Management - The Superhero Manager

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Posted by: Super Careero

When you’re a superhero, you have to make hard calls. Do you save the paperboy or do you save your sidekick? Do you stand up to the villain, even when it means going outside the law? Being a manager means being willing to make the hard calls. It means being accountable to those both above and below you. It means getting people to do the things that need to be done, following through on projects, seeing your company through various changes, and more.

So, what is it that separates the superhero manager from the vast sea of other managers? She does her job, does it well, and takes responsibility for herself and for her people. The superhero manager approaches her job from several different angles, including:

• Managing people. The decisions that a manager makes – from hiring decisions to dealing with interpersonal conflicts to helping individuals do their best – determine whether that manager has what it takes. You don’t need mind-control powers, either. Learning to apply principles of psychology to how you manage your employees, such as understanding personality types and underlying motivations, will empower your management capabilities.

• Delegation. Good managers get the job done, but they don’t always do it by themselves. Learning to let go and trust your people to accomplish the things that need to be accomplished is requisite to success. It’s also one of the best ways to avoid managerial burnout.

• Managing projects. Growing businesses need managers who can see new projects through, from the place where the need is identified through project completion. Developing your project management skills helps make sure that projects go smoothly, and that your company grows.

• Managing change. Superheroes adjust to changing situations fast. That’s why they’re able to go from countering a death ray with their laser-vision to boring a hole down into the earth to release seismic pressure on only a moment’s notice. Organizations and businesses don’t like change any more than individuals like change. You need to be able to recognize the kinds of ripple effects that given changes will have on a company and then mitigating possible negatives, insuring that the change that’s happening is positive change.

• Ownership. Your career should rise and fall on your performance. It does for superheroes. Superheroes take responsibility for what happens on their watch, whether that’s defeating the bad guy or whether that’s being unable to keep the meteorite from crashing into an elementary school. Being willing to face the consequences of your own actions – for good or bad – is the characteristic of a responsible adult. Going the extra step and sharing the credit with your team when you experience success is the characteristic of a superhero manager.

Superhero managers know how to manage themselves and their team, in order to produce stellar results for their company.