How to become a good leader: rules, tips and common mistakes

We painlessly go through the path to becoming an accomplished manager in an interview with an expert in the field of leadership, service and personnel management, MBA teacher at the Russian School of Management Elizaveta Efremova.

In the life of managers there is a stage of a kind of initiation: at first you were an ordinary performer, responsible only for yourself, and your success was determined by how effectively you solve the assigned tasks. Then they begin to evaluate you through the effectiveness of other people, and you have to engage in new activities - organizing their work. Neither school nor college can teach you such skills—only life.

But everyone has had a similar experience; for many people from the “man-technique”, “person-sign” system (for example, for technical, IT specialists, financiers) organizing someone’s work and supervising employees is a serious test. Working for yourself and being responsible only for yourself is easier. And completing assignments is easier than assigning tasks to other people.

About the book “From Expert to Leader”

The book is intended for a novice manager who does not yet fully master the skills of personnel management. I have been teaching the Mini MBA course for a long time, first in the leadership program, and now in human resources management. And I clearly see that one of the difficult, very personal issues is entering a position - when colleagues are accustomed to seeing you as an ordinary member of the team, but at the same time (as subordinates) they are waiting for some difficult decisions. And the higher management in your new role does not know you yet and arranges many tests. And there is no one to talk about this with: you can’t bring a complaint to your family, at work you want all kinds of encouragement and manifestations of strength.

During the classes, the students thanked me, but I realized that many people do not perceive information well by ear, and they need to reread what they have learned. I compiled the materials into a brochure. The task of “From Expert to Manager” is to help a person who has become involved in management activities within an organization. I think the book was useful and I regularly receive good reviews. For example, managers give it to newly appointed employees.

Essentially, the book is about how a person goes through the stages of career growth and becomes a leader. I identify 11 parameters, some of them are professional, some are personal and one is motivational.

One of the key moments in the transformation of a specialist into a leader is that he has to not only change his tools and ideas about his success, but also formulate the meaning of his life differently. If we talk about motivation, then this is the question “What do I want, why do I even need it, what’s the point?”

And when we talk about the difficulties that a newly minted leader faces, the first problem is the transition from routine activities. After all, a manager’s life takes place in an uncertain environment; he has to constantly change systems to adapt to changing conditions. And life according to the rules goes to hell. The chaos in which a leader finds himself and which cannot be structured is difficult.

Therefore, according to the “golden ratio”, Pareto’s rule, only 20 people out of 100 withstand this restructuring of the transition, when they have to generate warrior energy in themselves. I have one of my favorite definitions of the qualities of a leader: it is the adoption of unpopular decisions that cause a lot of resistance and require tension for the sake of the interests of the future of the group.

You can buy Elizaveta Efremova’s book “From Expert to Leader” from the Russian School of Management Publishing House here:

TEAM SPIRIT IS THE KEY TO SUCCESS

How to unite the management team?

What kind of team is it if it needs to be united? What makes us a team are common goals and objectives, or rather, joint work to achieve these goals and objectives.

When colleagues in our company stopped relying only on my knowledge and experience, I realized that we had reached a certain level of maturity and our team had become a real team.

I am sure that by this time the employees already felt my trust in them and my willingness to accept constructive criticism.

I have never been a supporter of corporate games, especially in relation to the management team.

What should a manager know about his subordinates?

A leader must know what his subordinates really think about him. To achieve this, very open and trusting relationships must be built between employees and management. I believe the first step is to reduce unnecessary stress on sales managers and then hold them to the plan.

How to instill team spirit among specialists?

You can call a shaman or business coach, who will charge you a good amount of money for joint gaming and ritual practices. Or you can set the tone for your “orchestra” with your own gestures, behavior and support.

The team will follow you if they feel supported by you, and copy your behavior model in communicating with their subordinates. Do you want team spirit in your team? Then show empathy and trust to the team.

And what motivation is better to use?

