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Manager or Trainer?
I believe that, between the two, are great similarities. Both must be, above all, masters of communication.
If we speak about athletes, but also about the employees, if you are not able to clearly communicate with people around you, then you do not get to gather them around you and make them listen your ideas and embrace your strategy.
“Nothing easier than that”, some managers may be tempted to say, “all I have to do is set a meeting and the problem is solved”. But are you sure they are actually following you or implementing your vision?
I have often heard managers saying: “they’re employees, they must obey”. Cannot disagree enough!
An employee is really not an outperforming machine but human capital. So a good manager, a true leader, needs to understand first and utmost that: each of your subordinates are – before being subordinates – human beings. And supposedly they are good and trained professionals. Now, if they are not that, it is your job train them, motivate them and if not working, re-orient or even lay them off. But if you are treating them as anything else than colleagues of yours and human pears, it means you have already lost the battle before even combating in it. They will not listen to you, they will not follow you! Might happen that they will fear of you but in the long run fear is not the proper emotion!
A manager should lead his/ her people not conduct them like an army general. People you are working with, dear Manager, might be your army but you must know what happens to the generals betrayed by their people. Thus, your people opinion is very important for you, because they bring you fresh information from ground floor, from the base, the place where from every clever and intuitive manager would have to start projecting his/ her strategy.
Therefore, the way you are treating your people, be they the cleaning personnel or the members of your board of directors, is of utmost importance.
This might be not the only but definitely is the shortest and the fastest way that you can gather them around you, make them listen and follow you and form a strong team.
It is only after you have known their professional capacities and abilities, but also their personal problems that you can consider yourself a good trainer or leader, in addition to being a good Manager. If we were to compare the current situation with a soccer team, then the manager would have to be a player-coach and wear the captain’s banderole.
This way, (s)he will have permanent contact with the team, both from a visual and a communicative point of view. This way, the Manager will make sure the team never gets caught offside by competitors.
In nowadays time I can say that a Manager without a good team is like a good team without a Manager….a total disaster.
There is no way you can be a successful individual without being a team player at the same time because individualities that do not coexist within a team, are getting lost. There is actually a saying in sports that better illustrate this: “born a talent, but died a hope”.
Thus, my experience says t it is absolutely necessary to have an efficient communication at all levels in order to have a liaised team. Of course, this only comes with time. So that, those believing they can obtain this cohesion after just one week, are terribly wrong.
For more information related to my managerial experience, but also if you need ideas, opinions, etc. you can contact me at www.leonardmazilu.ro/contact.
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