Dr. Kent Ingle: What are the qualities of a good manager?

As managers of teams, we can easily reason our way out of striving to be better.

But no matter where we are in our leadership, regardless of how long we’ve been managing, any leader can increase their quality of management.

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Why should you be concerned with how well you manage? Because it greatly impacts the quality of the work environment for your team, contributes to how they will respond to your leadership and, inevitably, the overall success of your team.

One Gallup report reveals the great impact that managers have in the workplace. The report studied the level of engagement in more than 2.5 million work units and from 27 million U.S. employees, over the course of two decades. Gallup discovered that only 30% of employees in the U.S. are engaged at work. In the findings, managers account for 70% of all employees’ engagement.

Contrary to popular belief, social media is not the primary reason that employees are increasingly disengaged. But rather, the Gallup report reveals it is simply due to a lack of great leadership and management.

Contrary to popular belief, social media is not the primary reason that employees are increasingly disengaged. But rather, the Gallup report reveals it is simply due to a lack of great leadership and management.

In any role of leadership, we can fool ourselves into thinking that the sole purpose of our role is to accomplish our goals and visions no matter what. While that is true, we tend to look at management as a stagnant role, when it is actually meant to be a daily activity where we are actively engaged. Just as in maintaining a healthy physical shape, good management requires daily check-ins.

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Particularly when we are riveted on our current goals and visions, we can overlook the simple and important qualities of a good manager. How we operate as managers and lead our teams has a direct impact on the product of our organizations and immediately affects the culture of our workplace and employee satisfaction.

Whether you are managing a successful business with an extensive team or a new small start-up company with only a handful of employees, how you choose to manage your team is crucial.

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Here are six great qualities of an excellent manager that anyone can begin to build:

1. They simply manage, rather than micromanage. Many who micromanage do so out of fear of losing control. Managing well requires trusting your team first. Hire people you can trust and then empower and enable them to do the job you’ve given them to do.

2. They don’t avoid the problems at hand. Rather than hold out on giving an answer to a question or current problem, directly address problems at hand for your team. If you want a team that can problem-solve for you, seek to address and resolve issues as quickly as you expect your team to.

3. They communicate well and frequently. Continually meet and be in communication with your team. While you don’t want to hover over them, you also don’t want to be disengaged. Clear and frequent communication enables you to see your team’s current struggles or ideas and gives you the opportunity to speak to the situations. Consistent communication allows a team to grow and thrive.

4. They avoid placing employees under a microscope. No one is motivated to work for a constant critic. When you regularly place your employees under a microscope, you cause your team to feel questioned, untrustworthy and undermined.

5. They provide their teams with what they need. How can anyone complete a job without the appropriate tools to do it? Proper management means supplying your team with what they need to see through the goals you’ve given them.

6. They lead by example. John Maxwell once said, “A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way and shows the way.” You can manage a team effectively when you are effectively leading in the direction you are asking your team to go.

It is easy to stay in our own lane and think we’re great managers without much interaction with our teams. But if we’re not actively engaged in leading, listening and pointing our teams in the right direction, we are missing the effective qualities necessary for any manager.

Dr. Kent Ingle is the president of Southeastern University. He is the author of several leadership books and host of the "Frameworks Leadership" podcast.

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