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8 Traits that Highlight Potential Managers
Selecting managers is crucial for any business. They are the once who make or break the team. While the importance of effective managers is well established, 82% of the business get it wrong. High performing professionals are often promoted to the role of manager. Although an important trait of a good manager, individual performance is not a sufficient parameter to promote an employee to the position of a manager.
The first and very important thing to consider is that manager materials are quite volatile. They do not tend to stick to an organization if their potential is not recognized. It is well established that hiring managers from your own pool of employees is a good idea. They are already acquainted with the objective, idea, and culture of the organization and find it much easier to connect with other employees. While it is not an easy task to predict if the performance of an employee as a manager will be good or not, there are some subtle traits that highlight potential managers.
In this article, we present to you 8 traits that highlight potential manager among your ranks.
1. They are already a de facto Managers
Employees who are manager material has a natural leadership tendency. People look up to them and feel comfortable in speaking to them. While they might not lead a team they are often part of major team activities. However, it is crucial to be careful while identifying such individuals. Being respected by and appreciated by teammates is an important but not a confirming point.
2. Always exceeds expectation
This is the number 1 point that triggers the process of promoting individuals to the role of managers and the most prominent factor that plays during routine appraisals. Potential managers are necessarily people who believe in delivering extra. They are not the ones to stick to what they have to do. Employees with potential to become future managers often push forward to take up new tasks and roles. Such employees are self-motivated and tend to go the extra mile to achieve perfection in their task. It is a famous trend to promote the best performers to the managerial role.
However, these are also the most volatile employee class and they often tend to move out to other places where their potential is recognized and rewarded.
3. Help other team members
A good manager often takes up the role of mentor and works towards helping and uplifting their team members. This is a natural tendency present in all potential mangers. They often tend to help their team members. They are the ones who volunteer to pitch in if any other fellow team member needs to take a day off. Such employees also have a tendency to learn and share their knowledge with other team members.
4. Be accountable for mistakes
When we speak about the traits of a poor manager, a major point that comes up is the tendency to shirk blame and look for people to blame when things go south. If you are looking for employees who can become future managers, make sure you consider people who take the responsibility for mistakes and try to work on the solution rather than trying to slide the responsibility to someone else. You definitely do not have the time to listen to excuses!
5. Work as a team rather than an individual
While high performance is an important matrix for identifying employees who could take the next step. However, you do not want to land up with a manager who has been more into individual performance and has any kind of disregard for the team. Individual performers, though useful to some extent, can never become a good manager. For employees who are ready to step into managerial roles, working as a team is more important than delivering excellent individual performance. They tend to look at the larger picture and often work with weaker members of the team to share their work or to help them improve their performance.
6. Get along with people
This is a point that automatically is visible in employees who exhibit the above-mentioned traits. Such employees are often appreciated by team members and liked by most. Employees who get along really well with other team members can easily become the next manager. Other team members find it very easy to communicate with them and often go to them in times of need.
7. Looks for the solutions rather than the problem
A major role of the manager is to find solutions to problems that individual team members are incapable or ill-equipped to handle. Such problems can be related to the task at hand, internal or external factors like policies, resource, and restrictions. It is logical to look at people who have the tendency to look for solutions rather than count the problems as potential future managers.
8. They do not micromanage
The tendency to micro-manage grows with power. While this trait is majorly visible once a team member comes to the position where he or she has to manage or lead other team members. People tend to micromanage when they believe they can complete a task in a better way than the other person. While on a few occasion a team member may require additional attention, general nature to micromanage is highly restrictive in nature. Employees and team members who are subjected to micro-management often fail to reach their full potential. So, it is very crucial to look for employees who do not believe in micro-managing others
While these 8 are the prominent indicators towards employees who have the potential to become future managers, there are a lot of other factors that can affect the performance of future managers. It is also very important to understand and consider that employees might not have all the skillsets required. In such a case, it is important to take appropriate steps and supplement the employees in picking up skills that are important to become a successful manager. It is prudent to analyze the soft and the hard skills of employees as well to identify other factors that may support or create hindrance in the performance of employees if they are made the managers.
If you believe that your employees lack certain technical skills to become a successful manager, training and certifications can help them develop such skills. If this is true with you, we at Certification Planner can be of assistance for you. Visit www.certificationplanner.com to know more or call at +1 8553221201 to speak to our experts. Build a team that supplements you and your organization. Happy learning!