Essential Characteristics of a Great Manager

"Yet a critical characteristic is ethical standards. The absence of this management characteristic jeopardizes competitive industries, as illustrated by the classic collapse of Enron and the recent governance failures at Boeing. Toxic ethical lapses also occur when managers demoralize or destabilize work settings due to either malice or jealousy. Although these are flagrant examples, there are less visible but equally pernicious norms undermining settings that managers need to challenge to be better caretakers."

"Some recent shifts in management create more employee engagement and community. This has occurred, partly spurred by remote work and partly out of necessity, because isolating employees with rigid tasks has not worked. But many work settings continue to embrace an impersonal, disconnected style of management, scheduling tasks that can have unintentional negative consequences for the entire organization. These tasks disrupt the natural flow of building a sense of community."

"These tasks disrupt the natural flow of building a sense of community. For example, team conversations were once common in the workplace, but today innovative ideas and engagement are often abandoned in pursuit of efficiency. Administrators require employees to fill out numerous online forms to achieve their needs, ultimately sacrificing engagement for unnecessary policies and procedures. The result is more complexity in the workday and increased mental health stressors."

Managers are expected to be visionary, innovative, and uphold ethical standards, with ethical failures undermining industries as seen in Enron and Boeing. Toxic managerial behaviors can demoralize or destabilize workplaces, and subtler pernicious norms also erode healthy settings. Remote work and other shifts have sometimes increased employee engagement and community, but many organizations retain impersonal, task-driven management that fragments collaboration. Excessive reliance on online forms, efficiency mandates, and passing support duties to employees creates complexity, reduces conversation and innovation, and raises mental-health stressors. Greater emphasis on human-centered, ethical leadership is necessary to rebuild community and sustain performance.

Read at Psychology Today