Managment is all about your team

Management: an asinine word for how you practice leadership in the workplace 

This is from Forbes.com

 



So the reality is that leadership is all about your team. You have to know the people you are working with and what their goals are and how they like to be managed.  There is a fine line between how they want to be managed and how they need to be managed. Most of my team is very hands off, but some of my team is very hands on. My new agents I am very hands on with because they need extra guidance. My veteran agents only want to talk to me when they have problems in the field. Both are totally fine.

A large part of leadership is empathy and caring, which leads to loyalty. I always try to show and tell my team that I appreciate them and that I care about them because I think it's important.  In our career choice, the only time you receive praise is when you write big sales. I think everything my team does is important and leads to their success, because that is the reality of the situation.  I try to praise each member of my team daily. It could be something as simple as that they look sharp or that I appreciate their continued efforts to expand our team by recruiting. Praise is good.

My team dictates how I lead them.  I can have a leadership style, but if my leadership style doesn't adapt to and work with my team, then I am hurting them and myself by not taking the iniative to try something different. 

Communication is another large part of leadership and it is built into empathy and caring. My company has a LOT of managers.  I cannot say sadly that my company has many leaders. Leadership training is only given in intervals.  This is something that I would like to change.  Every team is different and needs to be led differently.  If my manager tried to lead my team, she would try to pull her hair out within minutes.  If I needed to lead one of the teams in one of our other offices, I would try and pull my hair out within minutes. Each team is an individual entity and has to be treated as such.

Communication is key to this.  We try to constantly communicate with our agents, which is all well and good, but part of what we say we don't do.  Micromanagement in this field loses us 10x more people than the money it gains us.  We have to be aware of the consequences of micromanagement and the person we are attempting to micromanage.  Sometimes it is necessary.  Often it is overkill and will brew hostility.

Instead of trying to pick a leadership style and abide by it at all times, give yourself the opportunity to build a holistic leadership style based on the needs of your team.