How to Be an Effective Manager

How to Be an Effective ManagerHow to Be an Effective ManagerBeing an effective manager is a complicated job Youre part strategist, part coach, part counselor and part tactician.Because your employees are your most important assets, its crucial to understand your staff and support them. While not everyone is a born manager, being aware of the qualities that separate the good ones from the great ones helps you bring out the best in your gruppe.Are you the most effective manager you could be? Are there actions you can take to improve?Here are nine ways to demonstrate true leadership1. Value your employeesUnderestimating the effort put in by staff members and the value they add can lead to unhappy, demotivated and underperforming kollektiv members. It can also lead to a high staff turnover rate.Make sure you appreciate the role employees play on your team and the contributions they make daily to your firm.2. Express appreciationEffective managers show their gratitude to team members for a job well done. A simple thank-you can make a big difference to many employees. Its also important to provide positive feedback, whether its one on one, during a meeting or in a handwritten note. Expressing gratitude can help with retention, motivation and productivity within your team.3. Set a good exampleDemonstrate the behavior you expect of your team members. If youre kind, arrive to meetings on time and meet your deadlines, its a lot more likely your team will do the same.Similarly, managers who display qualities such as honesty, collaboration, creativity, neuheit and dedication, to name a few, will likely inspire those qualities in those they supervise.GET OUR WORKPLACE HAPPINESS REPORT4. DelegateDelegating accomplishes a lot more than taking a task off your plate. Giving team members projects outside of their usual scope at work shows that you trust them to handle important tasks, giving them confidence in their abilities. It also builds skills throughout the team and keeps team members engaged by expanding their abilities. As an added bonus, skills development is an excellent retention strategy.Just remember that when you do delegate work, you need to trust that your team can handle important tasks. In other words, dont micromanage the process.5. Communicate clearlyIf employees dont understand whats expected of them, youre not an effective manager. Clearly communicate your expectations for each rolle in both their jobs and projects, and make sure everyone knows what success looks like to you.Its also important to be transparent in communications. If employees believe they are being misled or information is being withheld, it can lead to a breakdown of trust and undermine the employer/employee relationship.6. Know your teamGet to know your employees. What motivates them and what do they really value in their job? If you find out that an employee wants to move up in the organization, for example, you may be able to provide a mentor or training.Others ma y be looking for flexible hours, more challenging projects or improved software to be able to do their job more efficiently. Discovering what motivates each person on your team is a great way to improve the overall work environment and retain team members.7. Resolve issuesIf two members of the team have fallen out or just cannot see eye to eye, youll have to mediate the conflict. You might first ask them to try to find a way to fix their differences themselves. But if that doesnt work, you need to insert yourself into the process. Encourage the two people to find common ground for the sake of the project or company, and make it clear that not resolving the issue isnt an option.For the sake of overall performance and productivity, it is important to address such situations quickly and effectively - before they spiral out of control.8. Listen closelyAs a manager, you need to be able to listen to what your employees have to say, whether its a work matter or something more personal. Ei ther way, its important your team feels you are willing to listen and support them in any way you can.9. Never stop learning and networkingEveryone needs to constantly develop their skills and work contacts, and you should, as well, if you want to be an effective manager. Whether its understanding the latest software your team is using or maintaining key work relationships, dont become complacent. Youll make yourself more marketable and set a good example for your team by keeping your technical and networking skills current. Managing people takes a diverse range of skills, but aspiring leaders can acquire them - and these efforts are often rewarded with increased employee performance, loyalty and retention.

