Effective Management Tips for the Workplace

An effective manager continuously ensures that their employees are provided with all resources needed to allow the organization to run efficiently. Managers must pay attention to many facets of leadership and learning within the organization. This may require managers to analyze the weaknesses and opportunities their organization is faced with in order to increase the number of strengths they can possess to be a leading competitor in their respective market. 

There is no blueprint a manager can follow to lead the organization to success. They must learn to know what works and what does not and make a change as they see fit. The following four tips are key and critical skills for any manager to help lead a team effectively. 

1. Empower Employees 

By empowering your employees, management is able to increase productivity in the workplace. A sense of trust begins to grow between management and employees because you rely more and more on their abilities, assistance, or advice. 

Here are ways you can empower your employees: 

• Offer constructive feedback to encourage skill-building 

• Encourage employees to take additional skill-building courses and learning opportunities 

• Allow employees to adjust workflow or standard processes to increase productivity 

• Support employees through challenging projects 

As far as the virtual workplace, training new employees may be difficult without face-to-face communication, therefore how do you begin to empower those employees? If you do have the time to do weekly or monthly check-ins, open up a dialogue for direct communication where they feel welcome to ask for help or support in their new role. However, if time does not permit, a direct supervisor or co-worker may step up to this role. Encouraging mentorship amongst employees is another way to empower your employees. 

2. Communicate Clearly and Effectively 

An effective manager is someone who communicates effectively in all forms of media. You must practice effective communication by using clear and simple language to avoid your message becoming misconstrued. 

Now that the most common form of communication is through emails in the virtual workplace, consider the following tips to ensure your message is understood: 

• Give direct subject lines to notify employees if they must take action 

• Do not give too much information at once, as details may be ignored 

• Choose your words wisely, use proper punctuation, and avoid capitalizing all your words to have a formal tone 

• Ensure email communication is the best option; it may be a better fit to have a conversation through a phone or video call

3. Build Interpersonal Relationships 

With the majority of our time in-office or working remote, it is important to build strong interpersonal relationships amongst coworkers and management. By building a team, your employees feel more comfortable effectively collaborating with one another. It increases communication and teamwork amongst themselves to solve problems as they arise, instead of it escalating to a bigger issue. 

The following actions help develop interpersonal relationships in the workplace: 

• Keep accountability between employees 

• Bring suggested solutions to problems in discussions 

• Encourage others to share credit for accomplishments, ideas, and any contributions 

• Always discuss problems first with the party affected instead of ambushing in meetings

Collaboration, respect, and trust are all attributes managers should strive to incorporate in their workplace, whether or not they are core values the company follows. This will be the foundation for employees and management to get through any challenge the company faces together because their job is more than “just a paycheck.” 

4. Provide a Positive Work Environment 

To follow all the previous tips, a managers’ priority should be to provide a positive work environment for their employees. Create an environment where employees receive the recognition they deserve. This may include celebrating the completion of a tough project, recognizing someone who goes above their role to help a co-worker, acknowledging a work anniversary, or cutting cake for someone’s birthday. As a manager, you must keep an uplifted tone throughout the workplace to motivate your employees to be successful. 

To conclude, these management tips may already be incorporated into your management style or may just need to be emphasized in the workplace. These minimal incorporations will change the dynamic of your workplace and increase employees’ productivity levels.