Ideal Managers

Ideal Managers - www.treoc.com
By Coert Coetzee

Many of our members are business owners or hold senior positions at big companies. This week I would like to speak specifically to them, but property investors needn’t feel excluded, because as I always say at the seminar: a property portfolio is merely a business, and should be handled as such.

Until 1990 I worked for big corporate companies; marketing and risk management were the two departments in which I specialised. I held senior positions and frequently had to evaluate people for management positions in my departments. Through our risk management activities I was also involved in the management of hundreds of independent companies (our clients). Since 1990 I’ve been involved with my own companies, and because of my philosophy of working on my business rather than in my business, I have always been dependent on good managers. So over the years I have built up solid experience around what makes a good manager. During a presentation I did at one of Treoc Business Academy’s courses recently, someone asked me whether I could define a good manager.

It is very important that you appoint good managers, because this can mean the difference between success and failure. It’s the same as our property managers or letting agents: the wrong appointments cause a lot of problems.

Before I tell you the characteristics of a good manager, according to my experience, I’d first like to tell you what you shouldn’t do. The biggest mistake people make when they appoint a marketing manager, for example, is to make the best marketer the manager. I’m not saying that good marketers can’t be good managers as well, but don’t imagine that it is automatically going to be the case. In most cases it doesn’t work, and in the end you sit with bad management and bad sales.

In the same way, a good hairdresser does not automatically make a good salon manager, or a good bricklayer a good foreman. A good employee doesn’t automatically make a good business owner either. Most entrepreneurs or people who start their own businesses were good employees, and I think that’s one of the main reasons that as many as 80% of all new businesses are not successful. It also proves my point that good employees are not necessarily good managers, because that is why many new businesses fold: bad management!

I think we have a problematic subconscious belief that the best performer is obviously going to be the best candidate when we are looking for managers.

If the best performer is not necessarily the most suitable candidate, then who is? I look for the following characteristics:

Punctuality – someone who is late for work or an appointment is usually late with many other things too.
Honesty – everyone makes mistakes, but people who lie to cover up their mistakes lie about a lot of other things too.
Loyalty – people who are not loyal towards their partners, managers, employees, friends and clients are, without exception, not good managers. I have a saying: “My friends’ enemies are my enemies.” My experience has proven over and over through the years that anyone that does not support and live out the same principle will disappoint me at some time or another as a friend, partner or manager.
Self-motivated – employees that are self-motivated always impress me. Their output might not be the best, but they achieve it on their own. In contrast, the one with the best results might require my continual attention. You can see for yourself who manages and who is managed. Someone who has to be continually managed will certainly not be able to manage others.
Consistency – the dull guy in the corner’s output may not be the highest, but it is always good.
Organised – you can see this when you meet someone, or if you see his car or his office. Recently, upon a family member’s death, I visited the office of the executor of his estate. I had never seen that much chaos in an office in my life. And the service and product he provided looked like his office!
Outspoken – I like someone who can say their say (but I don’t like people with big mouths).
Humble – a good manager will always be humble without being obsequious, and will handle people with respect. Don’t confuse humility and respect with weakness. By the way, bullies never make good managers.
Calm – it always impresses me when people are able to handle crises with calmness.
Goal-orientated – I like people who know what they want and then work to achieve it.
As you can see, it’s quite a tall order and there’s no magic recipe for finding good managers. I have made a lot of mistakes in the past with appointments. I use psychometric testing before appointing a manager as well, and even that is not foolproof. Candidates sometimes hide character flaws so well that even psychologists cannot pick them up.

All that I would like to bring home with this article is that those with the best output do not necessarily make good managers, and that this is the most common mistake that is made when it comes to appointments.

The second most common mistake made by businesses with regard to appointments is that if they have made a mistake they can’t or don’t want to fix it. As soon as you see that it was a mistake, correct it. Do it immediately, do it according to legislation and do it with respect.