What makes a good manager?

A Long Bit of my History

I had worked with 6 different managers in 4 different companies before. All of them have their own management skills and no one can really justify who has the best skill and who has not. But I can only determine who is easier to work with.

First Manager

He taught me quite a few things because it was my first job in point of sales system support. He is nice and once told me that the scariest thing to be a support is when your phone rings. After a few trips out with him to support at customers sites, I was on my own.

Second Manager

We are in different field. He is in sales while I am in support. He recruited me because he wanted to concentrate in sales and leave the support jobs to me. He did not teach me anything except train me on the stuffs he knows. Basically, I learnt everything by myself.

Third Manager

He was the one who made me feel that he was a manager to me. Most of the time, he would be ordering me to perform a task. However, weeks later, I was more on my own because the customers would contact me directly if there were any problems. I would organize my own time and decide the priority of jobs.

Fourth Manager

He is like a friend to me. We discussed anything. Up until now, I still keep in touch with him but not frequently. He joined the company later than me, thus I knew more than he knew about the system. I enjoyed working with him because he treated himself like an ordinary staff rather than manager.

Fifth Manager

Customers would normally look for me rather than my manager. I took care of myself since I started the job. I solved the problems myself or escalated when needed.

Sixth Manager

He is a friend when we were not working, and my manager when at work. He taught me a lot of things from management to other matters not related to work. We would always inform each other regarding the tasks that we had done and had to be done. Even though it was managerial task, he would still be happy to teach me and let me know the ways to handle the task.

Well, sharing is virtue. Managers who are not willing to share their knowledge and delegate will always maintain on the same level.

Good manager?

A friend, a manager A manager should also be a friend. Certainly, I will hope that I can speak freely to my manager about anything regardless of the topics.

Tech Savvy

This is an important criterion for an IT manager. IT managers should keep up with the newer technologies and always try to improve their knowledge. Staffs will normally be impressed when a manager is not only expert in their own field but also sensitive with new technologies.

Being a friend, a manager and jack of all trades, in other words, resourceful, one could easily attract people with their knowledge and communication can be developed easily.

Delegation

Delegation is important because subordinates will feel that they are part of the team rather than only taking orders from the manager. Giving subordinates responsibilities will determine the types of jobs that they are able to perform or perform well.

It is also a way to improve the manager as well as the subordinates. When subordinates take up some of the manager's tasks, they learn and grow while the manager will have better time allocation to plan for other tasks.

Praise I worked in Malaysia where managers seldom praise their subordinates. Praises often create a more relax working environment while giving subordinates a type of encouragement. It also means that the end results has been accepted and recognized, giving confidence to subordinates.

Organize, Plan and Document

A manager who is lack of planning skills will not be respected and often deemed as incapable. Subordinates are better off to arrange their own tasks rather than getting orders from managers.

Documenting of problems or instructions is a good practice as it shows that the department is in good shape and any handover of tasks can be done easily.

Conclusion

I may yet to become a manager but those are the points in which I would like to see in a manager from a subordinate's point of view. Having worked with 6 managers before, I have seen and heard of worse managers as told by my colleagues and friends. Thus, sometimes we do ask, ‘How can he/she be a manager?'

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