What makes a good manager?

Plus details of my next free webinar

There are approximately 5,782,652,976 books available on leadership.

A lot of them are pretty straightforward. Some of them are excellent. Some of them are rubbish.

Most of them overlook one of the absolutely central elements of being a good leader.

In my experience there is one thing that is essential to earn the trust and respect of both your team and your peers.

That thing is consistency.

It’s not particularly exciting, and it probably won’t get me on the bestsellers shelf at WH Smith. But it makes a difference.

Think about the leaders you’ve enjoyed working with. When you spoke to them about something, did you have to pick your time? Did you have to prepare multiple different answers to a question depending on what they wanted to hear that day? Were you nervous about approaching them because you didn’t know whether they were going to bite your head off or not?

My guess is no.

We like our work relationships to be predictable. We like to know what to expect. We like consistency.

Most of us would even rather work for someone consistently awful than someone who was unpredictable.

And it’s better for the leader, too. Because consistency normally comes from authenticity.

Authenticity means, simply, that you behave and act in line with your values. And those of us who are able to work to our values tend to be calmer, more confident and happier.

And who wouldn’t want that in a manager?

Want more on leadership?

If you’d like to delve more into leading a team and, in particular, leading a team in the hybrid world, please join me for a FREE webinar in a few weeks.

I'll be talking about:

🚦 How to build relationships and check in regularly, without micromanaging.

👤 How to tackle issues and offer support effectively in a hybrid working environment.

💻 How to run effective online team meetings and manage projects online.

Plus, due to popular request, there will be time for you to ask questions, share experiences and discuss challenges.

If you can't make the date, register anyway and I'll send you a recording of the presentation (not the discussion, which will be on the day only).