What are the primary traits of a great people manager?

It’s a common enough question that most of us grapple with; after all, finding a great one is like finding a gem. While good people managers change the world around them for the better, the bad ones can put teams in deep trouble. I have seen my fair share of both. The latter left me with a bitter taste and examples of what not to do as a manager, while the former influenced my managerial style. After over 15 years in professional circles, I consider two things essential for great people managers.

Great people managers know how to balance performance and wellbeing

It’s people management; isn’t it quite clear in the title? Yet, more often than not, the pivot of managers lies somewhere around performance and productivity. Remember your career; you might have met one or two performance-focused managers who made everything challenging with their extreme steps. Great people managers do not fall into this trap. Instead, they clearly understand that their success lies in enabling team performance. As a result, they can shift focus between people and performance as needed.

• When working with people, Understand that you can impact their overall wellbeing in many ways. You could disturb their sleep or give them long headaches! But that’s not what you want to do. Good people managers create healthy relationships. Safe spaces and mutual vulnerability are key here — they allow your team to trust you when things get tough.
• When thinking about performance, be clear and assertive about your goal. Setting the right goals and expectations is half the job; the rest is about empowering and guiding your team to follow the path you have defined.

Great people managers put the team before the self

There are two ways to shape up your team.

a) Your team works for you.

b) Your team works with you.

Unfortunately, the first path is what we commonly witness across organizations, but the second path is where the magic happens. It’s vital to recognize that your team’s needs will sometimes take precedence over yours. Being comfortable with this fact allows managers to contribute to their instead of being annoyed by the constant needs of the team, as I discussed in my previous article on time management for managers.

Every step you take should focus on your team’s growth. At times, the process of this is going to be annoying. Your team member would take two hours, three iterations, and make four errors to do something you could do in a few minutes. But it’s not about saving time or effort. The real deal of a great people manager is in developing resources and enabling them to reach their true potential.

Are you a parent?

Now, the previous couple of ideas might seem very paternalistic. Don’t they? With the focus on allowing someone else’s growth even at their own expense, the role of a great people manager looks similar to that of a parent. But that would be a myopic view, in my opinion. Great people managers treat their teams as stakeholders of equal importance. Ultimately, it’s not about helicopter-ing above someone until they reach every benchmark you set for them. It’s about enabling and guiding someone so that you can reach goals with them. The spirit of collective growth and development makes a people manager great.

In sum, a great people manager enables, not enforces.