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Its hard work being a manager. This is true especially at Argos because our philosophy is very pro-employee and we don’t want managers telling employees that they have to do something using the argument “because I said so.” Ideally managers and employees make decisions together on key issues affecting an employees work. As a result the key challenge is how to strike the right balance between being friendly and pro-employee and at the same time making sure that things are being done the way efficiently and effectively.

I have spent a lot of time managing managers in both Argos and PMR and I thought I’d share three problems I see that managers sometimes have. I’d like to make it clear, this is not directed at any manager in particular, these are just things that I have observed over time that I thought I would share. I think that understanding these issues may allow you to look at your manager in a new/different light and understand some of the challenges that a manager faces. So, three of the main problem I see are:

1. Caring too much about being liked or being popular. This a normal human need. Humans are social creatures and as such want to be loved/liked. Natural instinct is often not to take decisions or act in ways that will somehow displease others. What happens is that a manager becomes too friendly with their employees and then doesn’t feel comfortable restricting them if they have to or have difficult conversations with them if they are not performing well. A real talent for managers is how to balance this friend/boss balance. Its great if the manager is friendly, but at the same time the manager needs to be able to maintain a certain amount of distance so that they can sometimes make unpopular decisions or have authority in situations where employee performance needs to be improved.

2. Not being friendly enough or not communicating enough. Another natural instinct of a manager may be to keep their distance from employees. I believe this is a defensive mechanism, but it can result in a manager being perceived as aloof or even arrogant. This can also be the result of the manager being too busy to pay enough attention to their employees. This is obviously not optimal. Ideally employees should see their managers as a normal person with feelings, emotions, problems, etc. If a manager maintains too much distance with employees then the result can be poor communication. Employees need to feel comfortable talking to their managers. They need to feel like they can approach their managers and talk about problems. If a manager is too distant, this can sometimes make employees reluctant to communicate.

3. Poor communication of expectations. In my opinion communication of expectations is one of the most important attributes of being a good manager. What this really means is not only that a manager needs to communicate what he/she wants/expects, but the manager also needs to make it clear to an employee when the employee is not performing up to expectations. In these situations the manager should provide some ideas or solutions for the employee to be able to improve his/her performance. I’ve seen situations where employees had no idea that they were doing anything wrong, because the manager did not clearly define their expectations.

Anyway, these are my thoughts for today. I think being a good manager is a tough balancing act. I am very happy with the managers we have at Argos and I think they do a good job balancing these different issues. I also think it’s good for employees to understand the challenges that their manager might be facing.