So what actions could you take to become an even better manager?

Action 1: Be Honest With Yourself

It is really easy to fall into the trap of believing that because you are the manager you need to be the best at everything. The reality is you don’t and cannot be the best at everything. Stop pretending that you know it all.

Action 2: Invest Time To Save Time

One thing so many managers complain of is having too much to do and not enough time. However unlike a computer you cannot buy an upgrade in the amount of tome you have. So what’s the answer? Make a one off investment of time to train someone else and then assign responsibility for a task to them.

Action 3: Find Out What Motivates

On just about every management and leadership course I run people bring up motivation as an issue. When I ask them when was the last time they asked employees what motivates them, most acknowledge it was no time recently. If you don’t know what motivates others you are always going to find it a struggle.

Action 4: Don’t Avoid Problems

It might be tempting to avoid problems in the hope that they will somehow disappear into thin air. In reality this never happens. The problem just gets worse. Deal with them rather than letting them hang around like a bad odour.

Action 5: Show Trust

Trust takes time to gain and can be lost in minutes. Truth is the best way to gain trust is to show others you trust them.

Action 6: Never Forget What It Was Like At The Bottom

As people climb the career ladder it is easy to lose sight of what life was like when you were just starting out. Always try and stay connected to what it is really like at the bottom of the hierarchy when you had little or no experience.

Action 7: Delegate A Lot

Delegation is vital to your success and has many benefits in terms of developing and growing others. It also gives a huge message to others that you really trust them.

Action 8: Try Not To Criticise In Public

Yes this requires a lot of self discipline but when you criticise in public you run the risk of losing the respect of the individual and potentially your whole team.

Action 9: Praise and Acknowledge

When you praise someone it lets others know you are noticing and care about them. Remember too that you can acknowledge effort as well as results.

Action 10: Accept That It Is Ongoing Work In Progress

Despite what you might read you never reach the point where you are the perfect manager. You have to keep learning and growing in order to continue to deliver success.

Duncan Brodie of Goals and Achievements helps highly rated professionals to become high performing leaders and managers. He invites you to sign up for his free management mastery course

So what are some of the signs that you are leading rather than just playing at it?

You Are Thinking Long Term

There will always be things to do in any organisation no matter what it does. While you cannot ignore the present, you also need to be thinking long term too. Remember that as a leader your job is to drive the organisation forward.

You Provide Clear Direction

People want to know where they are heading so that they can decide whether they want to get on board and help you to reach the destination. As the leader you need to provide as much clarity of direction as you can. Vagueness about direction of travel will always result in less than optimal results.

You Listen A Lot

Leaders often talk about the importance of employees being engaged. What makes people engage is the belief that their ideas will be listened to and acted on when it is appropriate. Failing to listen is one of the fastest ways to disengage those who you lead.

You Take Personal Responsibility

It might not seem fair but as a leader you are ultimately responsible. In practice what that means is that you have to be willing to take personal responsibility even when there are potentially serious consequences for you.

You Recognise The Contributions Of Others

You might think that leaders are successful because they personally are brilliant. The truth is that behind every great leader there is a team of great supporters and followers. Don’t fall into the trap of believing that the public face of the organisation is doing it all by itself.

The truth is that leading is a process of continual learning and the best leaders keep growing and developing.

Duncan Brodie of Goals and Achievements helps professional people become great leaders and managers. Sign up for his free audio e-course Leadership Success at www.goalsandachievements.co.uk.

So what can we learn about business and leading from this episode?

Sometimes You Have To Take Risk

One of the teams gambled on the two appointments set up by Lord Sugar and offered to clear for free.  It was a big gamble and just paid off.  Nevertheless it showed the willingness to take risk, an essential ingredient in business and leadership.

Make Sure Everyone Has Clarity On Tasks

One of the team members on Zoe’s team Susan seemed to be lacking clarity on the commercial appointments.  Perhaps this was a communication breakdown.  As a leader you need to make sure everyone has clarity.

Admit Mistakes

We all make them from time to time and Zoe showed she was willing to admit her mistakes.  The reality is that if we are never making mistakes we are probably playing it safe.  The issue is not making mistakes, it is learning from them when we do and deciding what we would do differently.

Team Working Is Tough

We saw this in the boardroom where people on the losing team were arguing over who was the person who closed deals.  The natural tendency of most people is to focus on themselves.  The challenge is to get people seeing the benefits of team working as being more important than being the lone ranger.

