Qualities of an Effective Manager

In a career of over twenty-years spanning business, government, and Fortune 100 companies, I've noticed a few things about effective managers. They have personal leadership qualities that weren't covered in my graduate school management program. In fact, they may well have been born with many of the traits that make them successful. From my experience, effective managers have the following qualities: self-confidence, authority, assertiveness, competence, political savvy, emotional intelligence, and charisma.

Self-Confidence. The most important qualities of a manager stem from a healthy ego or sense of self. Over the years, I've seen that successful managers need to have strong feelings of self-confidence and self-worth. Most people hate public speaking, but managers often have to lead large team meetings, give presentations, and interact with others in management. A successful manager can't be paralyzed by fear of making a faux pas. On the inside, successful managers have to feel that they deserve to direct the activities of other people.

Authority. High self-confidence helps a successful manager establish and maintain an air of authority. While successful managers don't have to be intimidating, they do have to ensure that people respect their supervisory position. When a manager assigns a task, he or she is not asking for a favor. Authority ensures that a manager's reports produce the work output desired. When a manager does not exert appropriate authority, the organization suffers. If you are moving from a staff position to a management position, it may be tempting for you as a new manager to try and maintain friendships and an easy-going manner with your co-workers. Unfortunately, such friendships are often abused and trying to be "the cool boss" simply doesn't work. In addition, friendships with workers can lead to charges of favoritism and demotivate some workers. Managers simply have to take authority and establish accountability.

Assertiveness. High self-confidence allows effective managers to be assertive. Effective managers are not quiet in meetings. They do not ignore performance problems. They do not let things take care of themselves. They do not let things fester. Instead, effective managers speak up, assert themselves, provide direction, clarify situations, and confront difficult issues. If you want to become a manager, you must be an assertive, active participant, in meetings.

Competence. Everyone likes to gripe about the incompetence of managers. The humorous "Peter Principle" even asserts that people rise to a level where they can no longer work competently in their assigned role. However, these potshots may only serve to make rank-and-file workers feel better. In my career, I have always found that managers are among the most competent workers within any organization. Effective managers model good employee behavior by arriving early, being organized, being motivated, working diligently, and leaving late. While an effective manager may not be involved in the most technical aspects of a specific task, they have strong knowledge of their business overall and the role played by their organization. If you want to be a manager, you have to do your job well and be a model employee.

Political Savvy. Effective managers are political players within their organization. While office politics has many negative connotations, being politically astutue is not a negative quality. Effective managers are good with names. They know who all the players are in their organization. They can judge the competencies, capabilities, and motivators of other managers above and below them in the organizational heirarchy. In a positive sense, this helps effective managers ensure that their organization adds value to the business and meets the needs of the larger enterprise. A politically savvy manager can protect jobs and gain resources to ensure that organizational goals are met. If you want to be a manager, get to know the people on your company's organizational chart.

Emotional Intelligence. The concept of emotional intelligence is fairly new and it refers to a person's ability to work with their own emotions and the emotions of others. Effective managers sense emotions, understand emotions, control emotions, and can harness emotions to achieve goals. An effective manager can gain worker loyalty by knowing little intangible things like when to send an employee home to handle a family issue or when to show up with a pizza for the hardworking programmers. Effective managers can master their own emotions and can judge whether an angry outburst might motivate a worker or send him or her home in tears. Effective managers can judge a sob story and know when to lend a sympathetic ear or when to hold a hardline against deceit.

Charisma. Perhaps emotional intelligence is related to one final intangible quality: charisma. We are all willing to work a little later, a little harder, and a little better for a charismatic leader. What is it about that charismatic manager? Is it their air of competence? Is it their smooth exercise of authority? Is it the time they understood about your ailing dog? It's hard to say. But, everyone knows charisma when they see it.

No matter how much professional training we have, no matter how much experience, no matter how long ago our graduations may have been--it may all come down to the intangible qualities that made some kids cool on the playground. You might as well open your high school yearbook and remember the confident quarterback and the popular cheerleader. What did they bring to the table and where are they now? They might just be someone's effective manager. If you want to become an effective manager, find effective managers who can serve as your mentors and role models.