‘What makes one a manager in a true sense?’
How many of us hold titles such as Managers, Directors and HOD, so on and so forth?
You are in a position of authority. As we all know, with great power comes great responsibility. Right? Sure, you are crunching out those numbers quarter after quarter and year on year revenue figures looks neat. Market penetration is at its best with your company garnering highest market share in your region. If everything looks so rosy, then you must be doing a great job as a manager right?
But do you actually believe that, just there, your job as a manager is done?
Let’s deep dive into the matter here.
Sure, your year - end figures look great. But at what expense have your targets been achieved or exceeded? In all surety we can say that the results were not   achieved by the efforts of the manager alone. There is no doubt that a good leader gets the team to win. However, who is a leader without his/her pack? There must have been an army of subordinates and colleagues whose combined effort was what got those managers through. The manager is no super-human and cannot be handling all aspects of the business single-handedly. Managers require the support of their colleagues in each and every step; from manufacturing, logistics to sales & marketing, managers are well-aware of this making sure to delegate tasks where required to concerned employees to ensure that the final figures look good.
What managers are also well aware of are the expectations of the employees. After all, they are employees of the company themselves!
Then why is it that amongst the most common feedback from employees, the one that usually tops the list, is that employees do not feel acknowledged enough?
Not engaged enough and not empowered enough to stay motivated at their jobs? Where is the disconnect?
As a manager, you are responsible for the development of the employees in your team. That is not solely an “HR FUNCTION”. Just as HR these days are expected to possess decent business acumen and align HR strategies to add value to the business processes, line managers should also take responsibility for executing those HR strategies and be held accountable for the success of the same. 

People managers are latent HR managers in every sense!

No HR strategy or even practice, let’s say, is going to be a success without the support of the managers and business heads. Your HR team needs your support! Managers need to be engaged. They need to be invested in the growth of their teams. What happens when an employee time and again, appraisals after appraisals, is left demotivated? They will eventually start looking out for other options to leave the organization.
Who is the employee working with on a daily basis? Who is the one running the performance evaluation on the employee? The manager, right? So, it is important that people’s managers are empowered to take the lead on employee-related issues. Managers need to be made part of strategizing, executing and attainment of HR goals. Managers directly influence the career trajectory of an individual. Along with HR, managers too should be held responsible for high turnover rates. In fact, bonus payouts of department heads are increasing beginning to be tied up with the team’s attrition rate along with other factors in quite a few organizations.

Yes, the HR is expected to come up with a necessary HR strategy, ensure managers are well-equipped on the same and maybe even intervene when feedback on managers are not necessarily positive. But keeping the employees of the team engaged, enhancing their abilities begins with you, their manager! Another instance, most companies divert lot of resources to their annual employee surveys, which I agree, more often than not, comes directly under HR KPIs. However, when, let’s say myself, as an employee, provide my feedback on the survey site, more often than not, subconsciously I have one person in-mind while evaluating. And that is most definitely my immediate manager. All questions on leadership, recognition, development etc, will be answered primarily with my manager in mind. This takes us back to the saying ‘Employees leave their managers and not the organization’.

One does not qualify as a manager by simply sitting with a heavy title and going about business as usual. The ground reality in today’s ever-changing business environment is quite different. As a manager you need to address the entire employee issues (within your team of course) and have a genuine interest in the development of your subordinates. As a true manager you will lead the team, by letting the team work, not making the team work! 

As a manager you need to get the team to attain desired results with mutual respect and trust, not fear! As a true manager you will be empowering team members whilst managing business as usual & if you are not doing so, then you are not a manager in the true sense, but an individual contributor, just like rest of your team!

Source: Liberty of HR Thoughts