How to be a Better Manager of Yourself

Whether you are a manager over a lot of people or only a handful — you want to be the best you can be. One way to assure excellence in management is to keep-up on building a system of management for yourself. This means finding out how to be a better manager of yourself.

Sure you have the degree — you have the school smarts — and you have experience managing smaller teams. What you can do now is get better at managing a smaller detail — yourself.

If you aren’t scheduling time to take care of yourself — you can’t take care of your team.

In management you have to follow rules to minimize risk. You have to obey the rules for efficiency to achieve your growth-hacking potential. You will have to follow these same types of rules in order to manage yourself. As with anything in life — if you don’t add this “option” your calendar — the success is less likely to be realized. On your calendar you will add this new  management goal — a personal goal — to become a manager of yourself.

Taking care of your team means that you are showing them that personal care is important for them. As you manage yourself and your personal goals — your team will follow.

As you take good care of managing yourself — your team will follow and take better care of themselves as well. This then sets up goals of focus and self betterment. You can talk about what personal goals each person has set with your team (if they wish to share). But just having you talk about what you are doing to improve and manage yourself — no matter what you choose. — will help your team think about how to improve themselves.

You don’t have to be 100 percent on day one.

Never onboard a new member of your team and expect 100 percent performance on the first day.

You should have this same feeling and expectation as you manage yourself. Though the likelihood is greater that you will expect more from yourself — and that’s — okay.

You can let your team know that their own personal management goals for themselves self don’t need to be 100 percent on day one. They are moving forward, just like you are. Maybe one of your team is just going to watch a TEDx talk everyday. Great goal.

Someone on the team having the TEDx daily as a goal will likely having you looking in the same place for a way that might be recommended in that space for your own goal.

Defining your goal to be a better manage of yourself.

What is the new goal you are setting? How will you measure this goal? What will you put on your calendar?

When you calendar any goal for improvement — you will need to define your goal. This goal will include what parts about yourself you have decided to improve. Is your goal to read more? Have you decided that more exercise is in your future? Is this an overall health goal? You will need to define your objectives.

You have already proven that you are competitive regardless of what industry you have been involved with.

So you will expect nothing less of yourself. People tend to get a little intense with themselves — even if they are not quite aware of it. If someone lets themselves down — it generally reveals itself in a different manner. How you interact with a coworker or employee will be different than how you will react with yourself.

Your definition will need to be complete and added to your calendar.

The goal will be listed in your calendar. Maybe you have chosen: eat better. You would put that on the calendar. But in order to eat better you will have to have a day by day plan of “how” to eat better. The same process goes for any goal. Exercise? You will have to have the goal and then the day by day plan.

Put all of the details for your new goal into your calendar notes.

You will click on eat better. Day one: what will you do? You must ask yourself, “how does one eat better?” Or, your goal is to read more — you will ask, “how does one read more?” How you will proceed and what you will do each day will be added to the information in your calendar. You can put as much or as little detail as you wish in your calendar notes.

Success is better seen if you have your goal written, seen, and measurable.

In order to get the best from your new management schedule for yourself — you will need to do the proper research. Research can be a tedious endeavor.

You cannot accomplish any goal without doing the proper research. You may feel like you need extended management research for yourself.

• Give yourself a few days to get your information together.
• Ask someone who has had success in the area you are trying to get better at managing for yourself.
• Get specific directions for how you will manage yourself for this goal.
• What did that other person do at the very beginning of their goal?
• How did someone else find the incentives to get where they are? Are they managing themselves. How will you get the incentive to manage yourself?
• Will this person be willing to help you or give you some information about this subject matter? It doesn’t hurt to have someone else’s input when managing yourself.
• What tools has this person used? Books, online, a professional? Is there some online advice about setting personal management goals?
• How did they add this new project to their own calendar to keep the momentum going?

Research is not just finding an exact science. It is finding the right type of information that you know you can follow — at least in the beginning. You will want to understand what margins you should be looking for. How did this person define success?

How will you define success?

On your calendar you will need the “how” of your measure of success.

With your definition of success in place — you have a more concrete way to see this measurement. Now you can track this on your calendar. As you speak with your team about their own personal goals — you will want them to add to their own calendars. They will want to come up with their own quantitative and qualitative definitions of success.

Your team members will likely show you how they measure and record their own success on their calendars. This will give you ideas about them as people — and how you can manage the personal goals you are putting in place for yourself. What will your recorded goals look like? What do their recorded goals look like?

Now to be a better manager of yourself by empowering yourself.

You and your team can work together by giving each other tips about how to empower yourself.

As you learn about empowering yourself — you learn about how you can add these goals in written form on your calendar. Having your calendar in front of you and being able to see where you are going will lead you to be empowered. As you gain excitement about your own personal projects — your team will  be even more interested in you. You will share in each others goals.

What about the slumps?

Slumps are bound to happen in most goals. Anything worth doing takes time and practice — and you are practicing a personal goal here.

Whatever goal you have picked for yourself — being proactive about the slumps will help you to succeed. You will improve your processes for your goals along the way — and this will all become easier as you add to your calendar. Allow your team to help manage you and your calendar — as you move forward with your personal goals.

As your team helps manage you with your personal goals — watch how much you will find out about them. You will learn how they need to be managed by how they help you with your goals.

Don’t settle for being mediocre on whatever goal you’ve set for yourself. Practice your personal goal — and watch yourself grow. Watch your team grow as you share your calendar with them and they can see that you have set personal goals and made progress. Look around at what you have accomplished by not being afraid to have your personal goals show-up on your own calendar.