The team is diversity! A variety of personalities, and each has its own motivators, ambitions and experiences. Moreover, personality is a dynamic concept, and your employee’s motivators may change over time.

Balance and moderation are needed in everything, and in motivating a team, one should find a middle ground between external and internal motivation.

About company transformation, power and risks

If a person is accustomed to a systematic approach, and the company is in the status of a “party, family”, where there is no deadline and schedule, an attempt at transformation will be risky.

Each screw has its own nut. At different stages of an organization’s development, a person faces new challenges: you grow with the company or join it at some stage. Sometimes you need to make those very unpopular decisions, enter into conflicts with loved ones who were once like-minded people. And at some point you have to take power into your own hands. But then the next important question arises: how to give this power away. That is, create a team that will be your squad.

Therefore, I believe that you need to study, take courses, read books. You can connect to collective knowledge and avoid mistakes that have already been made and described by predecessors.

About corporate culture

When a new manager comes to the company, he doesn’t really know who to keep or fire. But it also happens differently: there is the concept of corporate culture, which permeates a person who has worked in an organization for a long time. And it is not a fact that he will “revenge in a new way”, having absorbed values ​​and norms, having gone through all stages of selection.

Management is management of the living: you need to capture the best and remove the unnecessary. When something new enters the corporate body, it resists and an inflammatory process occurs. Then this new one is either integrated or rejected. And even if the new broom is used in a new way, it will become part of the corporate culture or will not pass the filtering stage.

EMPLOYEE INITIATIVE MANAGEMENT

How to awaken initiative in employees?

Managing a company is managing business processes. There comes a moment when, it would seem, all business aspects have already been spelled out, people have been trained, but we stand still. In this case, it’s time to use lean manufacturing tools that do not involve capital investments, but allow you to move forward.

For the tools to work, you need to interest and involve all staff in this system. Even change the culture of the employee, since only a truly involved employee who understands what he is doing will use such tools.

We encourage initiative among employees. It is important that the employee is interested and speaks openly about what and why he would like to change in the process in which he participates.

We use two types of tools to convey ideas to management .

The first tool is the Idea Box . This is a mailbox located in each production area of ​​the warehouse. Next to the box is a standard idea submission form that can be filled out by any employee. The person decides whether his idea will be anonymous or whether he will indicate his data. All ideas are considered. Ideas with economic impact are encouraged.

The second tool is the Improvement Board . It also has its own shape. An employee can simply come up, take a pen and describe the problem. Next, the shift supervisor comes in and offers a solution. Then, according to the scheme, a person is assigned and deadlines are indicated, and the final column shows the status in which this item is located.

It could be something simple, starting with the illumination of the area, or it could be something so interesting that, after implementation, it will significantly change the process, reduce costs, and increase efficiency.

About common mistakes of novice managers

The book has a chapter dedicated to the life cycle of a leader. This cycle is not unique, it repeats from person to person:

1. The first event is a motivational boost. It’s good when a leader has excitement, challenge, a sense of novelty and interest. The first point is the desire to be at the helm, perhaps to have the will to power. Not everyone has it and not everyone needs it, but a leader cannot do without it.
2. The second important point (where you can fly out) is the so-called adaptation crisis. It occurs when a person comes to a new place with expectations, ambitions, illusions and immediately encounters new non-specific activities and new people (even if this is the same team, then people are already in new roles). At this stage, it is important to face reality and understand what is missing, what shortcomings hinder the newly minted leader. Because until you recognize your areas of incompetence and your difficulties, it is very difficult to change.
3. Then the passionate first year of work as a manager begins. He is ready for changes, sees all his shortcomings and shortcomings of the system, the strengths and weaknesses of his employees. He is ready for change, so this year is energetically charged. At this stage it is difficult to quit his job: the organization gives him credit. The performance of a manager can be assessed by comparing annual indicators. It is impossible to compare, for example, February with September in the sales department - different seasons and numbers.
4. Therefore, the next important point is the evaluation crisis, when by the end of the first year it becomes clear whether all the decisions made had an effect. Here you can really fly out if they don’t produce results.

