becoming a manager is exciting and also overwhelming step in any person's
career in 2017 women held over half of all management professional and related
occupations women are leading teams and we want to help each of you each manager
each leader be better because better leaders make better teams in this video
we're walking through five tips for any first-time manager and by the end of
this video you'll know what to prioritize as a new leader and stick
around until the end because we have a free downloadable resource that will
help you become a better manager in 10 minutes or less I'm Lauren McGowan
founder and CEO of career contessa the only career site built exclusively for
women be sure to LIKE and subscribe to our channel because we release videos
each week number one make listening a priority as a manager listening and
listening well must be a priority and let's be honest most of us have room for
improvement when it comes to our listening skills have you ever gone to a
meeting talked to watt heard a lot of stuff from other people and then you
leave the meeting having no idea what was said or what's happening after well
we have a solution it's called active listening active listening means giving
you our undivided attention to the speaker all the time by practicing
active listening you'll make your team members feel heard and when your team
members feel respected you'll have a more productive and more creative team
the first step in active listening yep you guessed it minimizing
distractions let's say you're talking to your employees and you want to make sure
that you've minimized those distractions that means put your cell phone away
turn off your email notifications in fact maybe just close the computer
altogether number two check in communication Styles just like everyone
learns differently everyone on your team probably has a different communication
style and a ways they prefer to be communicated with most often check in
with each member of your team and ask them how do they like to be communicated
with maybe they prefer email or they love
in-person asking this question right away shows two things one that you're
invested in each person individually and two that you're invested in the success
of the team by working to have effective communication pathways with everyone
you're opening the door to a flow of communication between you and your team
number three create a culture of feedback your team should be built on a
foundation of trust and you need trust because you need to get feedback and
people need to trust that that feedback is gonna help them grow and get better
and that's how you build more successful teams foster an environment where each
employee feels comfortable where everyone feels heard where they feel
motivated this sense of trust respect and feedback will push your team to be
more productive and creative if you have a foundation of trust and respect
feedback is not offensive give feedback both positive and negative often you
want to make sure that people are used to getting feedback and they can use
that feedback to benefit the whole team number four schedule one-on-one time
aka individual meeting times one-on-ones are key to maintaining an open dialogue
with your team members in addition to other meetings and brainstorms
where other people are present the one-on-one meetings can create an
opportunity for feedback concern or updates without any social or peer
pressure's you want to schedule one-on-one meetings with your team
members that are consistent so pick a schedule that you know you can stick
with so you're not canceling every time maybe that's weekly maybe it's bimonthly
maybe it's even just once a month number five be consistent unpredictability is
not a great trait for a leader your team needs to know what they can expect and
what's coming down the pipeline if they can depend on you they'll be sure that
you can depend on them be consistent so they know what to expect
be consistent in your attitude in your priorities and your commitment to each
member of your team this shows that you're trustworthy lead
with empathy communicate often and be an active listener we're so excited for you
to grow into your new role as a leader and don't forget we have tons of
resources and articles and interviews with other leaders on our website career
contests calm and as we mentioned earlier in this video we have a free
five step guide on listening skills it's linked in the description below and it
can help you become a better manager in ten minutes or less now we want to hear
from you which tip are you going to implement first go ahead and tell us in
the comments below and if you found this video helpful please like it and
subscribe to our Channel