By Yinka Bolarinwa

Those who aspire to be successful, supportive managers need the following: Learn and acquire a diverse range of qualities, which will be required both to enable them to fulfill the tasks within their remit and enable them to effectively lead and manage the team of employees that are within their sphere of operations.

Some of the qualities needed as a supportive manager is organizational skills, as the term manager suggests part of the role is ensuring that the systems and operations that the person is responsible for run smoothly and within the processes that have been set for that department.

In other words it is the manager’s responsibility to ensure that tasks are completed to the right level of quality, delivered on time and within allocated costs.

*Another and perhaps the most important quality of a good supportive manager is people skills and the ability to build cohesive teams within the workforce. To ensure efficiency within the role or department they control it is important for the manager to get the best out of those who work for him or her, in terms of productivity and commitment. This can only be achieved a good relationship is built with the team under the managers control.

*This means that there is a need to ensure that the employees are comfortable with the tasks they are set and the environment where they work. It also requires the manager to ensure that his/her employees receive the right level of support, which includes training and mentoring. Building a cohesive can be achieved by empowering and involving the employees within the decision making process. Employees will respond more positively if they believe that they and their input matter.

*Furthermore, a good manager will listen to employees, as often they will have innovative ideas that can be of help in making the business and its processes more efficient.

*This empowerment process also indicates that a manager needs to be a good communicator.

Communication is key
Most managers in the workplace find that the most important factor in promotion is effective communication. With this in mind it is strange to see that many managers and employees within organizations lack effective communication skills. In fact, managers still find effective communication to be the biggest problem in organizations. Why do so many people lack these skills? This is often due to the fact that employees are not aware of the importance and their lack of this skill.  In this respect communication will not be a one way path, with the message just being given from the manager to the employee and expecting unquestioned compliance.

Real communications is a two-way process — listening and speaking. Managers can garner as much knowledge by listening to employees as they can impart and this bi-directional process is an important quality for efficient management.

As a supportive manager, it’s pertinent also to have a huge level of supportive qualities – must be able to ensure that teams have all the tools required to fulfill their tasks effectively, which means fighting their corner in discussions with senior management.