What criteria are used to evaluate a leader's effectiveness?

Traditionally there are three such markers:

1. Effectiveness according to the indicators assumed at the beginning of work.
2. Personal and cultural component: to what extent the person complied with the corporate culture, values, and demonstrated the required organizational behavior. For example, if after a year it is in conflict with the entire internal ecosystem, this is also an indicator.
3. Again the motivational component: does he want to be in this place?

About professional burnout of a manager

Then the second year begins, and for a manager this is a fairly stable time. The team has been assembled, the processes have been streamlined. But by the end of the second - beginning of the third year (depending on the intensity of life in the organization), a crisis of choice arises. When a manager has a subjective feeling that he has solved all the problems in this place, he wants something more, it has become uninteresting.

The first option is to move to the next level of the spiral. In smart organizations, they simply don’t let a specialist go, giving him new tasks and challenges. The second option is more terrible, when people decide that everything is fine, lose the desire to transform, compete, and waste energy on extraneous problems.

Burnout begins: the process has been set up, you can now start, for example, building a house. And everything that happens at work goes according to the principle “oh well, everything is in order here.” And new competitors appear on the market, and the product becomes obsolete. And at some point the consequences become irreversible.

Therefore, at the end of the second or third year, it is important for a manager to get out of the current comfort zone, no matter how cheesy it sounds. Comfort means a state of relaxation; you need to be constantly on.

TAMING CHAOS AT WORK

Why may employees not understand the reason for the changes and not share the views of the management team?

Personnel are the main competitive advantage of any company. Innovations can be copied the very next morning after they appear, but the staff’s commitment to the spirit and ideals of the company cannot be copied.

We are all internal customers of our company. The standards must be uniform.

If we have difficulties, we go to our clients and ask them to understand the current difficult situation and the need to change the terms of the contract. Everything is the same here. We go to the staff and ask for understanding and awareness of the changes.

How to increase efficiency at work in conditions of uncertainty and chaos?

In times of change, a leader must have a clear strategy and action plan to avoid the situation we observed in one company. Against the backdrop of the implementation of changes, the legal structure of the company was constantly changing, changes were made to the terms of work with suppliers, and the area of ​​responsibilities of departments changed. The changes became not a process of improvement, but some kind of madhouse. The workers gave up and worked without effort, because they knew that tomorrow everything would be rebuilt again in a new way.

A clear, conscious plan for corrective actions and a proven course is a key advantage of a top team during a period of change. More often, chaos occurs in companies that began changes without auditing business processes.

How to increase the responsibility and efficiency of staff?

Eliminate the role of control departments. The responsibility of personnel and their efficiency will automatically increase, since employees will know that no one will check on them. All the blame for defects, incomplete orders or poorly completed work will be theirs. There is no one to blame it on!

This approach provides significant savings in the wage fund. True, it is important not to cross the line here. There are enterprises with an existing quality management system, where the abolition of additional control points means significant violations. That's not it. You can't touch this. Business process audit to help.

About the ideal leader and his problems

Let's take the classic definition of an ideal system according to TRIZ: there is no object, but the function is performed. Therefore, for an ideal leader, everything works without him. This is what we should strive for: those who make the organization too dependent on themselves are at great risk. The career is blocked, all resources are directed to management. Much has been written on this topic.

The pains of the head of an organization can be listed endlessly.

1. But the most important thing at the transformation stage is problems in self-organization, when a person is not in harmony with his time, schedule, and stress. This leads to burnout, fatigue, and loss of resource.
2. The second is the inability to build connections and communicate with people (managers, colleagues).
3. And the third sore point is the difficulty of managing a team. At the very least, you can come to an agreement with one person. But processes begin to take place in the team that people do not understand; they make classic mistakes, which are then difficult to correct.

I see a million more problems, but these are the most significant.

How to become a boss with a soft character

It is believed that liberals cannot become leaders due to their humanity and tendency to connivance. Instead, the team is managed by informal leaders.

