7 Traits to Turn Good Managers Into Great Managers

At my core I believe that great managers have one job: to get the very best out of the people they manage. While that premise sounds simple, the execution is hard.

Throughout my career I have had the fortune of learning from and working alongside some great managers. And I have also had plenty of exposure to bad leaders and individuals who have demonstrated poor management acumen. Fortunately, I am able to learn from my past experiences and implement the best tactics at my current position, the VP of Communications for Porch. In this role,

developing great managers is one of my primary commitments.

So, how do good managers become great managers?

It starts with understanding and ultimately excelling at the following seven traits.

1. Have great attitudes.

Attitude really is everything and great managers know that their energy and attitude sets the pace for the day. Whereas good managers stroll up the stairs, great managers run up the stairs.

They also know how to manage their poker face. Body language is a signal that people feed on; it is part of the human condition.

Lastly, a great manager knows when to hold certain situations lightly and when to drive certain situations with a high degree of urgency. Their communication is not hard to read or understand.

2. Are transparent.

You cannot be a great manager if you sugarcoat things. They must know how to speak to their reports in a way that is direct, factual and straightforward -- especially when it comes to bad news. They also get to the point quick and transition into solution-based thinking (versus wallowing).

Top-notch managers must also be transparent. This trait helps drive away any potential rumor mills before they open. They foster a culture of candor, making it easier for people to give meaningful real-time feedback. 

3. Demonstrate maturity.

Great managers are able to regulate their emotions -- especially as it relates to representing and serving as an example of the company’s values. They do so, as they realize they serve as a megaphone for the values of the company and handle this responsibility with a high degree of character and maturity.

Internally, exceptional managers consistently fly above the noise and don’t get caught in emotional traps. They know that if they really feel frustrated, it is best to go for a walk. They don’t over-react and lose their cool in the office.

4. Remain flexible.

Great managers know that it is not all about them; it is all about the people. When things get bumpy they embrace ambiguity and make others comfortable in dealing with change. They also know that no two employees are the same and spend the time getting to know what motivates and challenges people. They ask questions and listen so they can setup a working relationship that is tailored to the specific needs of an employee (as appropriate and reasonable as possible).

5. Reinforce accountability.

Remarkable managers are obsessed with accountability. They realize that the success of their direct reports is their success. On the flipside, they share in failures and mistakes. They hold regular one-on-one meetings with their direct reports and reinforce the outcomes they and the team are responsible for. They are vested in driving solution-based cultures and strive to build an environment of continued learning (versus finger pointing). Also, to keep staff focused, they make sure to handle and manage accountability conflicts as they come up (instead of letting things fester).

6. Get their hands dirty.

Great managers know in addition to being a leader, they are also teammates. They don’t just give feedback on problems; they help with implementing the solutions. These managers are very clear and realistic when it comes setting and communicating goals. Along the way they get their hands dirty and put in the work to ensure their direct reports are setup for success. They show them how to be successful if they are falling behind and demonstrate best practices to help guide them along.

7. Develop great talent.

The number-one advantage for a company having great managers is they develop great talent. They are able to get the right people in the right roles at the right time. They do this through the encouragement of mentorship opportunities and the implementation of a proactive plan for addressing career development interests, needs and desires. Great managers care about the future as much as they care about the present for both the business and the individual.

From Entrepreneur

Meeting the Right People Is Worth It, Even If You Have to Pay for Access

We’ve all heard that who you know is as important as what you know. Frankly, I wish that weren’t true. So much so, that I’ve occasionally resisted the notion in print. But a recent experience has me changing my tune.

After years of aggressively banging down doors -- to little avail -- I attended a two-day seminar about an industry I invent for. It was not inexpensive. But because attendees had paid to be there, it was small and intimate. I was astounded by whom I suddenly had access to.

The speakers, who were industry leaders, were right there. They were available to chat over coffee and at lunch. I introduced myself and gave them my business card. They gave away their contact information freely. Later, when I followed up over email, I was even able to connect one individual with a potential client.

I’m not convinced there’s any other way I would have ever reached these people, despite my doggedness. I mean, this is an industry I’ve spent years in, I had practically given up. To be clear, I’ve met people who have introduced me to power players at free events and events that charge a modest entry fee, as well.

