Leadership 101: Critical Tips And Tools To Become a Better Manager or Supervisor

Employees are often dropped into managerial roles based on the quality of their actual work, not on their ability to manage. The problem: The skills needed to perform a job usually are completely different from the skills needed to supervise employees performing that same job.

That’s why it’s vital for managers and supervisors to receive regular training on managerial skills. In ‘HR Memos to Managers: 81 Concise, Customizable Training Handouts for Your Supervisors’ By Business Management Daily, employees can make that shift to exceptional leader and become a high-performing, efficient manager or supervisor.

Good managers learn how to hire the best employees, communicate effectively with staff, conduct smart performance reviews, coach and motivate for improved performance and make any kind of employment decision in an effective, legally safe way.

Some critical topics managers and supervisors should know include employment law, employee lawsuit risks, hiring and interviewing, performance reviews, communication, coaching and motivating, management skills, managing difficult situations and terminations. Knowing these key business areas are like a blue-print to help organizations run more efficiently from the inside out.

Here are three essential topics managers and supervisors should be well-versed in:
FMLA, ADA, FLSA and more. There are many employment laws that every manager should know including ones that pertain to job discrimination, sexual harassment, overtime/minimum wage, family leave, age discrimination, disability discrimination, military leave, gender pay differences, workplace safety, pregnancy discrimination and immigration.

The Dirty Dozen: 12 manager mistakes that spark lawsuits. Here are 12 of the biggest manager mistakes that harm an organization’s credibility in court: sloppy documentation, lack of policy/procedure knowledge, inflated appraisals, shrugging off complaints, interview errors, changing your story, ‘papering’ (over documenting) an employee’s file, being rude/mean spirited, lack of legal knowledge, dictating accommodations, and firing employees too fast.

Top 7 reasons why the wrong people get hired. Here are the top reasons that employers make poor hiring decisions: Hiring managers don’t take time to do the job right. Hiring managers don’t know what you’re looking for. Hiring managers are looking for the wrong things. The best candidate doesn’t know about the position. Hiring decisions are based on “gut feeling.” The wrong candidate didn’t get enough information to say “no.” Hiring managers mistake credentials for accomplishments.

Interviewing ‘red flags’. If you’re a manager, a big part of what you do is making smart hiring choices. You want to ensure you get the right person in the right position. Here are some warning signs managers and HR personnel should be aware of:

1. Arrive late for the interview and don’t explain why. Even a lame excuse (“I had
car/bus/train trouble”) is better than no excuse. It may indicate that being late is a habit.
2. Use “they” or “them” when talking about a former employer and co-workers. The use of these plural pronouns may signify that the person felt detached from former
co-workers. This may mean that the person could fail to build rapport with a new team.
3. Left jobs without giving sufficient notice. In some professions, as soon as someone announces he or she is taking another job, that individual is asked to leave
immediately. This usually happens in creative type companies (e.g., advertising agencies) where confidentiality is an issue. In other cases, employers would expect an employee to give adequate notice, which is normally two weeks. Someone who leaves abruptly
may have something to hide.
4. Seem overly focused on money. Salary is, of course, a primary issue in any job interview. But most candidates wait until the interviewer raises the subject, and they do not place all their emphasis on that topic. Other aspects of the position (responsibilities,
quality of assignments, chance for promotion) should be on the person’s mind as well.
5. Give references reluctantly and ask for a day’s lead time to warn those references of your phone call. The person may want to brief the references on what to say. In any case, you probably won’t get the honest responses you were hoping for.
6.Have a history of job-hopping. Many companies would view a candidate who has averaged more than one job every two years as a poor employment risk. However, because of the volatile nature of some professions, as well as the way some corporations are still downsizing, there may be extenuating circumstances. If you feel the prospect is otherwise a possibility, probe more deeply into the reasons behind his or her job track record.
7. Seem nostalgic about a past job. This person wishes to turn back the clock and return to a past employer. He or she keeps talking about how things were done there. You might not be able to bring this person into the present, let alone the future.
8.Talk more in terms of own needs. Do candidates talk about the job solely in terms of what it would do for them, rather than pointing out what they could do for the
company?
9.Talk more about duties than results. You want a person who gets things done. Someone who sees a job as a list of chores, without looking for the higher good to the
company, is probably not going to be very productive.
10. Let you ask all the questions in the interview. You don’t want the interviewee to give you the third degree, but it’s reasonable to expect that he or she will ask some well thought-out questions.