3 Questions to Ask Yourself When Trying to Choose Your College Major

3 Questions to Ask Yourself When Trying to Choose Your College Major3 Questions to Ask Yourself When Trying to Choose Your College Major At this point in the academic year, college freshmen are largely settling into their routines. The initial flurry of activity that comes with living independently for the first time, establishing study routines and, lets be honest, partying, begins to slow down, and students start to think more seriously about what they want to get out of their next four years. And the question at the top of many students minds is, What should I major in?Often, the best way to answer that question is with another question - or rather, a series of questions. If youre struggling to decide what you should study, ask yourself the followingCollege typically brdes only about four years - but your career will last you a lifetime. So when considering a particular field of study, its important to think about what kind of job opportunities it opens up after graduation.One Glassdoor study took a look at the most common jobs for college students, and the different majors associated with each. Here were the top fiveYou can also search keywords like entry-level or college graduate on Glassdoor to reveal tens of thousands of jobs, many of which list desired or required majors right in the description. For example, the listing for this Management Development Program position at Geico states that the company is looking for a Bachelors degree, preferably in Business or a related field. Youll likely find that certain majors like Computer Science will lead directly to specialized titles (such as Software Engineer , App Developer , Data Scientist , etc.) while more general majors like English or Psychology have less of a direct career path, and can lead to a variety of job opportunities (such as Sales Representative , Marketing Coordinator and Customer Service Manager ).Im a firm believer that salary shouldnt be the only thing you consider when deciding on a college major, but its certainly worth thinking about. After all, you need to be able to earn enough to titelblatt your basic costs (and ideally, a little bit more).Hopefully, the exercise in the first section of this article helped you identify a few different job titles that correspond with the majors youre interested in. If so, you can search salaries for those jobs on Glassdoor. For example, a salary search for Public Relations Coordinator - a great career option for those studying Communications - reveals that the average base pay is $60,474.Glassdoor also conducted research into what different majors tend to pay - here were the five most lucrative we identifiedAs you can see, science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) majors dominated the list, but other majors such as Nursing, Economics, Architecture and Business also made the cut.Call it sappy, but as somebody who majored in more creative fields (English and Spanish for the win ), I really believe that people should study what theyre interested in. If you find yourself particularly drawn to a certain field - be it photography, data science , anthropology or anything else - theres no better time than college to explore it. Even if you decide not to major in it, you can always pursue your passion as a minor, or just take a few classes in it. Otherwise, you might regret not learning more about what interests you while you had the chance. You dont necessarily stop learning once you enter the working world, but you usually dont have easy access to formal classes and expert professors on nearly every topic imaginable, like you do in college.Not quite sure what youre passionate about? Dont worry - theres nothing wrong with that Taking a wide variety of classes that satisfy your general education requirements can help you figure out what you like and what you dont. You can also meet with your academic advisor to brainstorm a few ideas.Choosing a major is a big decision - probably one of the biggest ones youll make in your first couple of years in college. But even though making big decisions can be stressful, you shouldnt worry too much. As long as you ask yourself the right questions and do your research, youll be able to find the college major thats right for you. Remember theres no one single path to success

