Good Managers? They Manage Others the Way They Need to Be Managed

What’s your management style?

I don’t mean how do you manage others, but how do you prefer to be managed?

In his always excellent All Things Workplace blog, Steve Roesler pointed out:

There’s a relationship between how much you love your job and how well you perform. That’s not a mystery. But there is a dynamic you need to know about in order to manage yourself and others:

1. Some people have to feel good about their job and their workplace before they can get busy and perform at their max.

2. Others have to have to first achieve super results in order to feel good about their jobs.”

Good managers manage workers the way they need

Some of us require a trusting, positive relationship with our leaders and coworkers along with a belief that what we do can impact success on a greater scale before we can fully engage and deliver our best effort. Others need to see the proof of the value of our efforts on that grander scale to continue performing at a very high level.

One trick used by good managers is understanding that to successfully manage others, you need to do so in the way they need and prefer, not in the way you would prefer to be managed yourself. What’s interesting about Steve’s point is that it doesn’t matter which management style is needed, both can be addressed very effectively through strategic, social recognition.

Recognizing and praising the work of team members in a very specific and detailed way helps the first type of employee “feel good” about their job and role in helping the team succeed. Recognition also shows those in the second group how their super results have not only been achieved but noticed and valued by others as their efforts help achieve a greater mission.

How do you manage others? How do you prefer to be managed?

You can find more from Derek Irvine on his Recognize This! blog.