Surely a Manager’s focus is usually on enhancing their leadership skills and fostering team dynamics. We have talked about essential leadership and coaching skills that will make you a better Leader in a previous article. However, what happens if we shift our attention to the Manager instead of the Team? How can a Manager grow even further?
1. By conducting a comprehensive self-assessment: Take time and regularly evaluate your strengths and weaknesses. This will help you identify in advance areas for improvement and sets a foundation for your development plan.
2. By setting clear goals: Establish both short-term and long-term goals that align with your career vision and professional aspirations. Many times, Managers get ‘absorbed’ by corporate goals and they may lose track of their own objectives. Personal goal-setting will provide direction and motivation and will keep you aligned with your own vision.
3. By pursuing continuous learning: Engage in ongoing education through training courses, webinars, workshops etc. You can focus on common improvement areas such as leadership and communication, but also you can direct your learning to the areas you identified in your self-assessment. Additionally, you can dive into areas that are not directly associated with your role, but you could potentially benefit from, at a soft skills level e.g. emotional intelligence, facilitation, creative thinking, self-reflection and more.
4. By fostering a growth mindset: Cultivate a belief that all abilities and skills can be enhanced and improved via learning, practice and dedication. Allow yourself to learn from past failures (yours or your team’s) and boost your resilience and adaptability skills. Adaptability is going to be a power skill in the future.
5. By uncovering your purpose: Have you identified your purpose? Have you invested time and effort in establishing what it is that you want to offer and the world needs? Or has your purpose been unveiled to you via a sense of fulfilment, inspiration, motivation and connection to a bigger picture? If you have already or if the above ring a bell, how can you incorporate your purpose into your career or role?
Ensure you regularly review your plan, assess your progress against your goals and make appropriate adjustments as you evolve. By implementing these strategies, managers can really outgrow themselves, enhancing their potential and effectively contribute to their team’s and organization’s success.
If you struggle to set clear goals (business coaching) or if it’s unclear how to adopt a growth mindset (mindset coaching) or if you need clarity and support to identify your purpose (purpose coaching), then get in touch with me to start working together towards the desired direction.