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By: Daniel Manginelli

“State of the Art.” When was the last time you heard that phrase? Maybe it was in reference to a high end electronic or a seriously attractive woman or man. However it was referenced, it’s always means ‘of the highest quality,’ which is always a good thing, isn’t it?

When it comes to business, and particularly when it comes to management, I like to stand that term on its end: There’s a state and an art to being a ‘state of the art’ manager. The challenge is having both: the ‘state,’ which is the skill set to manage, and ‘the art’ which is the natural ability to lead.

Twenty-one years ago, at the tender age of 20, I took on my first managerial role. I became a manager. Looking back, I was not only young, but I was immature. I had no idea what being a manger really meant. I was simply a high producer who got the green-light promotion, which is a standard practice to keep high producers sticking around. And I thought, “Yes! This is the next big step on the corporate ladder.”

So as many green managers do, I thought “I preformed at a high level, so I can just show my new employees what I did, and they all will be successful under my teaching.”

Big mistake. That couldn’t be further from the truth.

Each employee has a different motivation, different skills, and a different learning process. Knowing this is an essential part of ‘the state’ of being a great manager. Essential because if you plan to get the best performance out of each of your employees, you have to understand what makes them tick.

Great athletic coaches know how to get the best out of each player; they also know exactly where to put them, in what position, to get them to reach their full potential. The same applies to management.

The New Manager

There are different phases of management. The first phase is that of the new manager. The new manager takes a “positional approach.” He enjoys wielding his authority, telling people what to do. He takes pleasure in seeing the title ‘manager’ under his name. The new manager also tends to oversell what they know, attempting to add value by criticizing the jobs of others and letting everyone know how much he knows about everything in the company. The new manager spends his time focused on procedures, making organizational charts and trying to implement new policies that may or may not help his team.

Sound familiar?

The Manager As Advocate

The second phase of manager is “the advocate.” This is the stage where managers attempt to be partners with their team members. These managers often commiserate with their players, agreeing that company policies and procedures don’t make sense. They never really fix the issue. They run it up the chain of command, knowing it isn’t going to stick.

In this phase, the manager avoids confrontation and candor, using easy outs like “corporate said no” or “its company policy.”

From Manager To Leader

The third phase of management is the “value add” in business. This is the phase where you can make the transformation from manager to leader.

Each day this manager wakes up thinking ‘What can I do today to get the best from my team?’ This manager has taken the time to meet with each player on his team to find out his or her code.

Each of us has a code. The role of a great manager or leader is to de- code each employee, so he or she will WANT to perform at their highest level.

Most Americans have goals. Written or not, they have things they want to accomplish in their lives. The role of the great manager/leader is to figure out the individual strengths of his team players, to know their goals and to provide them with the tools and support they need to excel and reach those goals.

Tom Landry, legendary coach of the Dallas Cowboys, said “It is my job to get people to do what they don’t want to do, to have them achieve what they want to achieve.” Once you know the code of your employees, they will want to perform because their performance won’t be about impressing or pleasing you, it will be about reaching their own goals.

The Art of Leadership

As your quest to become a great manager continues, you should take advantage of every opportunity to learn what makes your team players tick. Always listening to what they say, looking for ‘the code.’

If you ask the right questions and really listen, they will begin to tell you what it takes to achieve their own ideas of success.

In order to be a better manager/leader, you have to first build a vision with your team that engages and motivates them. You’ll need their input to create such a vision. If they aren’t part of it, they won’t buy in. Most people need direction, not just for today, but for their future. It is your job, as a great manager to show them that direction and the plan to get there.

But before you can look outward on how to build loyalty and inspire your team, you need to look inward. Start by considering your own value to your employees. What do you bring to them each day to make them better? How is the company better with you as a manager?

After you write that list, you can begin to build a vision for your team that starts from the top down—your branch, your district, region, etc.). In my career, I have managed groups as small as five people up to a group as large as 200. The larger the group, the more challenging it is to communicate your vision effectively. You have to use every communications method at your disposal. Meetings, email, telephone… consistently and often. The quickest way to lose great employees is by not maintaining clear communication, especially when business is growing.

The vision you cast gives your entire team a sense of importance as individuals and as a unit. Everyone ‘gets’ the mission as a whole and knows his particular role. When all are working in the same direction toward a common goal, productivity will rise to new levels.

The State of Leadership

If you possess the natural ability to lead others, to inspire and motivate and set your team up for success knowing ‘their codes’ and casting a vision that they can get behind, that’s the biggest piece of the puzzle. The next question is, ‘Do you have the skill set to deliver what you say you can deliver?’

In other words, ‘Can you bring it?’

If your answer to that question is ‘Yes,’ here are seven essential skills or actions you simply must master.

1. Never ask or tell someone to do something that you wouldn’t do yourself. If it’s making calls or processing a file, you have to master that craft before you can ask others to do…. if you want their respect.

If you are a sales manager, make some cold calls in front of your employees. Not only will you get their attention and respect, but you’ll help train them for future calls. If you are just telling people what to do, they won’t respect the messenger. If they don’t respect the messenger, they won’t respect the message.

2. Recognize and reward your team. We all want to feel recognized for our performance. A simple email saying “You are doing a great job” or an ‘Employee of the Month’ certificate goes a long way. Recognizing the effort and work ethic of your team makes each one feel that you care about them as people.  Most people don’t care how much you know, they care how much you care. If you show you care, you will inspire them to perform, not because of who you are, but for you and the team.

3. Never oversell yourself or idea. You don’t have to come in letting everyone know your accomplishment, awards and victories. Trust me, people will figure out what you are all about, and a little humility goes along way. Boasting will only show insecurities. You have been put in a leadership position for a reason. There is no need to hammer home the reasons why. If you’re ‘state and the art’ they already know.

Overselling an idea is very dangerous if you are not the final decision maker. Get approval for that golden idea from the powers that be before you get your team excited. If you don’t, you will lose creditability.

4. Never sell something you don’t believe in. If you do, it will be obvious to the people who believe in you. If the company makes a change that you can’t believe in, you have to ask yourself “Is this the right thing for my people?’ and ‘Will it de-value my leadership by accepting it?’

You can’t go through life just showing up to a job if you really feel it is the wrong choice. Talk to upper management and let them know you’re feeling. Trust your instincts, and do what is right for yourself. It doesn’t matter where you are employed; people follow great leadership. You must say what you mean and mean what you say.

If you have the respect of your people, you can tell them when they are not living up to expectations. You are only hurting the employee by not evaluating a poor performance. It might sting at first, but I believe most people want to improve. They just need the plan.

Daniel J. Manginelli, III is a speaker and author of the book, “Wake Up! Jumpstart The Life You’ve Always Had In Mind” and founder/owner of The Manginelli Group (www.manginelligroup.com). As current Vice President of Retail Production at Pacific Mercantile Bank (Costa Mesa, CA | Stock Symbol: PMBC), Dan coaches and mentors thousands of sales people, while inspiring and motivating them to perform at higher levels in life. Enlightening people that no matter what you do, there is always a fun way to do it.