Hard Choices All Great Managers Should Know They Have To Make | Fusion - WeRIndia

We’ve all benefited from the communication efforts of great leaders. A great leader manages his/her team very well.

They have a big hand in our success. Leaders need to make hard decisions many time.

Here you will find some hard choices all great managers should know about because they should make these decision during their leadership.

1. Choose to Address Poor Performance

Keeping your mouth shut when an issue should be addressed doesn’t lead to things getting better on their own. Avoiding the issue might seem like an easy route in the short-term, but you will pay a price—your reputation might be negatively impacted, your influence might weaken, and others team members may become cynical or disengaged.

The under performer isn’t being protected—he or she’s being disrespected. As GE’s former CEO Jack Welch put it, “Failing to differentiate among employees”—otherwise not letting your employees know where they stand when they come into work every day—“is actually the cruellest form of management there is.”

2. Choose to Understand What Motivates

Everyone is different, and that’s a great thing. In the best organizations, the strengths of one team member makes up for the weaknesses of another.

Unfortunately, to treat everyone the same, some leaders have turned a well-meaning concept into an ineffective behaviour. As a result, they fail to tap into the unique potential of each employee.

Treating people as individuals doesn’t mean that you apply policies differently among your team members, or that you use unfair and inconsistent promotion practices. It simply means that you recognize that what motivates one employee doesn’t necessarily excite another.

Or, that the potential of one person for a certain role is different than that of another. The key is to see and appreciate each person for his or her unique commitment, capabilities, and contributions.

3. Choose to Listen

The ability to ask one good question at a time and then listen (really listen) with the intent to understand is a key leadership skill. Many issues would be avoided or more quickly resolved if more people chose to listen first. The next time you ask someone a question, ask only one question and listen to their answer with the intent of truly understanding. Don’t get wrapped up in your own head preparing a response. Instead, ensure that you really hear what’s being shared with you.

4. Choose to Talk Straight

Leadership is a tough, often isolated role. Leaders must make decisions, deliver messages, and convey information that can upset some.

Not every leader is up for this task. As a result, some leaders water down their messages or avoid addressing a subject in a timely and direct manner.

This helps no one—the business goes down the wrong path, money is wasted, and jobs are impacted. If something needs to be said, say it.

5. Choose to Share Perspectives

Have you ever refrained from sharing an insightful perspective out of fear that you may sound silly, uninformed, or critical?

Your organization hires people to collectively produce better results. To do this, ideas need to be thrown on the table, critiqued, and ultimately selected for implementation based on their individual merits.

You should create a culture that’s open to new ideas, and not one where individuals are unwilling to share certain perspectives out of fear that they might upset someone.

Image by Sophie Janotta from Pixabay  (Free for commercial use)

Image Reference: https://pixabay.com/photos/woman-question-mark-person-decision-687560/