pressure from above; and they enjoy and get satisfaction from seeing employees growing, developing, succeeding and having fun at work.

Want to be the Best Manager you can be?

• Control your emotions: handle the pressure from above without jumping all over your employees.

• Manage the expectations of your boss so you can minimize the stress being placed on you in the first place.

• Spend 80% of your time managing, training, coaching, delegating, training, facilitating and motivating your team. The other 20% should be spent dealing with the strategic matters that you find most interesting.

• Spend time each week with individual employees, learning about what they are doing, how they are doing, and listening to what they are saying.

• Get the input of the people who are doing the work. You show them they are a valuable resource when you ask them to contribute their opinions and ideas.

3:02 PM •