Every fifth employee considers his manager to be a petty tyrant. At the same time, 14% are annoyed by total control, and 13% – by the disorganization of the boss. In order not to join the ranks of managers, about whom subordinates have such an unflattering opinion, it is important to properly build interaction with the team and constantly develop your time management skills.
Clearly formulate tasks – this is the first step to solving
The team is a single mechanism. In order for it to work smoothly and smoothly, each participant must have a good understanding of their role and their tasks. That is why they must be clearly defined. In the process of setting a task, give your subordinates as detailed information as possible – but within the limits that are necessary for its solution: do not overload them with unnecessary information.
This also applies to meetings: if you want to discuss a presentation or a report, it is better for the participants to familiarize themselves with them in advance. Don’t forget to attach the required documents to the meeting.
Meet the deadlines yourself – subordinates will catch up
If you promised your employee to return with an answer to his question or comments on his project before a certain time, do not violate this deadline. A responsible leader is an example to follow, he wants to match. In order not to miss anything, be sure to fix the deadlines for your tasks and turn on reminders. One of the services that has a special “Tasks” widget for planning is the Mail.ru calendar. It is convenient to make to-do lists for the day or for some event. By the way, for tasks with deadlines, leave a margin of up to 10% of the time that you plan to spend – in case of force majeure, from which no one is immune.
Time management techniques, such as Pomodoro, will help you keep up with everything. List the tasks for the day from most important to least important, and for every 25 minutes of hard work, reward yourself with a five-minute break. After a few days, you’ll see how many 25-minute chunks it takes to solve different types of problems, and you’ll be able to manage your time more efficiently.
Divide big tasks into parts and don’t forget to delegate
The leader is an expert in his field. Sometimes you want to be tempted to follow the “rule” “If you want to do it well, do it yourself.” And now you are already sitting in the office after midnight, solving large and small tasks to the detriment of your managerial functions. Don’t do it – delegate. Trust your employees, because if they were bad specialists, you would not take them to your team.
Divide your tasks, which can be very large-scale, into small parts – it will be easier to cope with them.
Hold meetings to keep up to date
Meet regularly with the team to announce plans for the near future, find out the status of current tasks and discuss interim results. The optimal frequency depends on the area in which you work: somewhere you need to meet everyone together every two weeks, and somewhere it’s enough to get together once a month. The main thing is not to overdo it: you should not slide into micromanagement and control the execution of tasks every two days. Set up reminders on your calendar for upcoming meetings—make it early enough for you to think about the agenda and prepare. For participants who will join the meeting via video call, you can generate a link to the call.
Collect Feedback
One-on-one meetings with employees are an important element of effective leadership. They help to increase the productivity and engagement of team members, as well as their level of trust in the leader. It happens that it is difficult for people to express their opinion on some issues at general meetings, but at the same time they are ready to share it face-to-face with their boss. Also, one-on-one meetings are an ideal format for discussing the career prospects of each specialist and searching for growth points. If you regularly hold such meetings and take note of everything you hear, it will add a lot of points to your leadership style and positively affect the effectiveness of your team and the atmosphere within it.
Rest
Working without breaks, weekends and vacations is a direct path to burnout. This is a common problem – almost two-thirds (64%) of our compatriots are familiar with it firsthand . In order not to replenish this sad statistic, make sure that your life is not only work. Spend time with family, friends, communicate in an informal setting with the team. An online planner will help you not to forget anything. The Mail.ru calendar is integrated with mail: if you receive an email with theater, football or plane tickets, they will be automatically added to the calendar and you will receive a reminder of the upcoming event in advance.
A good leader is an effective leader. Plan, delegate, relax – technology will help.
