Management Style Tips

Management Development For Leader Who Takes Action!

Your management style will be a primary reason for the success or failure of your business or career.

Do you find it difficult to move from task to task or are you very flexible when it comes to evaluating and retaining a lot of information?

Perhaps the idea of having to manage others really turns you off? On the other hand, maybe you're the type who has never had a problem with the idea of delegating and leveraging a team to tackle the challenges of long-range planning.

There are all different types of managers and management styles. Some approaches are certainly more successful than others. Managerial success is directly tied to your ability to connect with your team and business associates. Your strengths and weaknesses help to determine your management style as you continue to grow in your management development.

The chart below outlines three common management action styles and describes the strengths and weaknesses of each. Let's take a look at each management style:

Management Style Choices For Managers

	INACTIVE	RE-ACTIVE	PRO-ACTIVE
Who is Leading?	No. Cannot predict what will happen.	Yes. Can expect late, usually disorganized, often negative behavior.	Yes. Can feel safe because they trust action even when they disagree.
Frequency of Stress Situations	Immediately, at level of chance; increases over time because team does not develop to meet increasing demands.	Never ending; often self - producing.	Little emotional stress (burnout); physical stress only when systems are temporarily disrupted.
Severity of Impact	Often unknown until after weeks or months, then severe.	>Severe; to survive, staff block awareness; subordinate staff productivity is minimal.	Minimal for given issues and of brief duration.
Quality of Training for Subordinates	Little, if any, effective training provided; most done by other subordinates.	Training negative because it's given to correct action already taken.	Organized; gives what is expected to do job, time to practice and re-evaluate.
Productivity	Random level; level development on one or few individual subordinates.	Low level; too busy to get any task done; lots of partially completed tasks cause lessened level of support from others.	Good level; efficient use of time and resources.
Service Delivery	By individual, not team, so not consistent.	Higher than needed; number of poor decisions because of time.	Consistent; slowly changing and improving.

You probably noticed rather quickly that being pro-active in your approach as a manager will get you much further and cause you much less stress than being either reactive or inactive.

So why is it that all managers don't take a proactive approach? Well, managers are human too. Like everyone else in the world, they have their own perceptions.

Below is a list of the five most common reasons for each management style. As you read through each one, be honest with yourself. If you feel weak in any area, it is to your advantage to acknowledge it now before you lose credibility as an effective leader.

By working to further develop your management stype, not only will you raise the productivity level of your employees, but you will also save yourself a lot of personal stress and frustration.

If you already relate to the pro-active management style, then hats off to you!

Reasons for Each Management Action Style

	INACTIVE	RE-ACTIVE	PRO-ACTIVE
Personal Thinking Pattern	Often can't move from task to task; incomplete thoughts	Not at ease planning; not creative; difficulty predicting	Retains many pieces of data; very flexible; can evaluate from many points of view
Ability to Design Systems	Often has difficulty understanding systems; usually better with concrete tasks with specific steps to follow	Most decisions made independently; sees most issues as unique	Uses new data to evaluate and re-evaluate systems; generalizes easily
Understanding of Dependency Among Complex Variables	Not a clue and often doesn't understand even when it is explained	Sees each issue separately, takes action without considering impact(s)	Usually considers several options and looks for impact of each one
Confidence	Unsure of self as a person and/or skills	Often was skilled at non-manager tasks and when promoted perceives self as skillful manager; often doesn't see own style and doesn't know there are problems	Realistic self-confidence; usually watches other managers and self with intent to learn and improve
Assumption of Responsibility	Can't tolerate feeling responsible; often make issue of team work; often hopes other staff will do task	Sees responsibility for each task; doesn't think of long range responsibility; often hopes for change in other systems	Proud to be responsible for day-to-day and long range effectiveness

Team Building Tools & Resources

Our team building articles provide great team building ideas and teamwork games that a leader can leverage to ensure positive team moral and increased production. You can also Utilize our entire library of free leadership and team building tools to grow your business to new heights! Download our free team building tools for the purpose of leading your team to greater results and improved profitability.

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