So the question becomes, when is it advisable to pay for access? There’s no single answer, but I think it’s something you should spend some time thinking about. Yes, your business might be limited on funds. But if you’re burning through cash because you can’t get in touch with the right people, maybe you can’t afford not to. From time to time, paying for access is warranted.

Who you know really does matter -- in fact, sometimes it’s what matters most.

You don’t have to let that discourage you. Meeting the right people isn’t a matter of luck and it isn’t just a matter of income. With these tips, you too can become a master networker. 

1. Stay abreast of industry news.

Get to know the major players by reading the news. Join industry mailing lists. Establish a social-media presence. That way, you’ll be aware of potential events to attend and people to meet.

2. Know that it’s not enough to simply be present.

You must go one step further and introduce yourself, make an attempt at small talk, and exchange contact information. No one expects you to go on at length about yourself or your business (and honestly, they probably wish you wouldn’t), but you should try to leave an impression. It’ll be much easier to follow up later if you do. The more you do this, the easier it will become. If all else fails, remember that people love talking about themselves.

3. Never throw away a business card.

Someone you met years ago might be just the person you could benefit from knowing now. Or even better, they might be able to help out one of your peers. Never overlook an opportunity to network, whether you’re in the lobby of a hotel that’s hosting a conference you’re attending or ordering a drink at the bar. Be alert!

My mentor collects business cards from everyone he meets. That man has a Rolodex unlike any other. And time after time, I’ve watched him make use of it.

4. Keep in touch.

Consider dropping someone a note that you’re not currently working with. When someone (regardless of their importance) reaches out to you, respond to them promptly. Caring is what cements the creation of a long-term, mutually-beneficial relationship.

5. Work LinkedIn.

If you’re unsure about whom to reach out to, search LinkedIn. It’s a boon to us all that employees list their job titles on their profiles. People seem unusually willing to correspond via LinkedIn.

I can’t tell you how many times one of my students has told me, “I found him on LinkedIn and he responded to my message!” I’m not sure why people who aren’t willing to respond to a phone call will respond to a message on LinkedIn, but there you have it.

Some people act like networking is an unnatural act. It doesn’t have to be that way. I know how much of my success is due to my relationships with other people. The only way for you to get there is to let your enthusiasm for your business shine in all of your interactions.

From Entrepreneur

Counterintuitive Self-Improvement Trick: Study People You Hate

The traits that annoy you most in others are probably the issues you most need to work on in yourself, argues one entrepreneur.

When it comes to self-improvement, the usual go-to advice revolves around role models. Find people you admire and use their lives as templates to discover better ways of approaching your own and as markers by which to begin to raise your expectations for yourself. In bite-size form, this same technique is probably behind the internet's mania for inspirational quotes.

Which is what makes a recent Quartz post from entrepreneur Lauren Bacon so bracing (and thought-provoking). Her advice turns this traditional wisdom on its head, suggesting that a great alternative path to self-awareness and betterment isn't studying your personal hero but your nemesis.

In the piece, Bacon shares her personal experience with a boss she detested, and explains that, done thoughtfully, measured consideration of the qualities we most dislike in others can shine a bright light on our own values, shortcomings, and aspirations. She offers a three-step road map for those looking to try this technique in their own lives.

Step 1: Name your nemesis

First, identify the people that really trigger negative emotions in you. Bacon writes: "Try this: Turn your thoughts to that person you keep running into at networking events whose elevator pitch always leaves you feeling greasy; the columnist whose opinions never fail to stoke the fires of your outrage; the once-cool, indie filmmaker who sold out and started dating fashion models; or the work colleague who seems to have made sucking up to his superiors his job description--any of the people who get under your skin or repel you." 

Step 2: Dig into why

Next, you need to examine exactly why this person irks you so much. What are the qualities he or she has that really bug you? Bacon suggests you ask yourself questions such as, "What specifically about them is so triggering?" and "What are they modeling for me, in a 'how not to be' way?"

Step 3: Face the mirror

The last bit, Bacon contends, is the hardest. Reflexively, when confronted with a characteristic we dislike, most of us run away from it. "Thank god I'm not like that!" we say to ourselves. But while that might be momentarily satisfying, it's not going to help you improve. To get better, you need to do the hard work of digging a little deeper.

