By Dux Raymond Sy.
People managers have big responsibilities: from achieving team performance goals to growing their teammates’ skills. In fact, over two thirds of employees say their manager has an impact on not only their success at their company, but on their overall careers.
As we enter 2023 at a time of continued macroeconomic uncertainty, there are new challenges on the horizon for managers. Here are three ways you can elevate your management skills to better develop your team and help your business grow in the new year.
Provide Consistent Feedback to Your Team
Effective communication is the backbone of any functional team. This means being clear and concise when giving instructions or setting expectations for your team, and actively delivering and receiving constructive feedback, which can be challenging. It’s critical to not only give feedback during formal opportunities like year-end performance reviews, but to also share it on a more frequent basis. That way, you give your team more opportunities to consistently grow and incorporate ideas.
Especially as hybrid work prevails, how and when you deliver feedback is key. In my role as Chief Brand Officer at AvePoint, I travel a ton, so I typically connect with my teammates on video through Microsoft Teams. But it’s important to me to maintain a proper cadence of face-to-face meetings to ensure my teams are supported, even if I am on the opposite side of the world. During these meetings we have time to align on business-critical updates, provide feedback where necessary, and identify growth opportunities — even when we can’t meet in person.
Related Article: How to Strengthen Company-Wide Communication, In and Out of the Remote Workplace
Set Clear Goals and Empower Your Team
Only about half of managers today say they know how their goals align with broader company goals. In the new year, it is vital to have a better understanding of how your team’s efforts contribute to larger initiatives and strategies. This is both helpful to the organization in achieving overall KPIs, and to your team because it reveals the “why” behind their daily tasks — which can greatly increase employee engagement and motivation. Then, once the goals are set, it’s your job to put the team on a path to success. Provide the necessary resources like training and development opportunities, and support like consistent availability and communication, to help them thrive.
Related Article: Set Goals That Inspire Your Workforce in 2022
Balance Growth with Empathy
Many tech companies today are being pushed to increase profitability as an overarching goal, instead of growing at all costs, which was once the case. But aggressive profitability goals should not come at the expense of empathy towards your team. This means creating a culture of collaboration and respect within your teams, and establishing a level of trust to give team members flexibility in their work. That could take different forms, including giving employees the freedom to choose which days they come into the office or encouraging them to prioritize activities outside of work that bring them joy like volunteering, embracing a new hobby or spending time with family. With 72% of employers reporting their concerns about stress and burnout among their teams, it’s especially important to ensure folks have space to incorporate personal time and structure into their weekdays.
If you focus on these three areas — delivering consistent feedback, setting clear goals and growing with empathy — you’ll be prepared to lead your team successfully and take on any unexpected hurdles as we continue to navigate challenging times. Better yet, spend some time self-reflecting and invest time to learning more through digital courses to make 2023 the year you shine as a manager.
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