Determination and Focus Produces Results

Zoe’s team looked dead in the water at the end of day one.  Yet they stepped into the second day determined and almost pulled it off.  Sometimes real determination and focus can make a huge difference to the results and success.

Duncan Brodie of Goals and Achievements helps accountants and health professionals to become highly effective leaders and managers.  To get access to his free audio e-course Leadership Success click here

At the same time, one of the biggest barriers to team success is silo thinking.

What do I mean by silo thinking?

Essentially it is when team members take decisions or give support based on the impact on:

• Them personally.
• The team or function to which they belong.

When you have a whole group of people thinking in their own interests, the interests of the whole organisation get lost and sub optimal performance arises.

So if you want to get more results from teams, get people thinking more in the bigger picture and less in silos.

Duncan Brodie of Goals and Achievements helps accountants and health professionals to achieve success and realize their professional potential through being highly effective leaders and managers. For more information and to sign up for his free audio e-course click here

Obviously this is a new challenge for me and I would really value your comments and feedback

If you have enjoyed the video I invite you to sign up here for my free weekly leadership and management success tips at

At the same time, there are certain things that you can do to get the support of your team:

1. Listen to their points of view, opinions or ideas.
2. Don’t assume that everyone will react with enthusiasm.
3. Acknowledge their worries or concerns at a time of change or uncertainty.
4. Explain not just the ‘what’ but also the ‘why’ when making changes.
5. Don’t see objections as being negative.
6. Reassure and explain to them how you will personally support them.
7. Use past successes as a way of showing how it is possible to overcome challenges.

What else would you add to the list based on your experience?

Duncan Brodie of Goals and Achievements helps accountants and health professionals to achieve success and realize their professional potential through being highly effective leaders and managers. For more information and to sign up for his free audio e-course click here

1.                  Set crystal clear objectives

The start point of getting the best from people that you manage is to make it clear to them what they are expected to deliver.  Often managers become stuck in the long list of activities that are contained in a job description.  While this provides some important content, make a point of spelling out the 5 key results that you expect individuals in the team you manage to deliver.

2.                  Help them solve their own problems

As a busy manager it is sometimes highly tempting to solve problems for people so that you get them away from your desk as quickly as possible.  The trouble is that if you always do this, people will stop thinking for themselves and just come to you for the answers.  Use questions to coach people to find their own solutions to problems and challenges.

3.                  Take the time to praise

Few people (if any) turn up for work with the intention of doing a bad job.  Yet managers often forget this and fail to recognise the efforts and achievements of their people.  Make a point of praising achievement and acknowledging efforts as it will motivate.

4.                  Delegate whenever you can

There are few managers who could be accused of over delegating.  In fact it is generally the complete opposite.  Delegating does not just provide benefits to you in terms of freeing up time but also provides scope for those that you manage to take on new challenges.

5.                  Treat people fairly

Treat people well and chances are that the majority will go to exceptional lengths to deliver for you. A good rule of thumb to check this out is to ask whether you are treating others the way you would like to be treated in the given situation.

Bottom Line – Managing is tough at times but by bringing out the best in others you can achieve greater success. 

1. Give them a clear purpose

The best teams know why they exist and what issue or issues they are tackling.  In other words they have a very clear purpose.  If you want to get the best from teams give them a clear and unambiguous purpose.

2. Get the right people on the team

If teams are to prosper they need to have people on the team with the right mix of skills, knowledge and personal attributes to deliver results.  Ask yourself what’s missing on a team and then look for ways of getting people on the team to address these gaps.

3. Set expectations

You don’t want to micro manage teams but at the same time you need to be willing to set some expectations of the team.  These expectations will include areas such as what is to be delivered, ways of behaving and ways of interacting to name just a few.

4. Encourage innovation

Have you ever noticed that when you get a group of people together, whole range of ideas and possibilities are created?  Encourage teams to innovate and translate these ideas and possibilities into solutions that result in a step change in performance and results achieved.

5. Support risk taking

When teams are taking risk they are more than likely moving towards action.  Encourage and support teams to take balanced risks having weighed up the benefits and drawbacks.

Bottom Line – Bringing out the best in teams can lead to significant change in organisational performance.  So what do you need to do differently to bring out the best in your teams?