"When we succumb to disdain, we transform our worst fears about ourselves into a kind of reverse-affirmation levied at someone else," Bacon writes. "If he's an arrogant windbag, then my self-image as a modest and thoughtful person is reaffirmed, while my terror of self-promotion or provoking conflict can safely be tucked away into a corner labeled 'bad' and 'not me.'" But the truth is, while that guy really might be an arrogant jerk, if that really bothers you, chances are you have some conflicted emotions or fears around self-promotion and being perceived as arrogant yourself. Hating other people is often a flag that marks your own unresolved issues.

"If I have a habit of judging people as arrogant windbags, it might behoove me to take a look in the mirror and ask myself, 'Where in my life could I stand to assert myself more strongly?'" Bacon suggests. "If you can't bear to hear people bragging, ask yourself: Where do I stop myself from celebrating my life? How could I practice more gratitude? Or if selfishness triggers you, ask yourself where you might be harboring resentment about your own self-sacrifice and self-denial."

The idea here isn't to change your opinion entirely about whatever characteristic sets you off. It's simply to become cognizant of traits that trigger strong reactions in you and to take a long, deep look at your feelings about those characteristics. Most of us can benefit from pondering whether we are taking our rejection of a annoying characteristic to a destructive extreme or using it to cover a personal need or impulse that frightens us.

From Inc. Magazine

10 Affordable Tools to Help Online Entrepreneurs Succeed

An entrepreneur naturally has a lot on his or her shoulders -- as in the entire success or failure of their business. Those with online-based businesses have several tools available to chose from that help improve productivity and streamline certain aspects of the business.

There are so many choices available that it can almost be overwhelming, so which ones are truly helpful? I’ve put together a list of 10 tools that are affordable that can help increase the productivity of an online business.

1. DocuSign

If your business wastes valuable time waiting to receive executed contracts, then DocuSign may be a lifesaver. It allows you to digitally send, sign and manage documents securely in the cloud. You can manage all of your document-signing needs on any device, as DocuSign allows full access and management via desktops, laptops, tablets and mobile devices.

Starts at $10/month (free 14-day trial)

2. FreshBooks

Cash flow is crucial for the success of a business. You want to make it as easy as possible for your business to send invoices, and you want to make it simple for your customers to pay you. FreshBooks is an invoicing platform that allows you to create professional-looking invoices, send payment reminders and accept payments. It also gives you the ability to create and send invoices from your mobile device.

Starts at $19.95/month (or send unlimited invoices to 1 customer for free)

3. WePay

You need to be able to accept payments, and WePay is a payment-gateway solution that is quick to set up and allows you to have the checkout process on your website. The company handles all of the compliance issues. No monthly fees and next-day payments are drawing a lot of online businesses to this payment gateway.

Starts at 2.9 percent + $0.30 per transaction (special pricing for businesses doing over $1 million annually)

4. Basecamp

Internal communication is key, and Basecamp is a very simple to use feature-rich project-management tool to help your team members work together. Accessible from anywhere, even from mobile devices, it allows you to update projects, share files, have group discussions and assign project tasks.

Starts at $20/month (no-obligation, 60-day unlimited-use free trial)

5. MailChimp 

Collecting leads, building an email marketing list, setting up auto-responder messages and mailing your prospects is an important part of every online-marketing effort, as is remaining compliant, and MailChimp has you covered. This email marketing tool allows you to collect opt-in email addresses, deploy emails to your list and track the performance -- all while remaining CAN-SPAM compliant. My company uses MailChimp for our newsletter, and we absolutely love it.

Starts at $10/month (if you have fewer than 2,000 subscribers you can send up to 12,000 emails per month for free)

6. Ring Central 

There is a good chance that you aren’t tied to your desk all day, so you need a business-phone solution that gives you and your team flexibility and mobility. Ring Central’s cloud PBX makes it easy for you to be taking calls in your office on your IP desk phone to conducting a HD video call via your mobile device on the go. Simple to use and jam packed with features, there isn’t a bigger bang for the buck when it comes to office-phone solutions.

Starts at $24.99/month (30-day free trial)

7. Dropbox 

We live in a digital business world, so why not make it easy to store, access and share important files and documents from anywhere? Arrived at a meeting and forgot to send over an important document? If you have it stored on Dropbox you can access your account from your phone and send it over instantly. This is a great tool for businesses with several remote workers, allowing them to all share and access important documents and information. 

