Self-Management for Managers: The Path to Exemplary Leadership

If you’re a manager, it’s understandable that you’d want your teams to be effective and self-sufficient. Those teams can manage their time, achieve goals, and handle issues like pros. But while those are the dream teams, they need one secret ingredient – a dream manager!  Managers often wonder about their teams’ lack of effective habits while forgetting they are key to setting them. For instance, a friend shared that his team was not good at time management. But guess what? Upon closer inspection, we realized the problem was closer to home than we thought.  See, my friend wasn’t practicing solid time management. Managers should ideally control how they spend their time with the help of schedules and to-do lists. It ensures that tasks with strategic importance are handled with care promptly. But instead, he let his environment dictate his schedule. Imagine starting each day without a prioritized task list, just going with whatever seemed easy at the moment. Sure, it feels good, but it means neglecting the urgent and important stuff.  And further, there are other disruptions, such as chatty colleagues or team members sharing issues that the manager can solve a couple of hours later as well. This lack of organization in the manager’s approach tends to trickle down to the team, resulting in chaos and confusion in the workplace.  But fear not; there’s a way out of this madness, and it starts with effective time management. Mastering the art of managing time is the foundation of being a great manager. Managers can control their time and navigate tasks more productively by setting clear goals, creating schedules, using tools like calendars and timers, and minimizing distractions.  It’s all about allocation, delegation, and focused action. Time management is one critical avenue where managers can start acting to save their teams from trouble, but not the only one.  In addition to effective time management, there are several other habits that managers need to learn to become their masters. For example, managers must develop strong communication skills to ensure their vision gets translated into action. Without communication skills, it would be hard for managers to develop strategies, share ideas, or even brainstorm on the way ahead. Communication is not just about interacting with others but matters heavily while deliberating and building clarity in one’s thought process.  Essentially, self-management enables managers to become exemplary leaders. When managers can exude confidence, make controlled decisions, and act independently, they can also build loyalty and trust among their team members. Otherwise, managers lacking at the front of self-management continue to set examples of chaos and get further confused when their team follows those footsteps, just as we noted in the example above.  It is not just about showing that you are the in-charge but playing an active and vital role in your professional journey. Self-management allows you to choose – by freeing up your time and mind from distractions that grab your attention. By effectively managing yourself, you can create the brand of a manager known for their work ethic, ability, and willingness. Taking responsibility for one’s actions also leads to dependability and reliability, which are highly valued traits in the workplace. Often, it forms the key to effective relationships, which can open many doors to professional success.  Self-management strategies for managers call for a realistic understanding of their role within the team. It requires a mix of diligence and emotional intelligence. Emotional intelligence helps individuals recognize and manage their own emotions, as well as understand the feelings of others. By developing emotional intelligence skills such as self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, and social skills, individuals can improve their ability to handle stress, communicate effectively, and build strong relationships at work. It’s a learning process; you can take the first step now. We’ve got an awesome blog post that goes into detail about more such strategies. Check it out here: Understanding The Role Of Self Management At Work With 7 Effective Strategies.  Remember, every day is an opportunity for growth with Risely. So embrace change, break those old habits, and watch your productivity soar!