To become a good leader, you need to find an ambitious person and make him your advisor. Then, with its help, build a management structure and influence the team using the “kind director - strict deputy” model.

A democratic leader must be:

• proactive, responsible;
• be creative at work;
• be able to persuade;
• develop ways to achieve the goal.

Such specialists are expected in highly developed teams, where each employee is well motivated and can justify their point of view on the problem.

You should start your management career with your own life: set goals for yourself, move towards the goal. Communicate with people who have achieved professional success and are ready to give practical advice.

Should a manager be a leader?

In the structure of team roles in a group, a manager and a leader are concepts of a different order. The leader is the named leader, with a crown, shoulder straps and everything that is needed. This is an assigned role within a group.

A leader is not an appointed person, but a person formed in the group with a credit of trust. People in the group accept his position, opinion, attitude. Therefore, the manager may well not be a leader: he develops a management system for his group through leaders who have formed within the team.

But all points of power can converge in one person: then he will be a leader (formal and operational) and an emotional leader. At some stages of a team's development this is a good option, but it doesn't always work.

DON'T CARRY EVERYTHING WITH YOURSELF

What should a manager know about his subordinates?

A manager must know everything about his subordinates in order to motivate people and manage his team. To do this, ask appropriate questions at the interview stage: “What are your hobbies? What is your family? What kind of holiday do you prefer? What is important to you in the team in which you will work?

It is equally important to pay attention to the mood of the subordinate, to know about his achievements at work and in his personal life.

Sometimes a company has created such conditions for interaction that employees are family friends and know almost everything about each other. This strengthens team spirit, but can generate certain risks. You need to remember boundaries and respect them.

There is a private area that should not be manipulated in any way. These include religious beliefs, intimate relationships and political views of employees.

How to form an effective management team

For a management team to work as a cohesive unit, they must be motivated by one common goal. To do this, the company's strategy and global objectives must be clearly outlined and understandable to all managers, since they are the ones who will transmit them to the performers and work as one mechanism. Cohesion can be achieved by giving managers freedom of collective action and clarity of organizational structure.

Everyone must understand their area of ​​responsibility, role in the team, points of contact with other departments and cross-functional connections. Duplication of areas of responsibility makes the management scheme ornate and complicates relationships between managers.

Holding general working meetings with shareholders and the executive committee, the need to jointly defend their projects, share best practices and experience help prevent fragmentation in the actions of the management team.

In order for win-win principles to be present at all organizational levels, there is no need to pit the interests of different departments head-on. On the contrary, top managers of the company need to pay attention to possible conflicts of interest and prevent them by setting common goals that can be solved by reaching consensus.

The ability to have a mentor from fellow managers, horizontal exchange of employees, the development of end-to-end company management tools and cross-functional reporting will help create a unified information field and quickly find inconsistencies. Only in this case will various team-building events and training camps work.

What should a manager do at the beginning of his career and how to avoid mistakes

One of the key actions at the very beginning is initiation into the group in a new role. It doesn’t matter whether the person came from another company or was promoted to the organization from a previous level. You need to gather the whole team together (do not write letters or messages in instant messengers) and introduce yourself. It is advisable that the new leader be introduced by someone from a higher social group.

Traditionally, initiations take place in the “+1” format. This gives the candidate more weight in the group. This way you are marked as a representative of the organization. And all further conflicts will not be with him, but with the organization. For a young leader, especially an inexperienced one, this is a kind of cover. If there is no such representation, you need to introduce yourself with reference to the order - the legitimate right to be in this role.

There are five main instruments of power, support points that need to be voiced by the group. They will create a framework of relationships.

