The key to successfully managing others: Start with yourself.
The key to successfully managing others: Start with yourself.
Many managers today are over-stressed, under-appreciated, and always pressed for time. No wonder their teams don’t always get their best. No wonder, too, bad behavior tends to seep through organizations in tiny ways until suddenly people wonder why everyone is so unhappy.
If you aspire to managing an exceptional team, the first place to start is with yourself.
Think of all the things you must manage: Your time, health, nutrition, rest, priorities, reactions, temper, language and energy for starters. You must manage high volumes of email, texts, phone calls and meetings. You must manage your interactions with people at all levels and at seemingly all hours of the day.
Then there is life away from work! Managing off-the-job expectations and your responses to them adds double-duty to the pressures of your particular life.
Good thing you are the expert in knowing what you need. Your challenge is to heed your needs, structure your time to fulfill your responsibilities, and find ways to restore your physical and emotional sense of balance.
You can find lots of advice on handling work overload, taking occasional breaks, eating well, getting proper rest, and thinking before you speak. But none of the advice is worth a hill of beans if you don’t decide to act on it.
If you’re serious about learning to effectively manage others, put your management skills where they belong. Manage you. Guide them.
Categories: Business, LeadershipAbout Susan Marshall
