Coach Yourself!

13Four Keys to Great Management: A Meta‐Framework

Corporate culture matters. How management chooses to treat its people impacts everything—for better or for worse.

—Simon Sinek

Like so many experiences in life, becoming a great manager is a journey more than a destination.

Entire books are written about the difference between managers and leaders. For our purposes, I differentiate between a manager and leader as follows: a leader doesn't necessarily have direct reports but a manager always does. And a leader is about challenging the status quo while a manager tries to maintain or achieve it.¹ The focus here is on management, though it often goes hand in hand with leadership.

Even if you have good instincts for managing others, experience, skills training, and coaching are just as important, particularly for new managers. What follows is for new managers, but even the most seasoned manager will find this to be a helpful refresher.

The four management basics in Table 13.1 ensure that anyone who works for you will understand their roles and responsibilities, get feedback on their performance, and get coaching for professional growth in both their current role and future career goals. And all of this needs to build on a relationship of trust.²

Table 13.1 Four Keys to Great Management.

1: BUILD TRUST: Create a relationship of trust through regular check‐ins.	3: GIVE FEEDBACK: Communicate clearly about how staff performed.
2: DELEGATE: Communicate clearly about what staff ...