1. Clearly state the goals that you set for the group or broadcast from the organization: “The company has set the following goal for our department” or “I have gathered you so that we achieve such and such a goal.” The first appeal is always an image of the desired result, as if the result of an activity. We do not gather relatives or friends, but the workforce.
2. The second part of the appeal concerns joint activities. Set a coordinate system, talk about the values ​​that are important to you in interaction within the team. The message contains the words “how we work.”
3. Talk through the system of rewards and punishments used: “what is good and what is bad.”
4. A very important point is the principle by which resources will be distributed: how clients, territory, vacations are divided.
5. The principle by which you assemble a team: which people will join it and who will drop out.

If you are prone to collective creativity, broadcast these ideas. If you are a supporter of strict measures and frameworks, say so. But these main points must be discussed. When all the support points appear, the team will stabilize for some time. This will help the leader enter the group in a new role and relieve some of the tension and resistance.

COMBATING EMPLOYEE TURNOVER IN THE WAREHOUSE

How do you combat staff turnover in your warehouse?

Warehouse personnel turnover is one of the pressing problems of the logistics business. The turnover rate is especially high when there are several warehouse complexes owned by different companies in the same area. In this case, people try to find a place where the salary is higher, and often run in circles.

To combat turnover, you need to maintain comfortable working conditions . Now we are talking not just about the Labor Code, but about truly comfortable working conditions.

We work with class A warehouses and warehouses certified according to LEED (Noginsk) and BREEAM (Domodedovo) standards. These are environmental building standards indicating a high level of energy and environmental efficiency of buildings.

Our company provides employees with additional conditions: delivery to work and back to the metro or railway station, since warehouses are located outside of Moscow, in the Moscow region. Employees receive financial assistance for the birth of children, New Year gifts, food subsidies, and insurance.

An important point for effective management is the adaptation of newcomers and mentoring . The company has a whole mentoring program. Each new employee is assigned a mentor who will support him throughout the probationary period. This allows the newcomer to smoothly integrate into the team. A new employee knows who to contact with any question.

How to improve work comfort?

The lean manufacturing tools used in our company also improve work comfort. For example, arranging a workplace in accordance with 5S rules.

5S is a system for organizing and rationalizing the workplace (workspace), one of the tools of lean manufacturing. Developed in post-war Japan. There are five steps:

• sorting (necessary-unnecessary) - a clear division of things into necessary and unnecessary and getting rid of the latter;
• maintaining order (neatness) - orderly and precise arrangement and storage of necessary things, which allows you to quickly find them and use them;
• keeping clean (cleaning) - keeping the workplace clean and tidy;
• standardization (establishment of norms and rules) is a necessary condition for fulfilling the first three rules;
• improvement (literal translation - education) - nurturing the habit of accurately following established rules, procedures and technological operations.

The goals of 5S are to reduce the number of accidents, improve product quality and reduce the number of defects, create a comfortable psychological climate and stimulate the desire to work, increase labor productivity by reducing time for searching for objects within the workspace.

If the workplace is orderly and standardized, it is easier for a newcomer to understand the processes.

About emotional leadership

People are controlled by words, so it is very important to choose the right words, concepts, and meanings. A single semantic construct creates a single intellectual field in the group. But on the other hand, people are also governed by emotions. There is an opinion that everyone begins to experience the feelings of the strongest person in the group. And when a manager can convey to the team his attitude to what is happening, for example, during a difficult period for the company when sales are declining, he can activate and charge the group on an emotional level, this is great.

Emotional intelligence needs to be learned. Large organizations offer courses for aspiring managers. But often they are left alone with their transformation. I hope my book and special courses at the Russian School of Management will help you survive it, because the next transformation is even more difficult. If you managed people before, the next task is moving to the director level, when you have to think not only for yourself and your group, but also for the entire organization. Calculate any change (about finance, strategy, marketing, personnel).

That is, the first transformation is from expert to manager, and the second is from manager to director. From managing an organization, you move to the level of managing society with complex tasks. For example, you are responsible for the life of the city (if it is a city-forming enterprise or a company with a large number of employees). The question is where you stop: everyone has the competencies to grow that way. But I respect people who choose the path of the master - there, too, you can improve endlessly. And the path of a leader is interesting and complex.