Starts at $9.99/month (store up to 2GB for free)

8. Olark 

If you want to increase your online sales, interact with your website visitors, and understand your customers better, then consider adding Olark live chat to your site. This tool allows you to see who is on your website, where they are from, what pages they are currently on, what pages they previously visited and how long they have been on your website. You can wait for them to initiate a chat session or you can set it to only target visitors that visit a particular page or perform a specific action, such as leaving your shopping cart.

Starts at $15/month (14-day free trial)

9. ZenDesk 

Customer support is vital, but it can be difficult to manage with customers contacting you from so many different channels. ZenDesk allows you to create an inbound customer-support ticket system that manages all requests, whether they come from phone calls, email, chat or social media. Staying on top of customer support helps combat any potential problems before they turn into fires.

Starts at $1/month (30-day free trial)

10. Sales Force 

If you have a sales team, then give this customer-relationship-management system on steroids a look. It is a tool that can benefit sales teams of all sizes and help increase productivity, while allowing you to track progress in real time from any device. Your sales team can manage their contacts individually, or you can set up a team-selling environment, allowing everyone to monitor and check the status of a particular deal at any time.

Starts at $25/month (free 30-day trial)

What tools do you currently use that contribute to the success of your business? If you have some suggestions please share them in the comments section below.

From Entrepreneur

An Infographic Every Boss Should Read

These all-too-common management behaviors make self-motivation almost impossible.

I've written several posts on management mistakes, but this infographic is a brilliant summary of what how bad and weak management practices can destroy a team's motivation.It's from Weekdone, a startup that builds status report software. I've provided my own commentary afterward.

From Inc. Magazine

3 Types of Leaders Who Never Succeed

Do you rise again and again to the very edge of success, only to fall back down? You may be guilty of one of these leadership styles.

It's an oft-quoted leadership trope: Because of his sin in striking the rock twice, Moses never lived to see his people into the Promised Land. That role fell instead to Joshua, despite Moses having dedicated his life to paving the way, including those 40 years spent in the wilderness.

Business leaders can, sadly, befall the same fate. Call them the Never-Gonna-Get-There Leader. The saddest part is that unlike Moses, for these perennially unfulfilled leaders, there's no real reason why it should be so--except for their own self imposed limitations.

There are a lot of hyphenated leaders: the Wanna-be leaders, Always-on leaders, Glory-grabbing leaders. But there's none so heartbreaking to work with as a Never-Gonna-Get-There leader. This is someone who rises again and again to the very edge of success, only, as in some twisted version of chutes and ladders, to fall back solely as a result of their own subconscious, success-restricting traits.

Here are the three main categories of Never-Gonna-Get-There leader, and, if you recognize yourself or a colleague amongst them, how to avoid Moses fate:

1. The Epiphany Junkie

The trendy new book absolutely everybody must read. The new social tool we gotta dominate. The perfect sales page layout that will send hidden buy messages on our web site...

That's the Epiphany Junkie, dropping the latest in their rapidly accumulating grab bag of realizations / discoveries / imperatives. 

Problem is, while they think they're confirming the fact of their genius, and leading their team to even greater heights of brilliance, the team is in reality simply being distracted from getting on with what's really important. 

If you think you might be an Epiphany Junkie, write down the last six epiphanies you dropped on your team. I have a two-fold challenge for you: (a) Were you actually able to recall the last six pearls of must-do wisdom you laid on your unsuspecting colleagues; and (b) What real, lasting impact did they each have, apart from unnecessarily distracting everyone for a few days?

The answer? When you come back from that conference, or read that book, or stumble on a stunning meme on your Twitter, keep it to yourself. Just shut the blank up about it for at least two weeks. If it's truly important, you'll see ways to integrate it quietly and seamlessly into what your team is doing. 

If it isn't important, you'll have found something new to fixate on soon enough.

2.The Strategy Yanker

"We're going to grow by 50 percent over the next two years."

A month later: "Growth can't be  our main objective. We're going to focus on customer service."

Six weeks later: "Profitability is all. We're going to deliver a 25 percent increase on the bottom line."

That's the Strategy Yanker, pulling their organization from pillar to post in a self-imposed search for the perfect plan for success. They strain everyone's patience, drain everyone's motivation, and rapidly lose credulity with everyone forced to listen to the next whiplash change of direction. 

