The qualities of a good manager 7

[guestgulkan]

Judging by a lot of the posts in this forum, it seems that a major obstacle to getting work done is bad managers/management.

Why is this??

Is this because most managers are inadequately trained or acting beyond their capabilities?

What qualities do the members of the forum believe a 'magager' should have?

 

[SQLSister]

I've been both a manager and a technical person and the qualities I see as those which make a good manager are:

Ability to make a decision. There is NOTHING worse than someone who won't make a decision or who changes his/her decision every few minutes. This also incudes the ability to make the hard decisions like firing subordinates who are not producing.

Ability to communicate both up the chain and down the chain of command.

Willingness to back up his/her employees when things are bad. This creates trust, because there are times in any manager's life when the news he has to give to the employees is not the news they want to hear, but if they know he will speak up for them they are more willing to accept the bad news when it happens.

An absolute unwillingness to put down subordinates or chastise them for mistakes in public. Conversely they should not criticize upper management in subordinates' hearing.

An ability to keep private information private. Any manager who is asked not to discuss a subject shouldn't be found telling it to his subordinates. Any manager who has had to officially reprimand someone or write an deval shouldn't be passing the details out to those who are not involved.

Ability to understand the big picture and concern for company profit.

Ability to create strategic alliances with peers.

Ability to give others credit and to ask questions or admit you don't know something.

 

[Olster]

SQLSister your qualities for a good Manager are spot on.

One of the most important things from my perspective when working under someone is I must respect them and they must respect me. I am driven to work hard and be loyal to a Company, Managers and fellow staff but if I don't receive respect from the top down then they will end up pushing sh&^%t up hill before they get my drive back. I see it all the time when working in teams where the team have no drive for what they do because Management don't sit at their level and talk with them and get staff excited about the big picture. Instead they ram their authority down workers throats.
Regardless of what anyone says if Managers want to show staff they are the Boss and can do so at anytime without backing down if they are wrong, they will never till the end of time get the same productivity or sucess from their staff as those Managers that have the respect of their staff and treat them as assets not tools.

 

[MDXer]

I think SQLsister has a fairly complete list and was happy to see she included a good manager back his/her employees.

A good manager should also insulate his/her employees. Others in a company should not be comming to an employee and either demand they do something nor should they chastize for not doing something, that they were never informed of.

A good manager is also an understanding person. The type of person who remembers what it was like when they were in that persons place.

So many managers have forgotten what it is like to be the little guy who is new to the company or the young person who is fighting everyday life battles.

I have worked for one manager in my career who I can actually say Impressed me. My wife was pregnant and had issues during her pregnancy that required numerous and frequent doctor vists, many of which I missed. I had requested a couple weeks in advance for some personal time and take short days leaving an hour or 2 early or leaving to go to an appointment then come back, for a particular week where she had 3 fairly important appointments. He said there was no problem at all and I could leave when needed. Well needless to say I missed the first 2 because I refused to give up on some issues that arose. The day of the third appointment he came to me first thing and asked what time the appointment was and how far was the drive. I told him it would take about an hour toget there. Well 2.5 hours before the appointment he reminded me and 1.5 hours before the appointment he had people hunt me down and walk me to my car.

"Shoot Me! Shoot Me NOW!!!"
- Daffy Duck

 

[NiteLink]

MDXer - that was a really good boss.

I can't really say I have good bosses. Because, the people I was under were all supervisors. They don't have the authority to authorise us anything but advice. I'm still in the same company throughout though I had a change of supervisors. They each have their quality.

I must say lady bosses are more particular about details. Mr first was a lady and if I was missing out on details, she'd let me know and made me do the changes.

The 2nd is a guy and well... he basically let me do anything and feels that he's spoonfeeding if he even gives a hint of which direction I'm supposed to go. Eg, how do I operate this machine? His reply "You go and find out yourself."

He's my last hope on some information and still tell me to find out myself grrrr

But sometimes he's not that bad either. Treats us for birthdays and other things. If I were to grade him (I'm not in the position but...), 5 out of 10.

My current one's a guy so far nothing much. Have to monitor