We have recently developed a new Management Insights Business Diagnostic and Survey and in the process have been involved in talking to many experts and researched many related books and articles.

What is it that makes a good manager into an exceptional one with leadership qualities?  There are all the well recognised skills required to manage and get things done but my personal interest is more in the transition between management and leadership.

What is very apparent, and although there are a variety of descriptions of a good leader, is that the basics are the same.  A leader is not frightened to promote people who are better than themselves, they are constantly learning from others and they are not frightened of managing conflict when they believe there is a better or more creative way of doing something.

People look up to a leader and want to be like them, they also tend to want to please a good leader and do the best they can for them.  Stephen Covey describes this as the ability to confront reality, gaining trust from others in the process.

“Trust building is an exercise that requires systematic efforts on the part of an individual. Stephen Covey asserts that confronting reality is an important behaviour of leaders who need to develop trust in an organization.”

Leaders are courageous in their dealings with people, do not avoid genuine issues and have the ability to read the unsaid issues.  They address problems directly and honestly and treat people how they would like to be treated themselves.

This forms trust in others and when consistency is also applied to this approach true leaders will be respected by people at all levels for their confidence is solving problems and facing difficult issues head on.

Personality wise they tend to be outgoing, enjoy working with other people and getting to know them.  They are well known by their peers and tend to have a large network on contacts that they work with in a trusting and collaborative manner.

Those organisations that are truly successful are the ones that cultivate their managers of today to be leaders for the future.  They work with them, allow them to make mistakes, learn from those mistakes and give them the flexibility to grow and develop.

It is not just organisations that are now seriously considering leadership and the qualities associated with good leaders, but our education system has adopted a significant approach to developing enterprising skills within children by including Enterprise as part of the curriculum.  We are seeing more and more competitions both regional and national for children who have embraced enterprise and have started their own businesses whilst still at school.

So accepting that leadership is crucial for any kind of organisation to remain ahead of their competition and continually enjoy profitable growth through motivated and empowered staff, what is that managers of today need to embrace to be leaders of tomorrow.

The following are what we believe make a good manager into an exceptional one with true leadership qualities:-

• The ability to face reality head on and challenge the outcomes
  
• The ability to effectively communicate at all levels, whilst gaining trust and respect
  
• The ability to make difficult decisions and deliver bad news in a positive and effective way
  
• The ability to understand others and delegate work that will interest and inspire individuals and teams
  
• The ability to openly acknowledge and take ownership of  their mistakes, personally putting them right and learning from the experience
  
• Always put forward a positive approach, never talking negatively about situations or individuals and create an atmosphere of loyalty for all to share in
  
• Recognise and understand different personalities and communicate in a way that suits each individual
  
• Create a culture that is open and honest, blame is not tolerated and put in its place is an atmosphere that is based on honesty
  
• Having the courage to develop, inspire and promote individuals who are as good, if not better, than they are themselves and be able to learn from them
  
• The ability to be flexible and manage change in a positive way that empowers others to do the same

Our Management Insights diagnostic is designed to provide an overall assessment of management competencies and development needs.  It covers all the main attributes that contribute to the overall make up of an exceptional manager.  The survey itself is created in a format to ascertain the knowledge and understanding of a manager currently which forms the basis of future development needs.

“Performance Gaps” are identified by taking the current knowledge and aligning this against the importance for the furture development of the organisation and their role within it.

It is a highly effective and cost efficient way of identifying not only “Performance Gaps” but also “Opportunity Gaps” enabling any organisation, large or small, to develop their current management team further.

Management Insights – Framework

For further information and to find out how we can assist you in developing your management further drop us an email to wendy@taylored-assessments.net, Skype us on tayloredassessments or give us a call on +44 (0) 845 900 2140

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