The fundamental problem with the Strategy Yanker is that they're usually intelligent people so all of the proposed (and subsequently ditched) strategies are valid--if only they would choose one and stick with it.

Working with a Strategy Yanker is like getting into a car with a driver who knows 10 different routes to the place you want to go--and can't make their mind up as to which to take. You end up hopping from one route to another, then changing to another, never getting any closer to where you want to go.

The answer? A dose of the bleeding obvious. Pick a medium term strategy and stick to it. If you can't, get out of leadership before you seriously hurt some people.

3. The Hero to Zero Myopic

Leadership isn't a solitary occupation. By definition, a leader leads others. 

Those others are exactly like you and me--varied, competent in some areas, not so hot in others, a mixture of strengths and weaknesses, all of us trying to travel north in a southbound lane.

Some Never-Gonna-Get-There leaders refuse to see people as they really are. Instead, they view everyone as either spectacularly great (She's the best salesperson I've ever seen!) or woefully dreadful (I can't bear having him around me. Get him out of my sight.) Often they change their opinion of a person from one extreme to the other literally overnight.

Sound like you? Then you need to take responsibility for the hiring function. You need to put yourself in a position where having a zero on the team is clearly, transparently no-one else's fault but yours. Because chances are, it already is.

From Inc. Magazine

Why Startups Fail, According to Their Founders

When the founder of a startup company shuts down her or his business, it is customary to pen an essay that tells the rest of the community what went wrong, called a failure post-mortem. It’s estimated that nine out of 10 startups fail, which is why the technique has become so common as to be a Silicon Valley cliché. Some of these essays are honest, enlightening, and brave. Others point fingers or issue backward non-apologies. Medium, the publishing platform co-founded by Twitter co-founder Evan Williams, is the preferred medium.

The proliferation of the failure post-mortem has helped create a bizarre cult of failure that seems wrong-headed. Celebrating failure (“Fail fast” goes the mantra) seems to let people off the hook for bad behavior. Upon closer inspection, it seems less misguided than necessary. Starting a high-growth business is a roller coaster. Founder-CEOs feel pressure to keep up the facade of success, even when things are actually falling apart behind the scenes. Only recently, after the tragic suicide of Jody Sherman, CEO of a startup called Ecomom, did the technology community begin to publicly acknowledge the problems with its “entrepreneur as hero” narrative. Publicly admitting to failure, and examining it, can take guts. It also distills the narrative to a case study from which other entrepreneurs can learn.

CB Insights recently parsed 101 post-mortem essays by startup founders to pinpoint the reasons they believe their company failed. The company crunched the numbers to reveal that the number-one reason for failure, cited by 42% of polled startups, is the lack of a market need for their product.

That should be self-evident. If no one wants your product, your company isn’t going to succeed. But many startups build things people don’t want with the irrational hope that they’ll convince them otherwise.

The most prominent modern example of this phenomenon is the mobile phone. People dismissed it as a novelty in its early days. Obviously, they are no longer a novelty. The late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs famously said, “A lot of times, people don’t know what they want until you show it to them.” The problem is that entrepreneurs have taken that to heart. For every $19 billion company like Uber, the private transportation service, there are all manner of frivolous products that never evolve past the phase.

There are more practical concerns. Polled founders also cited a lack of sufficient capital (29%), the assembly of the wrong team for the project (23%), and superior competition (19%) as top reasons for failure.

The self-assessment lines up, for the most part, with what industry experts have said. Paul Graham, a partner at the Y Combinator startup accelerator, wrote in 2007 that startups usually die because they run out of money or a founder leaves.

Steve Hogan, who runs a startup turn-around shop called Tech-Rx, says companies with founded by one person—that is, no partners—are most likely to fail. He ranks product demand, or a lack thereof, second. The existence of a co-founder helps avoid many of the reasons cited at the bottom of the CB Insights chart, he says, including disharmony, poor marketing, and the wrong team.

Running out of cash does not cause a startup’s failure, Hogan says—it’s merely a symptom of another issue. Excluding instances of “stupid spending” or the inability to raise capital in the first place, startups tend to run out of cash when a CEO has overlooked all other indicators of failure. “Unfortunately, sometimes it’s the only ‘symptom’ that the leadership sees,” he says.

From Entrepreneur