How to ensure your business reputation is still intact in 20 years

How to ensure yur business reputation is still intact in 20 yearsHow to ensure your business reputation is still intact in 20 yearsThe MeToo movement, populist politics, the banning of plastic straws love it or hate it, were in the midst of a paradigm shift away from institutional governance and towards people power.The connected economy of the internet has allowed huge decisions to be dictated by what are effectively digital referendums some good, some potentially harmful, but all undoubtedly historical in their nature. We are at the tip of the iceberg and there is still significant change ahead.Follow Ladders on FlipboardFollow Ladders magazines on Flipboard titelbilding Happiness, Productivity, Job Satisfaction, Neuroscience, and moreHistory has a habit of looking unfavorably towards individuals and corporations who dont hold up to the scrutiny of verwesen morality. This is evidenced by the demonisation of all slave traders, colonisers and sexual exploiters of history, who often w ere simply doing what welches perfectly legal in their period of history.Its difficult to tell how history will look back at us now, but the signs are there. Our descendants will be astounded by our generations wasteful nature. They will be horrified that were so destructive to our own planet, that we didnt act on climate change, that we were so overtly misogynistic and racist. And with history moving faster than ever before, I believe we will look back with disbelief in as little as a decade.So what can we do to make sure we are on the right side of history, especially when ethical moorings will change as soon as 2030? What steps can we take to ensure our legacy as a business leader is viewed favorably? I give my five top tips for future-proofing your reputation.1) Imagine your decisions on the front cover of a newspaperIn the modern age, ill intent has few places to hide. In just a few years, weve come from miniscule recording equipment being the stuff of governments and spies to almost every human on earth having a tiny personal recording device that can instantly share content across the entire planet. Who knows what technology will be developed in the future? What we do know is that it will likely make it even harder for the morally abject to hide.The only solution to survival in this always-recording milieu is to act with empathy for your stakeholders in every decision you make. How would they react if your opinions or actions were plastered across the homepage ofthe Huffington Post?2) Do whats right, not whats negotiableThe idea that everything is negotiable is a hangover from the 80s business ethos of dog-eat-dog, survival of the fittest. However, the economy is not a zero-sum game, and getting one over on your partners/clients/customers simply creates a net loss for society. This is also a breeding ground for unsustainable growth, which has led to us pillaging our planet.I strongly feel that we can resolve many of the problems in the world if we simpl y reframed how we approached a negotiation, thinking about the human and societal implications of the agreements we reach, rather than just the bottom line.If you must, think of your negotiations in terms of a branding exercise with longevity. Because consumers of the future will avoid the brands who operated sweatshops and drove their SME suppliers out of business in their relentless pursuit of profits.3) In 2030 will your decision still be seen as fair and just?On the subject of sweatshops, I believe the next MeToo movement is likely to come from the world of global business, where company directors have allowed so many workers to be exploited in developing nations through low pay and frankly life-threatening working conditions. Additionally, they have made decisions that have caused untold damage to the environments of developing nations.I can envision a time in the near future where whistleblowers call out their bosses when they make morally abject decisions that affect the live s of workers overseas. They will leak emails of the ones who willfully caused rainforests to be cut down or rivers polluted. Were seeing the shoots of this now, but at the moment its the faceless corporations who are being singled out, and they are able to counteract this by increasing their public relations budget. In an age where its easy to get hold of emails and call recordings, its not hard to imagine the next step being an active campaign by the public to hold the decision makers to account.Now imagine its 2030 and environmentalism, economic justice, and true social/gender/racial equality arent just fringe ideas, but are the mainstream. Will your decisions hold up to scrutiny, or will you be held to account by your colleagues, and ultimately the general public? Will you be safe from DecisionsHaveConsequences?4) Measure your company by more than just its ability to make moneyWe live in a capitalist society, so we claim forgiveness for focusing on the bottom line with every deci sion we make. However, I predict that history wont look too kindly on the companies that passively played the game of making endless profits without actively seeking to improve the lives of their employees and customers.Some argue that were moving into a period of post-capitalism, where markets still drive the economy, but intelligent machines are able to overlay human wellbeing as a significant factor to ensure the destructive nature of unfettered free markets is reigned in. In this scenario, its possible to imagine that we program ansicht machines to be optimized not just for profit but also for the quality of life of all stakeholders within a company i.e. directors, employees, partners, suppliers, shareholders and customers, all in one go.The interesting thing about this idea is that you dont need to invest heavily into artificial intelligence to future-proof your organization for post-capitalism, you just need to start thinking about how you can improve the lives of every perso n your company touches.But its not all optimistic. Some of the biggest companies in the world are currently making vast fortunes by exploiting their workers. I predict that unless they change their ways, history wont look kindly at Walmart, Sports Direct and Amazon, but conversely, it will at Riverford, John Lewis and Google.5) Listen to your moral compassWhilst were on the subject, another thing history wont look favorably on is the billionaires who hoarded wealth rather than reinvesting it, who facilitated the greatest gap in wealth distribution the planet has ever experienced. I left the world of banking because the system was broken, it was designed to help drive wealth to the top and keep the rest of us blinded to how inequitable it actually is. My intuition screamed to me that this was morally bankrupt, even though culture currently still praises those who hoard wealth in a hollow pursuit of temporary praise.I realized I could apply my knowledge of economics and finance to hel p regions that have been exploited, rather than continue to be part of that exploitation. I also realized that taking a long term, sustainable approach to the economic development of these resource-rich regions would help facilitate greater wealth generation for all, in a way that works in harmony with nature instead of against it. I co-founded Blueprints because in my gut I knew it was the right thing to do, and that I didnt need to compromise on being rewarded financially for my efforts indeed the more successful I am, the more successful others become with me. Equally, Im very aware that I couldnt live with myself if I were one of the 8 people who held greater wealth than more than half the planet.What is your intuition telling you? Are you helping to generate wealth symbiotically for yourself and for those less fortunate, in a way thats harmonious with nature? Or are you purposely holding back others in a hollow pursuit of wealth or status, with little regard for what state you might leave the planet in for future generations? I predict that history will judge those who are dishonest with themselves by much higher standards than we currently feel are acceptable.This article first appeared on Coffee Break.