What’s your Management Style

Have you reached the point where you need to employ staff to help your business grow? Whether you’ve managed colleagues in a previous role or have no experience of operating at management level, it can feel strange to set the management style for your own company. After all, there’s no one size fits all and there are certain methodologies that you as an individual will be more or less comfortable following. With poor management regularly cited as a cause of problems like poor productivity and staff churn, it’s important to get it right for the success of your business. Here we outline a few of the more popular styles of management to help you explore where you sit…

Leading by Example

Managers are often told to lead by example, but what does this really mean? As a business owner and manager, you would model the behaviour and attitudes you want to see from your staff. If you expect your staff to show up on time, exude enthusiasm, invest time in development and support their colleagues, you need to do that too. Want to be sure your business is going to be run to the same high standards you’ve maintained until now? And that the experience of your customers when dealing with your new employers will match what it would be if they dealt with you directly? Look at incorporating at least some level of leading by example into your management style.

Strategy Setter

Do you like to think about where your company is going and concentrate on the next important product or service launch? Prefer to set the goals on what the company as a whole should be aiming to achieve rather than mapping out exactly how to get there? If this sounds like you, a strategy-setting style may be more your thing. Aim to set the pace and hire others who are equally excited about your company ethos and together you can smash those long and short-term goals. Since you don’t like to get too bogged down with details and next steps, you’ll need someone on your payroll who will delight in handling the small things. This will help ensure important details don’t fall through the net that could leave your business vulnerable.

Authoritative Boss

On paper, the authoritative boss can look a bit like a lead by example type. They map out how they want things done then check in regularly to ensure things are going smoothly, along with setting clear expectations. However, they don’t always give a lot of opportunity for their employees to flourish and grow. By not being open to others’ ways of working or being willing to listen to their ideas, you risk missing out on input that could lead to improvements to work processes along with new business ideas. You also leave risk leaving your staff feeling unchallenged, unfulfilled and micromanaged. That’s not a recipe for management success.

Collaborative Colleague

If you’d like to give everyone the chance to contribute while retaining individual accountability, collaborative management is for you. This style seeks to get the best from a team by encouraging communication and team working, so everyone plays to their strengths and bounces off one another. This methodology trusts you have the right staff in place to work together and promotes continual improvement, though that doesn’t mean it’s without its problems. For example, your staff may have different ways of working but certain processes and frameworks may need to be followed for practical and legal reasons. You will also need to anticipate when obstacles are likely or your staff members have the maximum amount of work in their pipeline that they can handle productively. This isn’t something that may be flagged up by the individuals themselves depending on the personalities involved, but there is technology out there to do it for you. Software for Kanban visualises your workflow, making collaboration easier and helping you to analyse work in progress and identify where you may need more hands on deck.

Serving Your Staff

The talent, skills and knowledge of your staff are essential assets that should help your business to improve and progress. The servant manager recognises this and seeks to help employees be their best by ensuring they have everything they need at their disposal and that they are supported in their role. This management style can also work well alongside methodologies such as coaching, which serves to help staff reach their potential. Plus, mentoring from others in the workplace can be hugely beneficial and is a type of development that is much in demand among the millennial workforce.

Has this post given you a clearer perspective of what your natural management style is or what you’d like it to be? If you’ve recently become a manager, what have you found to be your biggest challenges?