Great managers make people want to come to work and do well

To be credible as a leader you have to have technical qualifications and/or experience to win the respect of those you lead. They are vital to coach people and develop capabilities.

Lord Mark Price, founder of WorkL, says great managers deliver all the things that make people want to come to work and do well

I am often asked “what makes a great workplace?” My answer is always the same, no matter where you work – having a great boss.

You see our research at WorkL, gathered from our “Happy at Work” test, shows a perfect correlation between the score an employee gives to the question “I have a good relationship with my manager”, and their overall happiness at work score measured by that and 20 other questions. And the reason is straightforward: great managers deliver all the things that make people want to come to work and do well.

In the UK, the latest employment statistics showed there are a record 9.28 million inactive workers; that’s a staggering 21.9 per cent of people aged 16-64. If you put alongside the statistic that 82 per cent of British managers have had no management training and have become managers because they either have a technical qualification or through being around a long time, you wonder if those two things are linked. Accidental managers are less likely to understand what they need to do to drive high levels of performance from their people to gain a competitive advantage for their organisation.

To be credible as a leader you have to have technical qualifications and/or experience to win the respect of those you lead. They are vital if you are to be able to coach people to develop and improve their performance; they are the foundation on which to build management skills. Those management skills are often referred to as soft skills but I’ve always preferred to call them core skills.

So below I’ve set out those things great leaders do, day in day out, which brings them loyal followers and allows them to achieve better results than their peers.

There are six key areas.

1. Pay and recognition

To begin with, they pay their people fairly and have honest conversations about where their pay sits against others and elsewhere and how it can be improved. They understand all workers need a degree of flexibility in their working arrangements from time to time and work to accommodate that. But what great leaders do is notice when someone has done something well and take the time to praise them for it. Doing this regularly buys a licence for the manager to coach a team member when something hasn’t gone as well. The criticism feels balanced. So many managers forget the praise and only criticise.

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2. Information sharing

Great managers keep their teams informed about all that is happening in their department and the wider organisation. They are able to effectively communicate the organisation’s plan. They help them feel “plugged in” and have a context for their work. They listen to the views and ideas of their team and where extra training or development is required, they arrange it.

3. Empowerment

Great managers train their people and then leave them to get on with the job. They don’t micro manage, they trust their people to deliver and when they do, they praise them. And when they could do something better, they use it as an opportunity to develop them. They treat all employees, whatever their background, with respect and demand the same from others.

4. Wellbeing

Great managers care about the wellbeing of everyone in their team. They are interested in their health, their family and their life. They notice if a team member is looking anxious or depressed and look to support. Great managers create a safe and protective working environment where people can be themselves.

5. Sense of pride

Great managers are able to explain why someone’s job is important to the department and the company so that an individual feels they are doing something worthwhile and of importance. That helps them feel proud about where they work and what they do. At its best an employee would tell friends and family what a great place they work at and how they should also get a job there.

6. Job satisfaction

Great managers are approachable. They are concerned about your career development and personal development. They will actively coach, recommend training and help you get the right job to suit your skills and personality.

It is these six areas that dictate how you feel at work and all of them to a greater extent are delivered by your line manager. If the manager does the above, the department feels well-run.

If, however, any of the above is missing, then the department will misfire and our research shows staff turnover, sick absence will be higher and productivity lower.

Lord Mark Price is the founder of employee experience platform WorkL.

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