Just as your management style reflects who you are and what youâre good at, so too should your plans take into account your teamâs unique capabilities.
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You can be the smartest, most well-liked, most hardworking manager in the world, but if your team has a long-standing reputation for mediocre outcomes, then unfortunately you canât objectively be considered a âgreatâ manager.
As a manager, you are judged on your teamâs outcomes, so your job is to do whatever most helps them succeed. If your team is lacking key skills, then you need to spend your time training or hiring. If someone is creating problems for others, then you need to get him to stop. If people donât know what they should be doing, then you need to construct a plan. A lot of this work is unglamorous. But because itâs important, it must be done, and if nobody else does it, then it falls to you.
This is why adaptability is a key trait of great managers. As your team changesâwhether itâs goals shifting, people joining or leaving, or processes evolvingâwhat you do every day will also change.
Even if they have the exact skills that Iâm looking for, itâs better not to try to fit a round peg into a square hole. Each of us ought to be working in an environment that we love with the people who share our passions. And if along the way we realize that weâre meant to do something else, letâs celebrate that instead of seeing it as a failure.
Repeatedly talk about your values so that everyone understands what great talent looks like. And, above all, make it clear that building the team isnât just one personâs job, itâs everyoneâs job.
No matter if you are the CEO or a front-line manager, building a great team is one of the most important things you can do.