Managers are not born but are created. The supervisor to whom you are reporting started as an executive. They progressed up the career ladder with time, eventually becoming managers. Every employee dreams of having a rewarding career. However, with every promotion, they face a new set of challenges. As you move up the managerial ladder, you become more responsible for driving a bigger team.
Driving your team members to a common goal determines your success as a manager. The teams may go through slumps, and as a leader, you need to pull up your employees and lead them with rejuvenated zeal. A good manager also needs to continuously adapt themselves to the changing business scenario to be on top of their game. But all of these are easier said than done. You can face numerous challenges at every step. Here are ten such challenges you can face and tips on how you can overcome them.
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Knowing the team and their concerns
As a team leader, the first thing you need to know is your team. Many managers regularly conduct group meetings to get more information about the employees. While this method isn’t wrong, the lack of the human element makes this process extremely mechanical. The fundamental of being a great manager is knowing how to treat their employees and derive the best out of them. So, if the manager doesn’t have clues about the strength and weaknesses of their team members, they cannot expect better productivity, and the team morale will take a hit.
To overcome this problem, conduct one-on-one meetings with the team members instead of a group meetings. This way, you can address the problems and grievances of each employee individually. You can better understand their perspectives and set feasible expectations from each one of them. If you can profile your team members accurately, you can customize your approach to deal with them rather than implementing a one-size-fits-all approach.
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Maintaining calmness during unstable times
Every business has to take risks to expand and grow. While taking risks can be rewarding, it can also adversely affect the company. A loss in business destabilizes the ship. It is normal for employees to feel vulnerable, confused and frustrated in such uncertain times. In these times of turmoil, team members look towards the managers to feel reassured.
With so many things on the plate, it is normal for someone to feel flustered. However, maintaining regular and open communication with the team helps to stabilize the sinking boat. Employees feel most confused when they don’t know what is happening in the organization. So, it is important to keep them in the loop. This will let the employees trust you. As a manager, your primary focus will be to reassure the employees, and maintaining communication is the best way to do that. If you can answer the team’s confusion, they will feel comfortable knowing what is going on.
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Motivating the team constantly
We all dream of getting the perfect workplace where the work will be interesting, the pressure won’t be overwhelming. Unfortunately, that is a utopian thought we can only dream of. So, employees often get bored with the mundane lifestyle and become frustrated while doing the same tasks every day. This is where most managers test their mettle – to motivate the employees till they find themselves in a better mental state.
Managers can make employees excited about their job by showing them a larger picture. You must envision the future of the company and take the employee on the same journey. Motivate them by explaining to them how their collective effort will help them and the company reach their goals. Some employees are motivated by monetary incentives, while others crave a managerial role. If you know what drives them, you can motivate them by mentioning their driving factor.
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Overcoming conflicts
When you are working with a big team, conflicts among the team members are inevitable. It may start as a petty issue between two employees, but that can adversely affect the whole team if it is not nipped in the bud. Some managers make the mistake of trying to avoid conflicts altogether. However, this is a recipe for disaster and will only make things worse.
The only way to evade such situations is by facing the situation and trying to navigate both employees away from the conflict. Remind them about the company values and how they can keep aside their conflicts to work as a team. You can also schedule separate meetings with the concerned people and try to convince both of them to agree on a middle ground.
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Training employees
Training employees can be like a double-edged sword for managers. Companies always want results but often stay reluctant to invest in training their employees. But as a manager, you need to ensure your team is meeting the company standards. But not every employee is open to learning new methods. Moreover, some refuse to find value in training during job hours.
Solving this issue can be quite tricky. If the employees don’t want to receive training during floor hours, you can start training them over the mobile platform. Take them on a virtual call for 30 minutes, and train them with the newer methods. To make the learning process more fun, you can conduct quizzes at the end of the training process. You can incentivize the quizzes by promising to give the winners an early leave for a day or a chocolate the next day. These gestures may seem small, but goes a long way to convince the team to receive training from you.
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Hiring the right candidates
Managers are also responsible for hiring candidates for their teams. You will face many candidates with good degrees and experience. However, having the right skillset doesn’t guarantee they will be a good fit for the company or your team. Hiring the wrong candidates can lead to disastrous results. It will not only be a financial loss to the company but will also disrupt the performance and morale of the team.
You can overcome the chances of wrong hiring by creating a hiring guideline. Make the entire process scientific instead of relying on gut feelings. Using the right selection metrics helps shortlist the best candidates who can imbue themselves with the company values quickly and blend effortlessly.
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Preventing employee burnout
Employee burnout is a very real topic in the business world. Most managers spend their entire careers finding the optimal balance between the well-being of the team and company performance. Being a hard taskmaster will eventually make the employees irate and frustrated. Again, becoming too relaxed can lead to complete mayhem in terms of business. So, setting unrealistic targets is equally harmful as allowing the team members to work at their own pace.
As a manager, you will always target to boost the company’s productivity. But that doesn’t mean you ask the team to work long shifts. Instead, encourage them to take breaks, use their pending leaves, and do everything that leads to a healthy lifestyle. Implement various techniques like “The 5-Minute Rule”, “The Ivy Lee Method”, or “Eat the Frog” in the working routine to make work interesting.
Summing Up:
It is an open secret that the most challenging part of becoming a manager is managing a team. But no matter how insurmountable the challenges may look, you can follow these seven tips and overcome every challenge that comes your way.
Author Bio:
Robert Smith is a digital educator, and academic counselor working on behalf of a reputable firm in Australia he has become a professional essay writers in Canada. He now works for MyAssignmenthelp.com as an online essay writer and offers assignment help to students.